As we reflect on the past year and look ahead to what’s possible, I want to begin by acknowledging the weight of the past few months. Our early care and education communities have navigated uncertainty, public scrutiny, policy shifts, and the very real personal impact these challenges have had on families, educators, and programs. Many in our field have…

When licensed child care options are not being used due to cost, availability, or family preference, many Minnesota parents turn to informal care by “family, friends, and neighbors” – often grandparents. A new article from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank highlights this issue in our region, discusses findings from a recent survey, and emphasizes the…

Child Care Aware of Minnesota is proud to announce the appointment of Candace Yates as our new Executive Director. A people-centered leader passionate about cultivating growth and casting vision, Candace brings over 20 years of experience in early care and education leadership to the role. She began her career as an early care and education…

When parents seeking child care dial 888-291-9811, they reach a trio of friendly, helpful Child Care Resource Specialists on the other end of the line. They can reach this same help through on-line chat at ParentAware.org. We asked our specialists Jen, AnnaMarie, and Vanessa what they love most about their work. “We get to help…

The 2024 Legislative session began on February 12. While this is the “short” session focused on bonding and policy, there will be some activity related to early childhood issues. Child Care Aware of Minnesota helps you stay informed about the latest child care and early education policy news. Each week during the legislative session, our…

Child Care Wayfinder is a one-stop navigation network for starting and growing child care programs. It provides encouragement, support, and connection to resources required for initial licensing and resources needed for sustaining or expanding currently licensed child care programs. It began in 2022 and operates through a system of local navigators in Child Care Aware…

Cara Luebke is the new Public Policy Coordinator at the Child Care Aware Coordinating Office. After minoring in child advocacy studies in college, Cara is returning to this work after completing a master’s program in Advocacy and Political Leadership and working in youth development and advocacy. Cara sees her position as supporting other advocates to…

Families need help finding child care, and our Parent Aware web, phone, and chat services provide free, personalized help. However, employers, job training programs, educational institutions, and many others also need child care for their employees, clients, and students. This is where Child Care Information Outreach Coordinator Deb Spaeth comes in. Deb describes her job…

Empower to Educate helps current and aspiring early childhood educators begin, advance, and sustain their career goals in child care. The purpose of the project is to increase the number of people entering the early childhood workforce by offering benefits such as a free training package, an education preparation stipend, job skills training, help accessing…

The global Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of child care for children, working families, and the economy. However, even before the pandemic, years of underinvestment in the early childhood field had left the child care system stressed to its limit. Federal and state relief funds are helping stabilize the Early Childhood Education field, but…

Nou Thao is the Associate Director of Programs at Child Care Aware of Minnesota. Nou joined the organization six months ago after managing school-age and early childhood programs for AmeriCorps. One of Nou’s most important roles is supporting the Child Care Aware district and regional coordinators throughout the state, including their efforts to build an…

Funds from the American Rescue Plan, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, support monthly stabilization grants to child care programs in Minnesota. Here are a few facts from the federal Administration for Children and Families Office of Child Care (data through December 2022) :   8,230 child care programs received support 212,500 children potentially impacted $324.2…

For over 20 years, hundreds of young children, parents, early childhood professionals, and advocates from across the state have come together to ask legislators to prioritize Minnesota’s youngest children. This year, Advocacy for Children Day was back in-person at the State Capitol to urge policymakers to go “All In For Our Kids!” Over 35,000 children…

The Great Start for All Task Force Report is here! This report was the product of 15 months of work by a diverse working group of early childhood stakeholders, including our Executive Director Ann McCully. This blueprint for comprehensive reform of the child care system focuses on three goals: Creating a system where family costs…

As we head into a legislative session this January, we have summarized our activities for the previous fiscal year, July 2021 through June 2022. Here’s a look at Child Care Aware of Minnesota by the numbers: 37,835 parents completed child care searches at ParentAware.org 14,004 students took at least one Eager-to-Learn class 6,267 early educators…

Parent Aware has a mission to help families find the quality care and education their children need to succeed in school and life. Parent Aware Recruiters are a crucial part of building the program throughout the state. Alicia Bauman is the Recruiter for northwestern Minnesota, working remotely for Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership in…

