Once every 10 years, our nation undergoes the gargantuan task of “counting every one, only once, and in the right place.”

An accurate census count is critical to the federal government accurately distributing more than $800 billion in federal funds each year. Accurate counts in the census affect federal funding distributions for many public programs ⁱ, including child care subsidies and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). They also help allocate funding more equitably for other programs children rely on like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid, foster care, adoption assistance, Section 8 of the House Act of 1937, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and community health centers.

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.  

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.

Child Care Aware® of America and NORC at the University of Chicago to Build Child Care Data Center

New website will address access to reliable, standardized data about child care in the United States

Child Care Aware® of America Releases Findings of 2019 Annual State Survey on Child Care

State fact sheets provide high-level analysis and national roll-ups of the child care landscape at the state level and show an alarming decline in family child care providers and
inconsistent quality 

MaryLee Allen, who for more than 40 years was a leader in advocacy for children’s welfare, health and safety with the Children’s Defense Fund, passed away on June 13, 2019. Allen joined CDF in 1974, the year after it was founded, where she worked on CDF’s first-ever policy report, Children Out of School in America. More recently, she worked to ensure the passage and effective implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act child welfare law.