FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, September 30, 2011
Contact: Kenneth J. Wolfe
(202) 401-9215
ACF, OCC Name four new National Child Care Technical Assistance Centers
The federal Office of Child Care (OCC) today announced four new national centers that will provide child care technical assistance to states, territories and tribes to improve the quality of school-age care and early care and education.
“Our focus is to raise the bar on quality in child care across the country,” said George Sheldon, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families. “Child care programs provide vital support for working parents. Our children deserve the best care possible– care that promotes healthy development and success in school.”
More than 12 million American children regularly rely on child care. Of these, over 1.6 million children receive a child care subsidy from the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program each month. The Child Care Technical Assistance Network redesign is aimed at furthering OCC’s goal to ensure all children have access to high-quality child care.
In coordination with OCC’s new State Child Care Systems Specialist Network, the following new OCC technical assistance centers will help CCDF grantees reach CCDF plan goals:
- The National Center on Child Care Quality Improvement, contract award to ICF International, Inc., in partnership with the BUILD Initiative, will provide targeted technical assistance to states as they help more child care programs reach for higher standards of quality tied to school readiness and academic excellence.
- The National Center on Child Care Professional Development Systems and Workforce Initiatives, jointly funded by the Office of Head Start and awarded to Zero to Three, in partnership with Child Trends, the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Alliance Registry contract award will build State capacity to support the estimated 1.2 million early childhood educators and afterschool teachers in child care centers and family child care homes by creating pathways for career advancement, and developing strategies for higher qualification and improved compensation.
- The National Center on Child Care Subsidy Innovation and Accountability, contract award to Walter R. McDonald and Associates, Inc., will support CCDF administrators as they develop and maintain strong subsidy systems that are child-focused, family-friendly, fair to child care providers and increase accountability and integrity of programs to ensure that funds are used appropriately and efficiently.
- The National Center on Tribal Child Care Implementation and Innovation, contract award to the Community Development Institute, will focus on the unique needs of tribes to ensure that tribal communities have access to the technical assistance they need to provide high-quality child care and share tribal-state innovations.
“This is an exciting step forward to support the early childhood workforce and our efforts to ensure quality for young children,” said Joan Lombardi, deputy assistant secretary and inter-departmental liaison for early childhood development.
OCC is a program office of the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on the OCC visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccb/general/index.htm.
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Note: All ACF news releases, fact sheets and other materials are available at: www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/index.html.