The early years of childhood are critically important for a healthy start to life and school success. Despite increased attention to racial disparities in health, wellbeing, and academic outcomes—especially for Black, Latine, and Native American children and children from low-income households—little progress has been made in identifying the root causes of those disparities and, more importantly, identifying equitable policies and strategies to mitigate centuries of oppression and systemic inequities. In particular, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated how structural racism and other systemic inequities result in unequal impacts based on race, place, and class. Thus, there is a need to ensure that policies are developed with a racial equity and economic justice lens to activate and support transformation during children’s early years, especially for those populations that have been historically marginalized and underrepresented. (author abstract)