Finding the right child care provider for your family is a personal choice, and not one that can be outsourced very easily. Child Care Aware® of America Executive Director Lynette Fraga, PhD, spoke with Scott MacFarlane of NBC Washington about some specific questions parents can ask, ways to assess your unique family needs and how to understand and develop an ongoing relationship with your child care provider. Watch the clip below.

Every week in the United States, nearly 11 million children younger than age 5 are in some type of child care. All families benefit from having high-quality and affordable child care options, but finding such care can be challenging, especially for families facing adverse situations. Families with low incomes, or who are otherwise vulnerable, experience significant barriers that limit their child care options.

Today, Child Care Aware® of America released Family Voices Driving Quality Child Care Choices, a report on findings and recommendations from a survey of families's need when it comes to child care and how they find such care, both in-person and online.

Families and field professionals shared accounts that can influence strategies for child care system professionals to meet and engage with families more effectively and efficiently.

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Child Care Aware^® of America (CCAoA) released Family Voices Driving Quality Child Care Choices, a report on findings and recommendations from a survey of families on the contemporary child care needs of diverse, vulnerable, underserved families and clarifies where they turn, both in-person and online, to meet their child care information needs. Choosing child care is one of the most difficult decisions families make. Families and field professionals shared with CCAoA in focus groups, an online parent poll and key informant interviews, accounts that can influence strategies for child care system professionals to meet and engage with families more effectively and efficiently.

Vroom has added value to the family and community engagement efforts of Child Care Aware of Northwest Arkansas (NWA), as it has reinforced our training on brain development. Most parents are happy to learn that they already “have what it takes” to help their children’s brain development. Here's how we've used Vroom tips as conversation starters throughout the community and in our training workshops. 

When the Flint, MI water crisis hit the news in 2015, people around the world took notice. Hundreds of children across Flint had alarmingly high blood lead levels. Many still do. The problem was quickly traced back to lead contamination in the city’s water supply. The water that Flint’s families and caregivers used to cook, drink and bathe in was poisoning their children. 

Now a new water crisis is making news, this time in Newark, NJ. Once again, families in a major U.S. city are being poisoned by lead in their environment. Newark is in the news now, but children’s blood lead levels in places like Milwaukee, Baltimore and Philadelphia are actually much higher than in Flint.  And the children most in danger of lead poisoning are children from families with low incomes and children of color. 

Parents rely on child care so they can go to work, and many are left scrambling when their child gets sick. Providers have more than one child to care for, so they have to make tough decisions about whether to allow a sick child to come and risk the health of other children. That’s why it is important that child care resource and referral (CCR&R) agencies and child care health consultants work with providers to develop easy to understand Inclusion and Exclusion policies that define when a child is too sick to be in child care, and when they can stay in care.