This article aims to explore the relations between equality of opportunity and early childhood. By referring to the work of contemporary philosophers, i.e. Rawls, Sen, Dworkin, Cohen and Roemer, we argue for different possible interpretations, based on political discussions, concerning how to operationalize equality of opportunities. We represent these diverging options on a continuum, ranging from Responsibility-oriented Equality of Opportunity (REOp) and Circumstances-oriented Equality of Opportunity (CEOp). We then analyse how early childhood care and education policies can be constructed in relation to these conceptualisations and argue that the CEOp is a more plausible interpretative framework to operationalize equality of opportunity in early childhood.