National Early Childhood Literacy Awareness Day began in West Virginia and was started by The LiTEArary Society, the world's largest youth-led nonprofit organization with the mission of ending book deserts for disadvantaged preschool children. After donating brand-new Scholastic books to over 28,000 disadvantaged preschool children in Head Start programs, The LiTEArary Society's founder and CEO, Rania Zuri, wanted to increase public awareness of the poor early childhood literacy rates in the United States through a commemorative day so the public could partake in literacy- themed activities to help improve reading scores, one book at a time. The LiTEArary Society worked with Governor Jim Justice, US Senator Manchin to inaugurate the very first National Early Childhood Literacy Awareness Day. This special day is supported by National Head Start and impacts more than one million preschool children that live below the poverty line.

This day was initially created as a state proclamation, issued by Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia, and subsequently became a national day as a US Senate Resolution. The bipartisan US Senate Resolution is sponsored by US Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Senator Angus King (I-ME).