Funding is shifting. Policy is changing. Technology is transforming how people find information and services. New players are entering the child care landscape. In a moment when so much is changing at once, trust may be one of our greatest strategic assets.

Dr. Kasi Lacey brings the perspective of a psychologist, former C-suite executive, and leadership expert whose work focuses on how leaders build and sustain trust, particularly when pressure is high and change is constant. Across the child care system, organizations and leaders have built trusted relationships with families, providers, communities, government, and other partners—but that trust isn’t something we can simply assume will endure.

In this opening keynote, Dr. Lacey will challenge leaders to look beyond today’s immediate pressures and consider what may be coming next. How do we protect and strengthen trust through disruption? Where might it become vulnerable? And how can leaders use trust not simply to weather change, but to help shape what comes next for their organizations, communities, and the child care system?

The opening keynote asked us to think differently about trust as a strategic asset in a changing child care landscape. Now, put that idea to work.

Bring a real leadership, organizational, advocacy, or community challenge you are navigating now. In this interactive session, Dr. Kasi Lacey will help participants look beyond the immediate problem to consider what may be changing around it, where trust is strong or vulnerable, and how relationships with staff, partners, policymakers, families, providers, or communities could shape what happens next.

You’ll leave with a clearer view of your challenge and two or three concrete actions you can take to strengthen trust and lead more intentionally through change.

The child care landscape is changing—and so is the on-the-ground Network, which in some but not all states has been the CCR&Rs. The essential functions families, providers, and communities rely on remain, but who delivers them, how they are organized, and how they connect increasingly looks different from one community and state to another.

So what makes us a Network? What should communities be able to count on wherever they live? How do different organizations and functions connect to create something stronger than any one organization could provide alone? And what infrastructure is needed to connect local knowledge and innovation, strengthen child care systems, and give the Network greater collective reach and impact?

This will be a working conversation, not a presentation. CCAoA is actively examining these questions, and we need the experience and perspective of those doing the work to shape what comes next. Come ready to challenge assumptions, identify what must endure and what may need to evolve, and help define what a strong, connected on-the-ground Network should look like for the future.

Across the country, states are taking a fresh look at child care regulations—what they require, what they accomplish, and where they may create unnecessary burden. But changing the rules raises a bigger question: What are we trying to solve?

How do states reduce unnecessary barriers for providers while protecting what children and families need? Which requirements meaningfully advance health, safety, and quality—and which may no longer serve their intended purpose? And what can we learn from states that have already taken on regulatory reform?

Drawing on decades of experience shaping child care policy and systems at the federal, state, and community levels, Linda Smith brings a unique perspective on what regulation is intended to accomplish—and where it can get in the way.

This session will move beyond the debate over “more” or “less” regulation to examine what smarter regulation can look like in practice. Hear lessons from recent state efforts, what leaders learned along the way, and what states and child care system partners should be asking before—and during—the next round of reform.

There may be broad agreement that child care isn't working well enough for families, providers, employers, or communities. There is far less agreement about what to do about it—and states are increasingly where those choices are being made.

In July, the National Conference of State Legislatures released Child Care at a Crossroads, developed by a bipartisan group of state legislators with different political philosophies, professional backgrounds, and regional perspectives. Rather than prescribing a single solution, the framework gives state leaders a way to think about the choices and tradeoffs involved in strengthening child care systems.

Hear directly from legislators who helped shape the framework about where they found common ground, where the hardest questions remain, and what they are hearing in their states. Just as importantly, we'll explore what legislators need from child care leaders on the ground—what information is useful, what makes a compelling case, and how state and community leaders can become stronger partners in developing solutions that work in their own states.

Innovation rarely happens without friction. New ideas challenge familiar ways of working, require organizations to stretch beyond traditional roles, and bring together partners with different interests, expectations, and ways of seeing the problem. That discomfort can be difficult—but it can also be where growth begins.

Through real-world examples, including Tri-Share, this session will explore what happens when child care leaders, employers, state agencies, community organizations, and families work across traditional boundaries to build new solutions. Speakers will share the tensions they encountered, what they had to rethink or let go of, and how they turned disagreement and uncertainty into stronger collaboration and innovation.

Come ready to consider where change may be creating friction in your own work—and how leaning into that tension, rather than avoiding it, could open the door to new partnerships, new approaches, and greater impact.

States across the country are rethinking where child care sits in government, with some consolidating programs and responsibilities into new or unified early childhood agencies. The promise is compelling: less fragmentation, stronger coordination, and a system that is easier for families and providers to navigate. But changing the structure doesn't automatically change the experience.

What actually happens when a state reorganizes child care? What gets easier—and what new challenges emerge? How do changes at the top affect the providers, community organizations, and partners responsible for making the system work on the ground?

Drawing on emerging national trends and firsthand experience from states that have changed their governance structures, this session will look beyond the organizational chart to examine what leaders are learning about implementation, relationships, accountability, and results—and what other states should consider before restructuring their own systems.

Leadership in a time of constant change asks a lot of us. There is always another decision to make, another challenge demanding attention, and another expectation to meet. Leading well isn’t only about what we accomplish—it is also about being clear about who we are, what we value, and how we want to show up along the way.

