Several reports on the link between the economy and the quality of child care indicate that: (1) early care and education benefits two generations of workers; (2) quality is essential to, but is rarely found in, early care and education programs; and (3) the key to quality is the professional development of practitioners. A vision of dynamic career development in the child care field must address the problems of inadequately trained practitioners and training systems that are fragmented, sporadic, and unsuited to the needs of adult learners. A career progression model for the child care field would adopt an approach in which different roles and requirements are assigned to different positions in early care and education programs, and in which practitioners experience role progression and receive increasingly greater rewards as they obtain additional training and skills. A system that permits the practitioner with informal training to earn recognition in the formal system would allow early care and education to realize its professional goals; improve the quality of training programs; and result in increased salaries. State policies regulating training of child care staff are described, and child care training policy issues that states will face in the future are listed. (BC)