Resources for State-Funded Early Care and Education Programs

OEC funds early care and education programs across the state through Early Start CT and Smart Start. The funds support child care programs, Head Start programs, and public schools to provide affordable, high-quality early care and education services.

Early Start CT and Smart Start have different processes for determining the programs or communities that receive funding, and how much funding is allocated. To see any open applications for services, see our RFP page.

Contact List Updates

Use the online State Funded Program Contact List Update Form to update contact information within 72 hours of the change.

Early Care and Education (ECE) Reporter

OEC’s ECE Reporter is the way that state funded programs submit child enrollment data and monthly reports for the children whose services are funded through Early Start or Smart Start. Having this data helps OEC make informed program and policy decisions affecting young children and families. Learn more about ECE Reporter.

Early Childhood Professional Registry

The OEC Early Childhood Professional Registry (“the Registry”) is an online system that compiles information about early childhood professionals and programs.

  • Early childhood professionals working in state funded early care and education programs can build a profile of employment and education, request scholarships, and more.
  • State funded early care and education program administrators use this tool to capture employment and qualifications of staff, as well as program compliance with certain quality requirement

The Registry has been in operation since 2007 and currently has over 24,000 participants in roles including teaching staff members, program administrators, trainers and consultants. Learn more about the Registry.

General Policies

State funded early care and education programs are required to meet a number of requirements, which are laid out in the OEC General Policies (GPs). These requirements vary somewhat depending upon the funding source. See a comprehensive list of General Policies.

Accreditation

State funded early care and education program programs are required to be Head Start approved or to achieve and maintain accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) or National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC)

For more information about accreditation, visit:

State-funded early care and education programs

For more information about state funded early care and education programs, please visit the following pages:

Estimate family fees using our calculator tool

Child care providers or families with a child whose early care and education is funded through Early Start CT or a Smart Start program that charges a family fee can use our family fee calculator to estimate the family fee for child care.

Keep in mind the calculator just provides a fee estimate. The child care program will notify each family about the actual fee upon enrollment.

Last updated June 26, 2025