About The Commissioner

Welcome to the Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning website. Whether you are a parent, a child care provider or teacher, a policy maker, or a Georgia citizen with an interest in early child care and education, I hope this site is useful and informative. Thank you for your interest in and support of Bright from the Start and children and families in our state. Together we can ensure that Georgia’s youngest children receive high quality care and early education in safe and healthy environments to help prepare them to succeed in school.

Meet Amy M. Jacobs

Commissioner, Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning

Amy M. Jacobs is commissioner of Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), the agency responsible for helping meet the early child care and education needs of hundreds of thousands of Georgia’s children and their families. Governor Nathan Deal appointed her to lead the department in June 2014. As DECAL Commissioner, Jacobs oversees an annual budget of more than $900 million for programs focused on child care licensing, subsidized child care, child and adult care nutrition, child care quality, and early childhood education, specifically Georgia’s Pre-K Program.

Before joining DECAL, Commissioner Jacobs served as Senior Policy Adviser for the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget (OPB). She began her career at OPB in 2001 in the planning, research, and evaluation division focusing on strategic planning and program evaluation. Also while at OPB, she served as director of the Education Division and the General Government Division. Before that, she worked for two years in the Georgia Court of Appeals.

The Commissioner serves on the Georgia’s Children’s Cabinet (Co-chair), the Georgia Child Fatality Review Panel, the 2020 Complete Count Committee, the Promising All Atlanta Children Thrive Advisory Board, and the boards of the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy at Georgia College and State University (Board Chair); Georgia Foundation for Early Care and Learning (Board Chair); and the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.

Commissioner Jacobs is a graduate of the University of Georgia.