Although it is hard to believe, the first day of school is right around the corner and many are busying themselves in preparation! Child Care Aware® of America has also been busy at work this month with various initiatives, including the release of our Child Care in America: 2016 State Fact Sheets.

Below is more information on this year’s State Fact Sheets and some additional highlights from July.

Around the Country

The CCAoA Emergency Preparedness Team conducted three training sessions at the Family Child Care Institute, hosted by the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). These three presentations provided emergency preparedness tools, resources, and tips to family child care and Early Head Start providers. One of the presentations was a four-hour train-the-trainer session on emergency preparedness for child care in which more than 30 family child care trainers and Early Head Start/Child Care Partnership trainers from across the nation received training content delivered jointly by the CCAoA emergency preparedness team and Save the Children staff.

During the week of July 11, Child Care Aware® of America participated in the 2016 National QRIS Meeting in New Orleans. The event, which was co-hosted by the BUILD Initiative, included people from all over the country—including many of you!—to discuss and share the latest research, implementation and innovation, and development of QRIS systems. Plenary speakers included representatives from the Administration for Children and Families, the BUILD Initiative, Washington State Department of Early Learning, the Fred Rogers Center, Early Opportunities, and ECE Policy Works.

The Family and Community Engagement Team has begun their child care consumer focus group tour for the Kellogg project that began on July 25 and will travel from Kansas City to Augusta, ME to Chatworth, CA and Biloxi, MS. The focus group results will be combined with key informant interviews with child care resource and referral agency (CCR&R) professionals and ancillary health and human service/social service professionals who support families as well as a nationwide parent poll. CCAoA will develop a comprehensive, user friendly child care consumer education toolkit for CCR&Rs using this critical data.

The Vroom Team continues to vroom around the country to equip CCR&R Vroom Ambassadors. In late June/early July, they completed visits in New Hampshire. The week of July 25, they were in Alabama and Arkansas.

The Parent and Provider Services Team continues to manage the Army Fee Assistance Program transition from the General Services Administration to CCAoA. The program officially launched with CCAoA on February 22, and we are currently accepting applications from Army families and providers. Phases 1–4 of the Army Fee Assistance Program transition have been completed, and phase four has been initiated. The transition is being accelerated by 30 days and is scheduled to be completed by September 30. For the most up to date information on the transition, and to interact with other Army families, “like” the Army Fee Assistance at CCAoA Facebook page and follow them on Twitter. The Army Fee Assistance website will also continue to provide updates throughout the transition.

Member Connections

Registration for the 2016 CCAoA Leadership Institute is now open! This year’s Leadership Institute (formerly SNLI/MCLI) theme is Leadership: Power of the Past, Force of the Future. Attendees are invited to learn, engage, and discuss how we, as leaders, can have a positive impact on children and families. Interactive sessions will reflect how we can affect positive change in an ever-evolving child care industry and serve as leaders by acknowledging our past successes and focusing on implementing future change. The event is designed to support leaders, specifically within CCR&Rs and government and network agencies. Visit our event page to learn more about the event and register today!

Online and On-Air

We are pleased to share the release of the Child Care in America: 2016 State Fact Sheets. This annual report compiles data from local and state child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&Rs), other state agencies, and other federal and national data sets to report on the use, supply, and cost of child care, the child care workforce, and the services provided by CCR&Rs. To download a copy of the 2016 State Fact Sheets, visit http://usa.childcareaware.org/statefactsheets.

July 26 marked the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Emergency Preparedness Team highlighted this anniversary with a special blog post highlighting the intersection of the ADA and emergency preparedness.

Since their introduction in 2012, laundry detergent pods have posed a risk for children. Often mistaken for candy, children have been ingesting these pods with harmful results. A new study, appearing in the July 21st edition of Injury Prevention, found that laundry detergent pods pose a much greater risk to children, as compared to regular liquid or powder detergent. Read our blog post to learn more.

The enhanced Child Care Aware® website went live on June 30, featuring new content and an improved user experience. Child Care Aware® also held its new CCR&R consumer education peer-to-peer learning community kick-off meeting on July 26.

Did you miss Symposium 2016? Event recordings are now available! A video archive of select plenary sessions from our premier event are now available for purchase. Access includes recordings and presentation slides from the following plenary sessions:

• Active Implementation to Improve Child and Family Outcomes
• Early Experiences Elevate Everything
• Preschool Expulsions: Implications and Policy Solutions
• Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: Implications for Quality, Data, and Policy

Learn more and sign up for Symposium 2016 video archive access today.

ICYMI: July in the News

On July 14, Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-CA) introduced the “21st Century Child Care Investment Act of 2016.” This legislation would create a new, refundable tax credit that would be provided on a monthly basis to providers to help working families meet their financial obligations, including child care costs. In addition, the bill takes into consideration access to high-quality programs. Currently, there is no companion bill in the Senate.

CCAoA received several well-written and innovative programming concepts in response to our request for proposals. CCAoA have reviewed the proposals for the upcoming pilot project, CCR&R Agencies as Resilience Hubs, and are pleased to announce that the following three communities were selected—Child Care Aware® of Kansas, Child Care Aware® of Minnesota, and Child Care Resource Center – Tulsa, Oklahoma. This two-year funding opportunity is aimed at building and strengthening emergency preparedness, response, and recovery in three communities through training and technical assistance provided by CCR&Rs. Funded projects will begin in September 2016.

Building Out the Team

We are pleased to welcome several new members to the CCAoA team.

• Stephen Smith will be joining CCAoA as the new Chief Operating Officer. As our organization continues to grow and we expand our reach across the full spectrum of child care, Stephen will be a critical partner in managing the day-to-day functions of our organization.
• Jennifer Park will be joining CCAoA as the new Chief, Business Development and Strategy Officer. Her primary focus will be on identifying and evolving key market opportunities and strategic alignment.
• Alicia Gottenberg joined the finance department as Director of Contracts. She will be responsible for contract management and administration.
• Jessica Tercha joined the public policy department as Research Analyst. She will be responsible for evaluation planning and execution, and qualitative and quantitative data analysis and reporting.

{{cta(‘0cafc419-e88e-43d6-b59b-abb1a65a45c9’)}}