vision for everyone who is engaged in quality early childhood education for every child. Indeed, such statements provide the framework for practitioners, policymakers, and families to unite around key issues and work toward better experiences and outcomes for all young children.
NAEYC’ s position statements are held with and on behalf of the early childhood education field. While they are intended to provide guidelines for educators who work directly with children as well as those who support the educators, these statements are not set in stone. Rather, they are living documents to be reviewed and revised periodically to reflect new understandings and feedback from the field.
The Five Foundational Position Statements of NAEYC
As“ Building Professionalism, Quality, and Equity: NAEYC’ s First 100 Years” captured in this issue, NAEYC has a long history of developing and disseminating position statements. Five NAEYC position statements stand out because of their breadth and depth, and they are considered foundational to advancing NAEYC’ s core values and vision. They include
›“ Developmentally Appropriate Practice” ›“ Code of Ethics for Early Childhood Educators” ›“ Early Childhood Program Standards”
›“ Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education”
›“ Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators”
Taken together, these five position statements help educators and systems leaders define developmentally appropriate practice( DAP), outline the ethical responsibilities that guide professional relationships, outline standards for early childhood programs, work toward advancing equity, and set professional standards and competencies for early childhood educators, and.
These five core position statements work together as a whole and complement each other. The newest,“ Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education,” was published in 2019. The other four have each been revised and updated within the past five years with revisions focused on increasing their consistency and connections. For example, the ethical responsibilities described in the“ Code of Ethics for Early Childhood Educators” work closely together with the“ Professional Standards and Competencies” to lay out the model professional practices that promote the development, learning, and well-being of young children. Those practices draw from and are based on elements in the“ Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education” and“ Developmentally Appropriate Practice” statements, which emphasize that all children deserve learning opportunities that help them thrive by building on their unique set of individual and family strengths. Additionally, the ethical responsibilities align with and reinforce the decisions educators make in the context of their programs, as described in the“ Developmentally Appropriate Practice” and“ Early Childhood Program Standards” statements.
To honor this part of NAEYC’ s story, the following sections highlight the purpose and history of each of the five foundational statements, adapted from the position statements themselves and from other resources in the NAEYC archive. Integrated throughout are quotations from both those who contributed to the statements and those who use them. They emphasize what the position statements mean to them and to the field.
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
What does it mean to be developmentally appropriate? The“ Developmentally Appropriate Practice” position statement defines the term and describes a set of evidence-based core considerations and principles of child development
26 Young Children
Spring 2026