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.
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 can be found here: 2023 Child care and early education legislative summary (PDF).
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 has recently updated and created documents for child care providers and families about the Child Care Assistance Program. 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.
Learn more about the Early Childhood Connector.
Reports and fact sheets from the Minnesota Department of Human Services about Parent Aware, Minnesota's Quality Rating and Improvement System:
The Family Child Care Training and Advisory Committee was formed from the work of the Family Child Care Task Force. The task force was established in 2019 to discuss and make recommendations to family child care licensing and the Parent Aware program. One recommendations was a review of training, standards, and delivery methods to family child care providers.
Background, overview and the work of the Family Child Care Task Force is available.
In 2023, the Department of Human Services (DHS) is launching a new Parent Aware Advisory Committee. Parent Aware is Minnesota’s quality rating and improvement system for child care.
Parent Aware offers tools and resources to help:
The department is recruiting child care providers from Parent Aware Rated Programs and parents with children participating in Parent Aware Rated Programs to join the committee. Advisory Committee members will advise Child Care Aware of Minnesota and the Department of Human Services on decisions to hep shape and improve Parent Aware.