Listening to Families: How Community Voices Are Shaping Early Learning Awareness in California
Families know what works best for their children. Across California, parents are making decisions about child care and early learning while balancing work schedules, financial pressures, language barriers, transportation challenges, and the emotional weight of simply trying to make the right choices for their children.
Not every family experiences these systems the same way. Many families are trying to navigate systems that have not always felt welcoming, responsive, or built with their communities in mind.
By partnering with these voices, California’s Universal PreKindergarten teamis sharing information in ways that reflect real family experiences and everyday life.
Meeting Families Where They Are
These stories resonate because they reflect how decisions actually happen in families. Not through institutional language or formal campaigns, but through trusted conversations. A friend sends a reel. A grandparent shares a post. Parents sit at the kitchen table trying to figure out what feels right for their child and what programs they can trust.
Their voices help make preschool and Transitional Kindergarten feel authentic, relatable, and grounded in lived experience. Families trust people who understand their reality and are authentic to their community.
Get to know Mayly Tao https://www.instagram.com/p/DTvXSLpjvgY/ – For first-time mom Mayly Tao, conversations about early learning are shaped by her experience as the daughter of immigrants and by the intergenerational values that shaped her own upbringing. Her content reflects the questions many parents quietly carry while trying to make thoughtful decisions for their children.
Get to know Christina Ochoa https://www.instagram.com/p/DSahoeQj0Ul/ – Cristina Ochoa connects with Spanish-speaking families by creating content in both English and Spanish, helping parents access information in the languages they use at home and share it across generations. Language access is not a feature. For many families, it determines whether information feels welcoming or out of reach.
Get to know Lizzy Alpine https://www.instagram.com/p/DU_K41YDhLh/ – Lizzy Alpine brings a perspective too often missing from parenting and early learning conversations. As a Black mother who uses a wheelchair, her content reflects the realities of navigating spaces and systems that are not always designed with accessibility in mind. Representation changes who feels seen in these conversations and who may feel excluded from them.
Get to know The Cosbey Family – https://www.instagram.com/toyacosbey/ – The Cosbey Family brings fatherhood into the center of the conversation. Their content reflects a reality many families already know: dads are deeply involved in decisions about child care, preschool, and their children’s future, even though fathers are often left out of parenting and education outreach.
Awareness alone is not enough. Families need to feel seen in the conversation before they can see themselves in the solution. By elevating voices from different communities and lived experiences, this work is helping more California families access information, ask questions, and explore early learning opportunities with greater confidence and support.
Learn more about California early learning options in our Families section. https://cauniversalprek.org/families/ + Listen to more parent stories: https://cauniversalprek.org/upk-videos/.