It’s no secret that families across the country with infants and toddlers struggle to access licensed child care more than families with preschoolers - Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies have been shouting this from the rooftops for decades!

Over the past two years, Child Care Aware® of America has worked with CCR&Rs in five states to quantify the challenges families with infants face through our Mapping the Gap™ project. In our latest story map, Mapping the Gap™ in New York, we found many more examples of communities in which the supply for infant care does not meet the demands of families. For the estimated 425,000 infants and toddlers living across the state, there are only an estimated 127,000 slots, leaving an approximate supply and demand gap of 298,000 slots. This means that roughly 70% of infants and toddlers in New York might not have access to licensed child care in their communities.  

Over the past few years, legislators and state administrators have noticed an alarming trend: a substantial decline in the number of child care providers. How much of a decline? Well, according to the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, the number of small, licensed family child care homes fell by 35% between 2011 and 2017.  

At Child Care Aware^® of America, we understand the importance of translating research findings into actions. Each year, our network of passionate advocates use our research to advocate for child care policies that increase access to affordable, high-quality child care.  This research drives public dialogue on the issue and informs policymakers and advocates in their work. The US and the High Price of Child Care is no different in its ability to support advocacy for change.  

The 2019 Leadership Institute has come to an end, and we are in full planning mode for our 2020 Symposium – Breakthrough Barriers, Breakout Solutions on May 3 - 6 in Crystal City, Virginia. But before we put the 2019 Leadership Institute to bed, I wanted to share some of the highlights from the week.

As the last full month of summer, August is usually filled with vacations and back-to-school planning. This August, however, will also be 2019’s most crucial month for child care advocacy. Here’s why:  

Last month, immediately before their August recess, Congress finally approved a deal to raise the spending caps through FY2021. Under this deal, non-defense discretionary funding—the budget category that funds a wide array of programs—will receive an increase of $56.2 billion over two years from FY2019 levels.  This was an important first step for securing increased federal investments in child care and early learning programs such as CCDBG and Head Start. 

We are excited to announce that Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) is partnering with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago to build a website that compiles and standardizes child care data from across the nation. This effort will ensure that child care systems, policies and funding decisions are based on reliable data.