Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) welcomes guest blog post that provide essential insights and information about the child care field.

This guest blog post features a program in Johnson County, Kansas, that strengthens child care providers' emergency preparedness capabilities through planning and training supports and exercises that allow providers to test their plans.

Families who have a child in child care, preschool, or elementary school have a regular place for their child while they work or attend school. However, there will be times when a child will get sick, and they won’t be able to attend their regular child care or school. Though inevitable, many families are faced with a last-minute decision about what to do when their child is sick hours before they must get to work or attend a class. 

On March 10-16, we will celebrate National CACFP Week!  

Why?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is an essential federal program that addresses hunger and builds healthy eating habits by providing reimbursement for nutritious foods to children enrolled for care at eligible child care programs, including child care centers, home-based programs and after-school care. Every day, 4.2 million children receive healthy meals and snacks through CACFP, supporting their health, well-being and development. We celebrate the Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (CCR&Rs) across the country who serve as CACFP sponsors and the child care programs who participate in CACFP. 

Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) play a vital role in supporting child care providers in their emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts through training and technical assistance for child care providers, but also through systems-building and strengthening efforts. Partnerships are key in supporting child care emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Child care emergency preparedness, response and recovery takes collaboration to be successful.   

Since 2019, Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) has partnered with Nemours Children’s Health to create geographic information system (GIS) technology story maps to visualize and better understand child care program participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Story maps combine both maps and text to help users interpret what they see. They can help us visualize current challenges and opportunities in a state’s early care and education systems. 

This blog recaps our work to develop the story maps and explores how states, including Pennsylvania and Vermont, are using these tools to make data-informed, strategic decisions to promote CACFP and increase provider participation.