We were excited to hear child care mentioned in the first 10 minutes of the first Presidential debate. It makes sense - 90% of Americans want the next president to expand access to child care and early learning opportunities. It's a critical issue that candidates across the aisle can agree on.

Child care is a necessity for many of today’s American families, especially low- and middle-income families, yet the cost of accessing high-quality care often rivals the cost of housing.

For four years running, the First Five Years Fund’s annual national bipartisan poll shows that early childhood education and care is a national priority for Americans, regardless of party. Even now, in the midst of an angry and polarized election, 90 percent of voters agree on one thing: Congress and the next president should work together to make quality early childhood education and care more accessible and affordable to low- and middle-income families. That includes 78 percent of Trump supporters and 97 percent of Clinton supporters.

On Wednesday, September 28, leaders in the child care space will discuss the state of the caregiving landscape and how to support families and value care. Child Care Aware® of America is pleased to partner with New America’s Better Life Lab, Care.com, and AT Kearney to launch The Care Index and New America Care Report.

Arlington, Va. -- Child Care Aware® of Kansas was recently awarded the Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies as Resilience Hubs grant. Grant funding from Child Care Aware® of America will support a new two-year project designed to strengthen emergency preparedness efforts for children, parents, and child care providers and also enhance coordination with first responder and disaster response organizations. This project will create new trainings, resources, publications, and tools to benefit the 15,612 professionals that work in the early childhood field in Kansas.

All children should have the opportunity to grow up healthy. In the United States, many adults and children spend a lot more time than we should sitting and watching screens. And even though we know better, children and adults don’t always eat as many vegetables and fruits or lean meats as we should. There are a lot of reasons why—fresh fruits and vegetables can be expensive, and often times we are so busy that we don’t have time to cook foods from scratch. We also spend a lot of time in our cars, rather than walking places. Maybe it’s because there are no sidewalks where we live, or neighborhoods are not safe or the closest store is miles away. Unfortunately, the consequences of these behaviors can be long-term illnesses and obesity.

Join Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) and the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) for a webinar on serving homeless children under the Child Care and Development Fund Program.