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…

Child Care Aware of Minnesota has embarked on a partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences educators to support high school students that may be interested in early childhood education as a profession. This project aims to create excitement and interest by offering students no-cost options to explore careers in…

We are proud to announce that our Executive Director, Ann McCully, was a co-winner of this year’s Nancy Latimer Award! The other winner was also from our system – Dianne Haulcy from Think Small. Here are Ann’s remarks from the award presentation: I want to thank the Early Childhood Funders for this award. I am…

The Child Care Aware of Minnesota (CCAoMN) Access Ambassadors workgroup ensures that all CCAoMN staff have the tools, knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the child care system. The Access Ambassadors is comprised of CCAoMN staff from diverse backgrounds and all areas of expertise, from both the Twin Cities…

The early childhood workforce, and child care itself, is always essential. Without a strong and healthy early childhood workforce, we cannot sustain a strong and healthy economy. However, as we lurch into the seventh month of the pandemic and the start of school, our Child Care information Specialists are talking with working parents every day…

Reducing the rules that regulate child care is often offered as a solution to declining numbers of family child care programs. Late last year, Child Care AwareÒ of America published a one-page issue brief, The Child Care Supply Crisis: Why Deregulation is Not the Answer. It showed that the number of family child care programs…

As another Parent Aware Full-Rating Cohort is wrapping up, the Quality Improvement team at the Child Care Aware of Minnesota Coordinating Office is preparing a post-Cohort survey to send to programs that participated in the July 2019 Cohort. This is the fifth consecutive survey we have offered. All programs that participated in either Building Quality…

I had the privilege to attend the annual Child Care Aware of Minnesota Institute in early November. The Institute is a professional development and networking opportunity for all Child Care Aware staff and select partners from across the state to connect, grow, and learn. This year’s theme, “It’s All About You,” focused on wellness, self-care,…

Minnesota had the pleasure of hosting the national Child Care Aware of America Leadership Institute on October 6 – 9 in Minneapolis. This annual event drew over 150 leaders from 37 states that work in the Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) field. Across the nation, we focus on increasing access to high-quality, affordable child…

I’m at a stage in life where I have many friends and family members with young children, so child care comes up frequently. “I need somewhere to send them that is safe.” “I want them to be ready for kindergarten next year.” “I can’t afford child care!” I often ask them if they have looked…

Reflecting on the outcome of this most recent legislative session, it is truly a test of the glass half-full or glass half-empty perspective. I land on one-fourth full, three-fourths empty, and disappointment over lost opportunities. The year started hopefully, with a new Governor and Lieutenant Governor who both support early education. Their budget had investments…

When parents seeking child care dial 888-291-9811, they reach a trio of friendly, helpful Child Care Information Specialists on the other end of the line. And now, they can reach this same help through our new online chat. We recently ask our specialists Jen Goinz, AnnaMarie Schluender, and Debra Spaeth what they love most about…

Each year, the Child Care Aware national office hosts the Child Care Works Summit in Washington, D.C. as part of their ongoing work to mobilize individuals to advocate for child care policies that improve the lives of children and families. This spring, I was lucky enough to attend. We spent the first day of the…

Public policy work is daunting. Messy. Confusing. The pace of change is slow and sometimes things even go in reverse. It takes a lot of time and energy. But it is also critical work for the children and families that we serve, and our society. As a colleague of mine used to say, “if you…

A statewide poll of registered voters in Minnesota has lots of good news for supporters of quality child care. The Center for American Progress commissioned the poll last summer to better understand how voters think about and respond to messages about child care. They found the following in Minnesota: Funding child care and early education…

How can Child Care Aware agencies help shape public policy? Here are four ways: We are perfectly positioned to speak with authority about the challenges of early care and education because we sit at the intersection of several key constituencies: parents, providers, and communities. We have data about our system and its needs, a powerful…