Child Care Aware^® of America's (CCAoA) biennial event, Symposium, takes place this spring. Join CCAoA on May 3-6, 2020 near Arlington, Virginia as we bring together individuals from across the country to discuss research, policy and practices related to the early child care and education community. This year’s four-day event offers the opportunity to connect with thought leaders, Congressional staff and early education professionals to work towards quality and affordable child care.

This year, we’re also introducing our new pre-conference event for Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies!  

Over the past few years, legislators and state administrators have noticed an alarming trend: a substantial decline in the number of child care providers. How much of a decline? Well, according to the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, the number of small, licensed family child care homes fell by 35% between 2011 and 2017.  

Child Care Aware of Kansas (CCAKS) is the statewide administrator of the Child Care Resource and Referral network in Kansas. As a managing state agency we are proud to serve 105 counties, ranging from frontier to urban populations, alongside our partnering agencies: Child Start, The Family Conservancy and Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas. Our aim is to ensure families across Kansas have access to affordable high-quality child care, support professional development for early learning staff and advocate for positive changes to impact the lives of children and families. Our partnership with Vroom has given us the opportunity to strengthen our initiatives by supporting early learning and engagement for families, providers and communities.

What's Vroom?

Vroom provides interactive tools and resources that highlight the science behind early brain development, showing parents how they can turn everyday activities like bath time and meal time into opportunities that build their children’s brains. The Vroom Partnership at Child Care Aware^® of America is made up of Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies who educate and provide Vroom resources to families, providers, and organizations in their communities so they too understand the importance of brain development during the first five years of life. Learn more about Vroom here.

When we talk about health and safety in child care, the discussion is often focused on reducing or eliminating physical threats to children’s well-being (e.g., unsafe playground equipment or the spread of an infectious disease). CCAoA believes that child care is a place where the whole environment helps build healthy children, including their healthy social and emotional development. This is the second of four blog posts from CCAoA about promoting social and emotional health – in this case, through a practice known as responsive caregiving. 

July is the hottest time of year for much of the United States, according to the Weather Channel. With relative humidity and actual air temperature both peaking during the later summer months, the end of summer can be especially hazardous to children playing outside. Rather than just sweating it out and complaining about the heat, it’s critical to learn how to keep parents, child care providers and children safe when playing outside this summer. 

In 2017, Early Learning Indiana (ELI), with the support of the Lilly Endowment, launched the Family Engagement Prize Competition. Recently completing their second year, this statewide prize competition highlights family engagement innovation and excellence in early care and education (ECE) programs. The Prize Competition celebrates the exemplary actions of ECE professionals to empower families’ in their role as their children’s first teachers! Over the past two years programs have been recognized for practices like, offering parenting classes, job placement, housing, and food and fuel assistance, as well as parent-child engagement materials to use at home.