Child Care Wayfinder is a one-stop navigation network for starting and growing child care programs. The network is staffed by local navigators at regional Child Care Aware agencies and Minnesota Tribal Resources for Early Childhood Care (MNTRECC). Our local navigators act as resource guides. We accompany new programs through the licensing process, we assess business…

Our Professional Development department’s latest project, Empower to Educate, is launched and open for enrollment! With funding from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Empower to Educate helps current and aspiring early childhood educators advance and sustain their career goals in child care. This workforce development program offers financial support, free training options, job skills…

For the first time in almost three years, staff and select partners gathered for the Child Care Aware of Minnesota Institute on May 5 and 6 in Minneapolis. The Institute is a biennial training event for Child Care Aware network staff and partners hosted by the Child Care Aware of Minnesota Coordinating Office. This year’s…

As lawmakers return to the Capitol this week from their spring break, their focus will be on the passage of all of the omnibus bills (packages of policy and funding proposals by topic area) and negotiating differences in those proposals through conference committees. The current House and Senate bills are taking very different approaches to…

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This famous quote from Spanish philosopher George Santayana is an important reminder for the early childhood education field. As we try to address knotty questions about compensation, professionalism, quality, and racial equity, understanding the history and evolution of child care in the United States can…

Child Care Aware of America has issued a new report, “Demanding Change: Repairing Our Child Care System.” As the report states, “The pandemic illuminated how indispensable child care is for the well-being and economic security for our children, families, and communities, while simultaneously revealing the system’s many shortcomings. Child care has been underfunded for decades,…

The 2022 Legislative session began on January 31. While this is the “short” session focused on bonding and policy, there is already much activity related to early childhood issues. The current state budget is set through June 2023. A $7 billion surplus has allowed lawmakers to discuss potential additions. Later this month, the next budget…

In August, Nikki Graf started a new position as Child Care Aware of Minnesota’s (CCAoMN) Public Policy Specialist. In this role, Nikki supports the CARE Fellows program and will provide help tracking legislation, organizing testimony, and networking with advocates during legislative sessions. Our Communications Director, Diane Benjamin, recently spoke with Nikki about her new role.…

The pandemic has revealed a lot of the underlying problems with how we structure and fund child care in this country. However, it’s easy to get so busy responding to daily challenges that we forget to stop and boldly imagine a better system. A new paper from University of Minnesota professors Liz Davis and Aaron Sojourner,…

Child Care Aware of Minnesota is pleased to announce our new mission, values, and vision. Developed from a collaborative strategic planning process over the past year, these new statements more clearly express who we are and how we view our work. Mission: We are a statewide early childhood leader driving change through partnerships to build…

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has now published two in-depth articles documenting both the very low wages in the early childhood profession, particularly in family child care, and analyzing a proposed equitable wage scale for the field, developed by the Transforming Minnesota’s Early Childhood Workforce project. Child Care Aware of Minnesota participates…

Child Care Aware of Minnesota is pleased to announce receipt of a multi-year grant from the Hopkins Early Learning Center for $200,000 in support of the Katie Williams CARE Public Policy Fellowship. The CARE (Child Care Advocates Ready to Emerge) Fellowship provides early childhood and school-age care professionals an opportunity to connect their daily work…

Beginning last April, Child Care Aware of Minnesota began collaborating with a sub-group of the Governor’s COVID Education and Child Care Workgroup to distribute critical supplies to child care programs around the state. While it feels like 100 years ago that this all started, I know it has only been a year. Perhaps you can…

After two years of hard work, the Minnesota Family Child Care Task Force has released their final report. This task force included family child care providers from both Greater Minnesota and the metro area, representatives from family child care associations, county licensors, the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the Children’s Cabinet, parents, legislators, other stakeholders,…

“If you could build it, what would a better child care system look like?” This question was posed to a study group at the Coordinating Office as we were discussing the Child Care Aware of America Picking Up the Pieces report. The report points out that the current system falls far short of meeting the…

Child Care Aware of Minnesota helps you stay informed about the latest child care and early education policy news. Each week during the legislative session, our Legislative Update provides a brief overview of bills that have been introduced, action that has been taken at the committee level or on the floor, and any other pertinent…

As the pandemic descended in March, the Minnesota Legislature funded $30 million in emergency grants to help child care programs respond to the child care needs of essential workers. An additional $10 million was added to the program in June. The Minnesota Department of Human Services, Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, and Child Care Aware of Minnesota…