Help Child Care Aware® of America Highlight the Importance of Quality Child Care Issues By Sending 20 Family Advocates to Washington, D.C. This Spring.
Arlington, VA – Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and other child guardians daily put their trust in others to care for their children, not wanting to worry about the unthinkable happening to their own child while they’re in child care. Kim Engelman, Ph.D., lived that nightmare when her 13 month old daughter Lexie died from injuries received in a family child care home. Years of work with Kansas state regulators and legislators resulted in the 2010 passage of Lexie’s Law, which requires a child care license for all providers caring for unrelated children and increases minimum education requirements for providers applying for a license, as well as ongoing professional development.
No parent or guardian should ever have to live through that experience. But that heartbreaking incident is what turned Kim Engelman, an academic researcher, into a parent advocate, and got her and her husband involved to change child care in Kansas and across the country.
Engelman joined Child Care Aware® of America as a parent advocate so that all families can get access to the kind of quality child care that they deserve – safe, healthy, quality, and affordable.
We want to send 20 advocates like Engelman back to Capitol Hill this year in conjunction with the Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) 2016 Symposium, but we need your help to do it!
It’s a big ask, but what it will cover is priceless. $20,000 will cover the cost of air travel, hotels, transportation, and training for 20 parent advocates as they head to Washington, D.C. to speak to lawmakers about affordability, accessibility, and safety issues in child care.
Watch the stories of other family advocates who went to Capitol Hill to talk to legislators about issues affecting child care during our big push for CCDBG reauthorization last year.
About Child Care Aware ® of America
Child Care Aware of America is our nation’s leading voice for child care. CCAoA works with state and local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) and other community partners to ensure that all families have access to quality, affordable child care. CCAoA leads projects that increase the quality and availability of child care, offer comprehensive training to child care professionals, undertake research, and advocate for child care policies that improve the lives of children and families. To learn more, visit usa.childcareaware.org. Follow them on Twitter @USAChildCare and on Facebook at facebook.com/usachildcare.