THE DAY ONE MODEL
Early learning is infrastructure.
Communities need the same things to thrive: children ready to learn, parents able to work, and local economies that keep moving. But when it comes to early learning, we leave every family on their own and communities struggle.
We’d never do that with roads or public schools. So why accept it for our youngest kids?
Building a sustainable future for early learning
The system runs on short-term fixes. Grants dry up and centers close. Families wait months—sometimes years—for a spot. Nearly half the people caring for our youngest learners need public assistance just to get by.
But now we have an opportunity to build something that lasts. States like New York, New Mexico, and Connecticut are making historic investments to deliver affordable, accessible early learning for all families. It is time to create a profession for the people who provide early learning with training, support, and careers that lead to the life they want.
A proven replicable model
DAY ONE builds early learning the way infrastructure should be built: local, sustainable, and community-powered.
We’re on a mission to professionalize early learning, because you can’t build lasting systems without investing in the people who run them.
Our model brings three things together – on purpose, at the same time:
People want to work with children; they just can’t afford unpaid training and poverty wages.
Our 11-week Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway (TAP) breaks that barrier. Community members with no formal credentials train in real classrooms. We pay them while they learn and provide experienced mentors. They graduate debt-free with a pathway toward credentials—ready to work or launch their own programs
100+ graduates across 16 cohorts are now teaching or running their own centers. These are neighbors who know the community, often speak the languages families speak, and understand what local families need.
You can’t expand childcare without expanding the workforce first.
TAP graduates join existing programs or launch their own through TAP to OWN. One educator opening a center creates a small business: hires assistants, pays rent, reinvests locally. One graduate doesn’t fill just one position, they create capacity that multiplies.
Each graduate serves 10-16 children per year. One educator = one classroom = dozens of families off waitlists.
Our Poughkeepsie center and growing network prove it works: joyful, play-based learning grounded in how children actually develop. It really matters—90% of brain development happens before age five. Get it right early, and everything else follows.
One early childhood investment ripples across entire communities.
Parents with reliable childcare earn 22% more—nearly $11,700 a year (Yale study, New Haven UPK).
The compounding effect:
Early learning built to last
We don’t build roads a mile at a time and hope for the best. We build systems designed to carry traffic for decades.
DAY ONE works the same way. Each DAY ONE TAP graduate creates community assets that compound:
- One educator trained: A pathway to credentials they own, a career they can build on, 10-16 children per year
- One center opened: A locally-owned business that hires neighbors, supports local economies, anchors the neighborhood
- One cohort graduated: Capacity that stays in the community, proof that attracts the next wave of interest
“DAY ONE was the first to say: you’re not a babysitter, you’re a brain builder. Now I mentor new TAP graduates and I’ve hired two onto my staff.
DAY ONE TAP graduate & Affiliate Daycare Provider
Stories & testimonials
Stories, milestones, and moments from our classrooms and communities.
Educator
DAY ONE TAP graduates open new home-based programs
TAP Apprentice
Family night brings parents and educators together
TAP Apprentice
DAY ONE featured in national early learning report
Educator
Pathways into the field
Parent
Pathways into the field
Educator
Pathways into the field
Parent
Pathways into the field
Educator
Pathways into the field
This model works. The question is: where next?
Let’s build something great–together.