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The first few years of children’s lives are
key to their intellectual, emotional and social development.
Everyone wants to know that children are being well cared for
while family members are at work or school. High quality child
care that is available and affordable is important to
children’s healthy development, and families’ self-sufficiency
and peace-of-mind.
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Paying for child care can be difficult for
families with low incomes. Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance
Program can help families who qualify. Find out more about Child
Care Assistance.
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It’s important that all children and their
families have access to high-quality care and education
programs. Minnesota’s Child Development Services provides
leadership and support to programs working to increase the
availability of quality care and education in Minnesota. Find
out more about Child
Development
Services.
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| The next generation of a critically
important tool for DHS and Minnesota counties to administer
the Child Care Assistance Program recently passed a major
milestone. The first authorized child care provider was
entered into the new release of the Minnesota Electronic Child
Care information system (MEC²). More information is
online. |
| Findings from focus groups on child care
quality have been compiled in a new report, Child Care Information and Rating
System. The report describes the results of seven
focus groups that were conducted with parents around the state
in November 2006 in order to help understand parents’
definitions of quality child care and to elicit opinions on
what information they would find useful in a child care
information or rating system. |
Booklet provides tips for child care
providers on emergency
planning |
| A workbook for child care providers, Keeping Kids Safe, details a 10-step
process for preparing to respond to various types emergencies
such as natural disasters or hazardous material incidents. The
first two sections of the booklet explain how to create a
plan, identify potential emergency risks and obtain additional
planning resources. A third section shows how to maintain the
plan. A fourth section provides an outline for writing a plan
to ensure child safety in these stressful and potentially
dangerous situations. |
Minnesotans will have an easier time finding
information on licensed providers of child care and other
programs. The simple online search tool contains information
from DHS’ licensing information database. Here is a link to
the Licensing Information Lookup.
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While the qualities of child care provided
by licensed centers have been the subject of countless
studies, little systematic attention has been paid to the more
prevalent type of care – that provided by families, friends
and neighbors (FFN). In fact, more Minnesota families use some
form of FFN care on a regular basis, and many rely on it
exclusively for caring for children under age 13. Previous
research has shown that child care arrangements are a factor
in school readiness outcomes. Meanwhile, there is interest in
improving the quality and safety of government-subsidized care
for children from low-income families. To better understand
some of the issued involved, DHS conducted several formal
studies. The following are now
available:
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A statewide telephone survey of families who
use child care was conducted by Wilder Research for the
Minnesota Department of Human Services to gather information
about availability, quality and affordability of child care.
It found that about three-fourths of Minnesota families with
children regularly use some form of child care and most
involve multiple types of providers. The survey also found
Minnesota children spend about 24 hours per week in child
care, on average. For almost half of Minnesota children,
relatives and close friends provide the only or primary child
care. Completed in November 2005, an Executive Summary is now available as
well as the full 92-page report, Child Care Use in Minnesota: 2004 Statewide
Household Child Care
Survey.
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In response to a directive from the 2005
Minnesota Legislature, the commissioners of the Education,
Human Services and Health Departments identified ways for
coordinating activities and resources to increase school
readiness for all Minnesota children. That report, Coordination of Early Care and Education
Programs, was released in March, 2006.
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| With the recently revised Child Care
Assistance Program (CCAP) Policy Manual, county and contracted
agency child care workers will now be able to better serve
families in the program. The manual, with information on
policies, procedures, rules and statutes of CCAP, will provide
workers with the information they need to help families in the
program so they can become employed and self-sufficient. A
copy of the manual is available on the department’s Web site. |
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