Janet Sullivan brings more than 25 years of experience helping leaders and organizations navigate growth, transition, and complex change, along with nearly a decade of executive coaching. In this interactive session, she turns that experience toward you.

Where are your strengths serving you well—and where might your habits or blind spots be getting in the way? How can your values guide difficult choices when there isn’t an obvious right answer? And how do you manage your energy and attention so that the way you lead is sustainable for you and for the people around you?

Through reflection and practical exercises, you’ll leave with greater clarity about the leader you want to be—and concrete ways to lead with greater intention through whatever comes next.

Across the country, states are working to streamline child care regulations and reduce unnecessary burden. But what if we went further—not just improving the system we have, but rethinking how it is designed?

Today, program licensing often carries responsibility for both the child care setting and requirements associated with individual educators. What might be different if those responsibilities were more clearly separated—if programs were regulated as programs, while educators had a distinct way of demonstrating and maintaining professional qualifications?

It’s a timely question as CCAoA’s new CDA initiative explores how a common professional foundation for educators can connect more intentionally with workforce, licensing, and quality systems.

Join Susan Gale Perry and Marica Cox Mitchell, Chief Program Officer for Early Childhood at the Bainum Family Foundation and a longtime leader in strengthening the early childhood profession, for a full-room conversation to test the idea. Could a different approach make regulation clearer and more effective for programs and educators? What might we gain—or lose? And what would have to be true for it to work?

Come help us question the assumptions built into today’s system—and imagine what might work better.

AI is already changing how families find information, how organizations work with data, and how decisions get made across the child care system. And these changes raise bigger questions about how technology will reshape the roles of the organizations and people families and communities rely on.

Join Susan Gale Perry and Joe Eichenbaum, a technology and public-sector transformation leader with 17A, for a candid conversation about what these changes mean for child care leaders and the on-the-ground systems they help build. Where can AI and emerging technologies make our work stronger and more effective? What remains uniquely dependent on trusted relationships, local knowledge, and human judgment? And how do we harness new tools while continuing to strengthen the infrastructure communities need?

Come ready to think beyond the tools themselves—and explore how technology can strengthen, rather than replace, the people, relationships, and infrastructure that make child care work.

Child care owners and operators are navigating enormous pressures—building sustainable businesses, recruiting and retaining staff, responding to families, and making their voices heard in decisions that affect them. We talk a lot about supporting providers. This session starts somewhere different: by listening to them.

Hear directly from Kansas City-area providers about what is working, what is getting in their way, and what they actually need from the organizations, systems, and policymakers around them. Where are current supports genuinely useful? Where are there gaps? And where might we be offering what we think providers need rather than what would make the greatest difference?

You'll have the opportunity to ask questions, listen, and consider what their experiences mean for your own work. Come ready not just to hear from providers, but to rethink how we build solutions with them.

You heard directly from providers about what they need, what gets in their way, and where current systems and supports are—or aren't—working. Now comes the harder question: What do we do differently because we listened?

In this interactive working session, participants will unpack what they heard and consider what it means for their own organizations, communities, and systems. Where can existing supports be strengthened? What may need to change? Where are new partnerships or approaches needed? And how can providers remain part of designing the solutions rather than simply receiving them?

Come ready to work with colleagues, test ideas, and identify practical next steps you can take home—turning provider insight into action.

*This session is open to CCAoA Member CCR&Rs only. Registration is required, using the green button below.

AI is moving quickly from something leaders are watching to something organizations need to understand and use. But getting started can feel daunting—and the bigger question isn't just how to use AI. It's how AI may change the work itself.

In this interactive session, continue the conversation with Joe Eichenbaum and move from big-picture implications to practical problem solving. Where could AI make your day-to-day work easier or more effective right now? What capabilities that once required significant time, technology, or expertise may soon become commonplace? And as that happens, what knowledge, data, relationships, and capabilities become even more valuable?

Bring your real work and your questions. Together, we'll identify practical places to start using AI while also looking ahead at how it could reshape the value organizations bring to families, providers, communities, and states. 

What happens when employers, community leaders, child care organizations, government, and technology partners tackle child care supply together?

In Mesa County, Colorado, an employer survey identified affordable child care as a leading barrier to recruitment and retention. That finding became a catalyst for a broader community response—bringing together new partners, data, technology, and investment to better understand local needs and grow child care supply.

Using Mesa County as a case study alongside other emerging approaches, this session will explore what it takes to turn concern about child care into coordinated action. How do you bring unlikely partners to the table? What role can data and technology play? How do you move from identifying a shortage to actually building supply? And what can other communities adapt—not simply replicate—from these efforts?

Come ready to think about who may be missing from your own child care strategy—and what could become possible by bringing them in.

Over two days, we’ve challenged ourselves to think differently about leadership, regulation, technology, partnerships, provider needs, and the systems that make child care work in communities. Now comes the most important question: What will we do differently because of it?

In this interactive closing conversation, we’ll surface the ideas that challenged our thinking, the questions we’re still wrestling with, and the possibilities worth carrying forward. What feels different now? What assumptions are we ready to question? Where do we see new opportunities to lead, partner, or act?

Come ready to name what you’ll take with you—and what you’re ready to help build from here.