ARLINGTON, VA, December 13, 2022 – Michelle McCready was named Interim Chief Executive Officer of Child Care Aware® of America by the CCAoA Board of Directors effective January 12, 2023. CCAoA CEO Dr. Lynette M. Fraga announced in August that she is stepping down effective January 11, 2023.  

A mom of three, Alicia Fout was going to college and working 30 hours a week but still often struggled to cover the cost of child care.

The high price tag forced her to prioritize which monthly bills to pay, which meant frequent utility shut-off notices – and some extremely difficult decisions.

“I learned which bills I could forgo every other month to keep up with the financial needs of my children,” Fout told CNN. 

State Legislature Roundup: Some Wins, but More Support for Child Care is Needed | Exchange Press 

States and local communities play a significant role in shaping the policies that determine child care access for families and the quality of available care. This article explores legislation that state and local governments enacted in 2022 to support child care and early learning. These actions are especially important, as the last available federal funding, which has allowed states to implement temporary child care policies, is set to run out by September 24. 

As states spend down their relief funding over the next year, it will be critical to keep advocating for child care and early learning policies at the state level. While some legislative actions have been big policy wins for families, providers, and children, not every state has made bold reforms for child care and early learning. That leaves a patch-work of early learning access across the country. In 2023, we must make child care investments a priority in all state houses and at the federal level.

Follow Lynette Fraga on Twitter @lynette_fraga and Child Care Aware of America @ChildCareAware

Read the full article. 

Child Care in 2021 Was More Expensive than Other Household Expenses 

Such as Housing and Health Care 

ARLINGTON, VA, October 13, 2022 — Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) today released Price of Care: 2021 Child Care Affordability, which outlines the continuing increases in the price of child care across the United States. 

The report highlights survey data that shows that child care prices outpaced inflation in 2021 for the third consecutive year. In 2021, the average annual inflation rate was higher than usual at 4.7%, but child care prices rose by an average of 5% when compared to 2020 prices. This means families with children were more likely to struggle to afford child care on top of essentials such as food, housing and transportation. 

“Parents continue to face the challenge of finding and affording high-quality child care,” said Lynette M. Fraga, Ph.D., CCAoA Chief Executive Officer. “Recent public investments in child care have been a lifeline and helped keep programs open. But robust, long-term public support is needed to make child care affordable for families and ensure more children have access to high-quality early learning experiences to prepare them for success in school and beyond.”   

Vox

On the Senate floor in early August, just two days before lawmakers voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, four senior Democrats came out to lament what they believed to be the bill’s biggest omission: child care.

“We cannot simply vote on this package and call it a day,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said. “Our child care system isn’t just stretched thin; it is broken.”

Less than two months later, the extent of that brokenness is clearer than ever. Public schools are fully reopened, and most pandemic-era restrictions are relaxed. But working conditions for families with kids who need child care are not back to normal. For both workers and parents, already-grim trends in child care have only gotten worse since the pandemic began: program costs have increased, while waiting lists in several states number in the tens of thousands.

ARLINGTON, VA, September 14, 2022 — Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) today released the first report of our research series: Catalyzing Growth: Using Data to Change Child Care. The report, Annual Child Care Landscape Analysis: 2021 Supply and Quality Trends, provides detailed information about the child care system in the United States. 

This year, CCAoA is featuring longitudinal supply data to increase understanding of how the supply of child care has changed since 2019, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, CCAoA found that while there was an increase in the number of child care centers from 2020 to 2021, the total number of centers remains slightly lower than the number open in 2019.   

There continues to be a downward trend in the supply of licensed Family Child Care (FCC) homes. Among the 40 states for which CCAoA has complete data, we found a 10% decrease in FCC homes over the last three years (107,783 in 2019 to 97,393 in 2021). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply of FCC homes was decreasing. This is an alarming trend because FCC homes are an affordable option for many families and often the only choice for families, especially in rural communities. 

ARLINGTON, VA, August 17, 2022 —  Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) announced that Chief Executive Officer Dr. Lynette M. Fraga is leaving the organization early in 2023.  

Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) today announced that Chief Executive Officer Dr. Lynette M. Fraga is leaving the organization early in 2023.  

CCAoA is frustrated and disappointed with the news that the Senate may soon consider a budget reconciliation package, the Inflation Reduction Act, that includes no funding for child care and early learning. There is still time left for Congress to right this wrong. 

For months, child care programs, system leaders, families and businesses have shared countless stories of the longstanding challenges the sector faces. Their messages are the same: the status quo of low compensation for educators and high prices for families is unacceptable. The child care system can only move toward thriving in the future with robust public investment.  

The news that a budget reconciliation bill committed to inflation reduction, as its name implies, is slated to move forward without tackling the high prices families face for child care is alarming. As CCAoA research shows, in three out of four regions of the U.S., the annual price of center-based child care for an infant exceeds the cost of housing. In all four regions, child care exceeds the annual cost of in‑state tuition at a public four‑year university. If Congress’ main concern is helping families deal with rising costs, nothing could be more important than investments that help reduce the high price of child care. 

CCAoA believes this is also an issue of equity. As we consider the impact of the pandemic on women, who still make up all net labor force leavers since February 2020, it is unacceptable for Congress to continue to make policy choices that leave them behind. 

Before voting on the Inflation Reduction Act, CCAoA implores Congress to include significant, sustained funding for the child care and early learning system.