Child Care Aware® of America’s (CCAoA) 2015 annual meeting and conference in Washington, D.C. brought together child care providers, CCR&Rs, and leaders from government agencies and the White House to address many issues including Early Head Start and Child Care Partnerships, implementation of CCDBG, CCAoA’s strategic planning, and cultural competency in family engagement.

When an email from the White House came into my inbox, I paid attention!  That’s the situation I found myself in, in mid-January. I was delighted to find that Child Care Aware® of Kansas was being offered two tickets to attend the President’s Remarks at the University of Kansas. It really didn't take me more than two minutes to look at my calendar and send a quick response back to the White House, stating Absolutely! Much to my surprise, on Wednesday (the day before the President’s visit) we were offered another seven tickets!  Of course I said we’d take them. Within a matter of one hour, I called the CCR&Rs in Kansas, two child care center directors and one high school teacher to extend the offer.  All seven people immediately said “YES”!

Following up on Tuesday’s State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama today detailed his proposal for making child care a “national economic priority.”

Fresh off the State of the Union, President Obama announced a landmark proposal to help all working families with young children afford child care.

Last night, President Barack Obama made child care a front and center issue in his State of the Union address. The need for quality child care was the first issue mentioned by the President in addressing ways to move America forward.