New Mexico Is Reimagining What Tribal Early Childhood Systems Can Be
- May 8
- 3 min read
This week, NICCA had the honor of participating in the Government-to-Government Indian Education Summit hosted by the State of New Mexico at Santa Ana Pueblo. The gathering brought together Tribal leaders, state leadership, educators, advocates, students, and families to reflect on progress, strengthen partnerships, and discuss the future of education for Native children and communities.
Much of the summit focused on Native student outcomes and educational achievement across the lifespan, but NICCA was there to talk about this:
What becomes possible when Tribes are given not just funding—but the space and flexibility to intentionally design early childhood systems around their own values, cultures, and community priorities?
That question matters deeply because, nationally, Tribal early childhood systems are often built around programs rather than intentionally designed as systems. Funding streams frequently operate in silos, with child care, Head Start, home visiting, PreK, and other services functioning separately even though they are all serving the same children and families.
Across Indian Country, funding for early childhood has expanded significantly in recent years. But funding alone does not automatically create cohesive systems for children and families. What creates strong systems is intentional alignment — designing programs to work together around the needs of the community rather than around the limitations of individual funding streams.
That is where New Mexico stands out nationally.
Through major investments in early childhood and the implementation of Universal Child Care, New Mexico has created something rare: space, opportunity, and additional funding for Tribes to begin thinking beyond individual programs and toward the design of comprehensive Tribal early childhood systems.
The state’s approach has included:
Expanded investments in Native early childhood programs
Increased partnership and government-to-government engagement
Greater flexibility through intergovernmental agreements
Investments in Native language revitalization and culturally grounded learning
Universal Child Care policies that reduce barriers for families and create additional stability for Tribal programs
Importantly, this conversation is not about replacing Tribal systems with state systems. In many ways, it is the opposite. It is about creating the conditions for Tribes to strengthen systems that are already rooted in their own identities, traditions, and priorities.
One of the most powerful opportunities within this work is the role of Tribal CCDF.
Too often, CCDF is viewed only as a subsidy program. In reality, Tribal CCDF is one of the most flexible federal funding streams available in early childhood. When used intentionally, it can help connect child care, Head Start, home visiting, language nests, and other community programs into a more unified system of care and learning for children and families.
At the summit, conversations repeatedly returned to the importance of moving from fragmented services toward coordinated systems — systems where children experience continuity in culture, language, relationships, and support from birth onward.
New Mexico’s investments are helping create the conditions for those conversations to happen in deeper ways.
And perhaps most importantly, Tribal leaders are being invited to think expansively:
What would our early childhood systems look like if we designed them from the ground up around our children, our cultures, and our communities first?
That is a profoundly important shift.
There is no single model for what Tribal early childhood systems should look like — and there should not be. Every Nation, Pueblo, and Tribe will define that differently. But what is happening in New Mexico offers an important national example of what can emerge when investment, partnership, and Tribal leadership come together intentionally.
NICCA is grateful to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, the New Mexico Public Education Department, Early Childhood Education and Care Department, Higher Education Department, and the Tribal leaders who continue to shape this work through collaboration and vision.
The future of Tribal early childhood will not be built through isolated programs alone. It will be built through systems designed by and for Tribal communities — systems that reflect who Native children are, where they come from, and where they are going.
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