#Early Childhood Education

Hawaiʻi is once again being recognized as a national leader in preschool quality, meeting all 10 benchmarks for high-quality early learning for the fourth consecutive year, according to the newly released National Institute for Early Education Research 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook.

The Hāna-Lahainaluna-Lānaʻi-Molokai complex has offered a public pre-K classroom at every elementary school since the 2024-25 school year.

US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) secured $1.3 million in congressionally directed spending, also known as an earmark, in this year’s appropriations deal for ʻAha Pūnana Leo. The funding will be used to train teachers, support families, and develop new early childhood education Hawaiian language materials, such as books and videos, to help young children build literacy and math skills.

Employees, physicians, and auxiliary volunteers from Maui Health once again turned the holidays into a season of giving, coming together to support 30 families from communities throughout Maui through the Adopt-A-Family program in partnership with Maui Family Support Services.

Hāna Elementary School’s new pre-K classroom is rooted in Hawaiian values and language. The new classroom brings the total number of the Executive Office on Early Learning Hawaiian language public preschool classrooms in the state to four.

Hawaiʻi celebrated a major milestone toward making preschool accessible to all keiki with the opening of the state’s 100th public pre-kindergarten classroom.

For the first time since before the pandemic, more than 200 health and human service providers, first responders and early childhood educators gathered in person for Hoʻoikaika Partnership’s 12th Annual Conference, “We Are All in This Together / E Alu Like Kākou: Stories of Strength and Resilience,” on Sept. 25, 2025.

The CEOs of two major social service nonprofits on Maui claim the Trump Administration may eliminate a local program that offers preschool at no cost to low income families.

State-funded preschool enrollment grew to 1,026 children, an increase of 322 students from the prior year.

Maui Economic Opportunity’s Head Start preschool program, which offers comprehensive early childhood education at no cost to income-qualifying families, continues to accept children for the 2025-2026 school year, which begins in August.

A public rally is planned this Friday at the Maui County Building to advocate for early childhood care and education. The event is hosted by the Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network Speaks and the Hawaiʻi Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance. The March 22 event starts with keiki entertainment at 9:30 a.m., the rally at 10 a.m., and a march at 11 a.m.

Maui Economic Opportunity’s Alex Domingo accepted the 2023 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Asian Interest Forum (AIF) Outstanding Achievement Award for improving the lives of children and families through her work in early childhood education.

An estimated 200 affordable rentals are under construction in Lahaina as part of the Kaiāulu o Kūku′ia project, which includes Hawaiʻi’s very first Bezos Academy preschool. 

Senator Mazie K. Hirono secures over $6.6 million in federal funding for the University of Hawaiʻi to enhance child care programs and services statewide.

Maui’s Wailuku Elementary is one of 11 public preschool classroom sites across the state that are slated to open this school year, thanks to Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke and the Ready Keiki Initiative.

Hawaiʻi’s House and Senate have unanimously passed HB961, a bill that aims to increase access to preschool through financial assistance and early learning opportunities.

The County of Maui unveiled a Playground Communication Board, which can be used by nonverbal individuals to communicate with others, at Keōpūolani Park in Kahului on March 31.

Maui Health employees across each of five facilities continued their annual tradition of giving this year, spreading holiday cheer and hundreds of gifts with 44 Maui County families in need. the distribution was made through Maui Family Support Services’ Adopt-A-Family program.

Participants shared their views on being paid low wages. For example, wages and salaries were not competitive with jobs requiring similar levels of education or experience with a $10-15/hour disparity.

Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit Maui Family Support Services helped 4,457 people in FY 2021 through early childhood development, promoting healthy family functioning, and preventing child abuse and neglect.