Un número cada vez mayor de empleados luchan más duro que nunca para establecer un equilibrio entre las demandas de su trabajo y las de sus vidas familiares. Estudios demuestran que los padres que trabajan presentan una tasa creciente de ausentismo del trabajo al verse obligados a buscar servicios de cuidado de niños, hacer arreglos para los días feriados escolares, cuidar a niños enfermos, hacer arreglos alternativos cuando se enferman los proveedores de cuidado de niños, programar conferencias en la escuela y responder a lo no esperado.

More and more employees are struggling harder than ever to balance the demands of their work and home lives. Studies show that working parents have an increasing rate of absenteeism as they search for child care, juggle school holidays, care for sick children, adjust for sick child care providers, schedule school conferences, and respond to the unexpected.

Even the best planned child care arrangements can be disrupted from time to time. Without emergency care, more commonly known as back-up care, working parents may be forced to stay home or bring their child to work with them. By planning ahead and knowing your options, you can be prepared to meet the unexpected.

On March 17-23, we will celebrate National CACFP Week!

Why? Child care is a place where many young children have their first experiences with new foods. Child care programs—family child care homes and child care centers—play a big role in helping children eat well, so they can learn and play.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is an important part of how many providers are able to put healthier foods on the table for young children. It provides rules and guidance that help participating programs create healthy meals.

In January, we released a new report, “It’s About Time: Parents Who Work Nonstandard Hours Face Child Care Challenges,” where we highlighted the need for and the obstacles in accommodating nonstandard hours child care. We also highlighted groups who are doing it right! Here is one child care provider’s journey to provide nonstandard hours care in her community.

The Power to the Profession task force recently released the Decision Cycles 345 + 6 draft document. See a high-level overview of the decision cycles by downloading our fourth e-book in our Power to the Profession series: Understanding the Recommendations from Decision Cycles 345 + 6. The goal of these Decision Cycles is to establish the very first unified framework of the early childhood education workforce that defines the professional preparation, responsibilities, scope of practice, specialization, and compensation needed to drive policy, funding, and systems change in our field.