Child care and early education: News, initiatives, reports, work groups
Get updates on work in progress by committees, work groups and teams. Also reports, data and interpretation, including performance dashboards.
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Get updates on work in progress by committees, work groups and teams. Also reports, data and interpretation, including performance dashboards.
This summary includes recent legislative changes to child care, including the Child Care Assistance Program, Great Start Compensation Support Payment Program, Parent Aware, Child Care Capacity-building, and Workforce Development.
The Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) helps families with low incomes pay for child care so that parents can work or go to school, and children have more opportunities to thrive as learners.
The program recently updated and created documents for child care providers and families. All documents are available on eDocs:.
The Early Childhood Connector initiative is a cross-agency effort to provide updates and improve communications to early educators in Minnesota. On a quarterly basis the state will send the Early Childhood Connector Newsletter filled with content specifically for licensed and nonlicensed child care, Head Start and prekindergarten programs. Educators are also invited to join Connector Calls, which are hosted quarterly. During Connector Calls the state will answer questions that providers have submitted.
The Early Childhood Connector initiative is a cross-agency effort between the Minnesota’s Children’s Cabinet and Departments of Education, Health and Human Services.
Between September 2022 and June 2023, the department designed and implemented an environmental scan of FFN child care in Minnesota. The purpose of the study was to learn about FFN caregivers and families who use FFN care in Minnesota to better support and communicate with caregivers and families. This report summarizes findings and includes recommended policy actions.
Starting in July 2022, community organizations across the state will receive $2.9 million in order to provide training and support to friends, grandparents, and neighbors who provide child care for the youngest Minnesotans.
Reports
Reports and fact sheets about Parent Aware.
The Family Child Care Training and Advisory Committee was established in 2019 to discuss and make recommendations to family child care licensing and Parent Aware program.
In 2023, a new Parent Aware Advisory Committee was launched. Parent Aware is Minnesota’s quality rating and improvement system for child care.
Parent Aware offers tools and resources to help: