The International Federation of Environmental Health has declared September 26, 2016 World Environmental Health Day, with this year’s theme focused on tobacco control. Child Care Aware® of America and our partners, including the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), are focusing specifically on the negative health effects of second- and third-hand smoke to both individuals and societies.

Child Care Aware® of America, in partnership with the Administration for Children and Family’s (ACF) National Center for Early Childhood Health and Wellness (NCECHW), is pleased to announce a train-the-trainer funding opportunity for child care health and safety. Healthy and Safe Child Care: A Training of Trainers Opportunity is a training support and incentive grant designed to broaden the capacity of child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&Rs) to provide health and safety training to child care providers in support of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) health and safety training requirements. The grant will also provide curriculum and initial training that supports ACF’s Caring for Our Children Basics standards.

Child care providers—regardless of whether you refer to them as early childhood professionals, educators, or teachers—play a vital role in the early education and care of children. This is especially important given that the early years of a child’s life are the most critical for development. We know that children who receive high-quality child care benefit long-term from these early learning experiences. However, despite the importance of high-quality child care, child care providers earn less per hour than many other professionals within the personal care industry.

Updated April 7, 2016 - Symposium is over, but if you want to watch (or rewatch) the plenary sessions, you can do so by registering online!

Child Care Aware® of America is pleased to offer livestreaming as part of this year’s Symposium 2016. This upcoming event will address the hottest topics in research, policy, and practices of interest to the early child care and education community.

We know professional conferences can be long and often times exhausting; learning can be hard work, right? Not at Symposium 2016! We want to make sure you take advantage of your down time here in Washington, D.C. to not only network with child care leaders, but enjoy some music, grab a healthy snack, and just catch up on your emails or master Candy Crush.

Congratulations to Tracy Ehlert and the staff at Babies 2 Kids Learning Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They have been named Provider of the Month for December 2015!