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Apprenticeship Week is an opportunity for Child Care Aware of Minnesota, TEACH Early Childhood® Minnesota, and the early childhood field to celebrate the current and past participating employers, apprentices, and mentors. It’s also an opportunity to learn more about TEACH apprenticeship and what the program offers. The TEACH Early Childhood® Minnesota Apprenticeship Program helps newer…

Minnesota’s Great Start Compensation Program has worked to improve wages and support for early care educators, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. A new report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, titled “Progress Through Persistence and Partnership: Minnesota’s Collaborative Effort to Advance Early Educator Compensation,” demonstrates how Minnesota moved from temporary relief…

Our national Child Care Aware of America office has released two new resources that compare state progress on early childhood policies. The first is a short publication, “State Session Round-Up: Summer 2025,” which highlights legislative action across the country in seven key policy areas, including: The second is an interactive State Policy Dashboard where users…

As I approach retirement on May 1, I have had an opportunity to reflect deeply on what I have learned about this field over the past 23 years, how far we have come, and the work that lies ahead. I truly respect and admire those who work in child care and have been glad to…

Child Care Wayfinder is a one-stop navigation network for starting and growing child care programs. As part of regional Child Care Aware agencies and MNTRECC (Minnesota Tribal Resources for Early Childhood Care), local navigators help people in their communities create, sustain, and expand licensed home-based and center-based programs. The number of child care providers and…

After 21 years with Child Care Aware of Minnesota, and 41 years in the early childhood field, Cory Woosley, our Director of Workforce Development, is retiring in March. Cory took the time to share some reflections with Communications Director Diane Benjamin. Cory: “I would like us to learn from what we’ve done before. Those of…

This year is the 20th anniversary of the REETAIN program! The REETAIN Bonus program (Retaining Early Educators Through Attaining Incentives Now) helps supplement income for early childhood educators as they work to establish a career. The goal of this program is to keep qualified educators in the early childhood field. REETAIN bonuses can be used…