Arlington, VA – Overall, boys of color (primarily African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives) face structural obstacles that stack the odds against their success in school and in life. They are more likely to grow up in low-income households, and less likely to attend high-quality schools, starting in very early childhood.

Over 1.3 million fires were reported in the United States last year. Fires have a significant impact on children, parents and child care providers. On average, every day 293 children are injured and at least one child dies from fire. Each year approximately 325 fires occur in child care centers. As we focus on fire prevention in October, we begin with one simple question - are you prepared?

The intended purpose of early education is to help close the school achievement gap by promoting equitable access to the school readiness opportunities afforded by high quality early education. Access means affording all our children the opportunity to enter through the front door of early education, and it also means keeping them from being pushed out the back door.
– Dr. Walter Gilliam, Child Care Aware® of America Board member

Last month, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published the final rule for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) based on the 2014 Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG). This final rule updates CCDF regulations for the first time since 1998.

Arlington, Va. – Child Care Aware® of Minnesota was recently awarded the Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies as Resilience Hubs grant. Grant funding from Child Care Aware® of America will support a new project designed to strengthen emergency preparedness efforts for children, parents, and child care providers, and to enhance coordination with first responder and disaster response organizations.

This week, Lynette M. Fraga, Ph.D., Executive Director, Child Care Aware® of America, and other leading experts in the child care space were on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR (88.5 FM) to discuss the issues surround child care in our country.

Child care has become a major issue in the presidential election. Our recently released Child Care in America: 2016 State Fact Sheets provide community leaders and policymakers with important data regarding the state of quality child care and early learning in their respective states, revealing just how big the challenges are that await the next president.