Washington, D.C. -- Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), along with Casey (D-PA), Hirono (D-HI), Franken (D-MN), Markey (D-MA), et al on Tuesday, introduced the Strong Start for America’s Children Act of 2015 in the Senate. The legislation would follow much of the ideas set forth in President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address, creating a new program providing enhanced access to prekindergarten for low- and moderate-income families, expanding partnerships between Early Head Start and child care programs, and providing funding for the education of children with disabilities.

Washington, D.C. – Thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) will expand its technical assistance activities in targeted states emphasizing health, nutrition, and obesity prevention, key components of Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) implementation. This two-year grant will leverage this unique opportunity to work with 6 – 8 states to integrate healthy eating, nutrition, and obesity prevention best practices in their state plans and priorities. To accomplish this, CCAoA will partner with and provide tools, resources, and on-site training and technical assistance to Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies and their community-based partners in early care and education focused on moving the needle on healthy communities. Ultimately, this grant will encourage states to incorporate health and nutrition as key components of quality child care.

Washington, D.C. – Child Care Aware^® of America (CCAoA), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Head Start Association (NHSA), and National Indian Child Care Association (NICCA) are pleased to announce the launch of a new Provider of the Month program (www.providerappreciationday.org), which will kick off on May 8, 2015 – Provider Appreciation Day.

April is National Poetry Month, which may seem silly and perhaps even frivolous with everything else going on in the early childhood education space, but it's actually quite important.

Awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been in the news recently, with more and more advocates and celebrities sharing their stories – whether it’s helpful to the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or not.