As I write this, we’re a week into December and already the past month feels like an eternity ago! Our policy team was especially busy in November, though we had some other staff on the road before the holidays as well.

Eleven million children younger than age five are in some form of child care in the United States. That is a pretty staggering number when you consider the cost of child care in this country – on both the family and provider sides of the equation.

Our service members support and defend our country every day of the year, and they deserve to be taken care of in return – and that includes their children and families.

There is a new movement afoot to promote thankfulness and mindfulness year-round. It's an amazing concept to stand behind because we think we have a lot to be grateful for every day.

Dear Child Care Aware® of America Community:

On this day, one year ago, President Obama signed the Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 2014 (CCDBG). The CCDBG law took critical steps toward ensuring that children are in safe, affordable and quality child care settings-Child care providers who receive federal funds must complete background checks, undergo annual inspections, receive training on basic topics, such as first-aid, safe sleep and CPR, before they are permitted to work with children.  The law also permits the flexible use of funds, which can be used for Child Care Resource & Referral services, training for child care providers, infant and toddler specialists, and quality rating systems.

As we end National Young Readers Week (Nov 9-14, 2015), we’re reminded of what started this national tradition. How many of you grew up with the Book It Program from Pizza Hut?

Started in 1984, Pizza Hut started the program to foster a love of reading in young children by coincidentally rewarding them with pizza and other rewards (and what kid doesn’t like pizza?, the reasoning goes) for hitting their reading goals.