Program Updates

These briefs provide program summaries, review the barriers that the program addresses, and offer participant testimonials. Our Year in Review Summary reviews the work that Child Care Aware of Minnesota completed across all our programs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

• Empower to Educate (E2E)
  • E2E helps current and aspiring early childhood educators begin, advance, and sustain their child care careers.

• Child Care Wayfinder
  • Child Care Wayfinder provides personalized support and encouragement for navigating the child care licensing process and offers resources to help expand and sustain currently licensed child care programs.

• REETAIN
  • REETAIN Bonuses help supplement income for early childhood educators as they work to establish a career in the field.

Policy Briefs

• Decrease of Licensed Family Child Care in Minnesota
  • This brief discussing the relationship between family child care closure and regulation in Minnesota is a companion piece to the NAEYC issue brief, “The Child Care Supply Crisis: Why Deregulation is Not the Answer.”

• Deregulation
  • This brief discusses why deregulation is not the solution to the problems in the child care system.

• Direct Support for Child Care Programs
  • This brief discusses how directly supporting child care programs with cash payments can help address problems of staffing shortages and low wages.

• Why Ratios Matter
  • This brief explores the importance of maintaining appropriate child-to-caregiver ratios in child care settings.

• Higher Education and Early Childhood Education
  • This brief examines some of the issues involved in creating a highly educated early childhood workforce.

• Licensed Child Care Training
  • This brief discusses the importance of training requirements for child care licensing.