As I walked into the trauma room, I was horrified to see my 6-year old daughter, barely visible under a head and neck brace while lying on a backboard. Doctors and nurses were carefully attending to my daughter, ordering tests, checking vital signs, and repeatedly calling out her name to keep her alert and awake. Not knowing the extent of her injuries, I felt helpless in the midst of this hurried and surreal environment, yet I tried to process the events surrounding this terrible accident.

On Wednesday April 6, hundreds of advocates for child care stormed the Hill to represent the millions of people across this country who need quality, affordable child care. This was a part of Child Care Aware® of America's national 2016 Symposium. Attendees were fired up in the morning by former Texas state Senator Wendy Davis, who gave an impassioned speech and opportunity to walk in her shoes as a young mother in poverty who wouldn’t have risen to where she is today without access to quality child care.

Former Texas state Senator Wendy Davis kicked off the Child Care Aware of America Day on the Hill! (Photo by Steve Barrett.)

We were excited to have more than 350 attendees join us for this year’s biennial Child Care Aware® of America 2016 Symposium on April 4-6 in Washington, D.C. Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies and early care professionals from various disciplines and settings joined us from across the nation to celebrate milestones, collaborate for results, and advocate for a high quality, affordable child care system.

Yesterday, the House Budget Committee approved the FY 2017 budget resolution and, as expected, the resolution proposed draconian cuts to domestic, non-defense programs, including those supporting millions of children.

Implementation science is, at its basic level, applying the scientific process to the implementation of an evidence based curricula, intervention or practice. The purpose is to bridge the gap between the theory or knowledge of an intervention and its implementation by using an evidence-based framework to plan the execution of the intervention.