The Plan is an overarching framework that will help coordinate efforts of the State, counties, and community by setting shared priorities and driving the need to collaborate and leverage resources to improve the lives of our keiki and their families. It is the community’s plan.

The five-year plan was facilitated by the Executive Office on Early Learning, and steering committee collaborators from both the public and private sectors statewide. More than 150 additional participants, through islands-wide focus groups and interviews, also spent time reviewing the drafted plan, providing candid feedback, and contributing to the final version to address a unanimous priority to look system-wide, beyond early learning, to consider the whole child. Participants represented a broad spectrum of Hawaii’s community, including parent groups, health professionals, policymakers, early care and education professionals, advocates, philanthropists, higher education, attorneys, and State department personnel. (author abstract)