Sharing Web Resources - Additional Information

Throughout the past few weeks, I have had a chance to explore the ChildCare Aware of America website at http://www.naccrra.org/. One of the links that I chose to explore this week was the Publications tab. From there, I was given the chance to review a list of publications that ChildCare Aware has produced that are available for purchase as resources for childcare agencies. One of the publications titled Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012 Report (http://www.naccrra.org/publications/naccrra-publications/2012/8/parents-and-the-high-cost-of-child-care-2012-report) I used as a resource for our main assignment this week. I was very surprised to learn through this document the price of child care services throughout the United States. For example, the price for infant care in a child care center could range anywhere from $1500 to $16000! One of the biggest struggles for families looking for quality child care services for their families is cost. As the quality of care increases, the price of services almost always increases as well. Families end up sacrificing quality in order to find affordable child care for their children, even if the conditions that the children are cared for in are not ideal.

I also took the time to look more into the information contained under the Programs and Services tab, particularly at the Child Care Partners section. There I found that in December, ChildCare Aware of America had partnered with Parents magazine to help persuade Congress to focus on child care during their negotiations. I followed the link provided to reviewed the article listed in the December issue of the magazine (http://www.parents.com/baby/childcare/child-care-crisis/). The article features a family who was lucky to have found a child care center that produced quality education, but the family was devastated to learn that the center was forced to close due to recent budget cuts in child care funding. This article hit home for me because I know of a few child care programs that have been forced to close their doors due to the budget cuts resulting from the sequestration issued in March, one of those centers was a child care research program located at a local community college. Hundreds of families will be looking for child care starting this summer due to the closure of these programs. Few centers will be able to increase the spots that they have available, so families will have to look elsewhere for lower par child care services.

I did sign up for the e-newsletters from the website, but have not received any updates recently. As a result, I returned to the website's homepage and reviewed some of the recent news releases. President Obama has released his budget proposal for the fiscal year 2014, which contains a significant push for increased funding for early childhood education (http://www.naccrra.org/news-room/press-releases/2013/4/child-care-aware®-of-america-executive-director-at-white-house-budge). My supervisor and I sat down this week when he released the budget and reviewed his proposal. We were very excited to learn that he is suggesting a focus on increased funding for Early Head Start programs and Home Visiting programs, recognizing the need for a strong foundation in education and related services for children beginning at birth. I am anxious to see what Congress decides to do with the proposed budget, especially after these exact same programs took a large budget cut with the sequestration.

Tiffany