Human Services

Child Care Development Grants

Statewide Outcome(s):

Child Care Development Grants supports the following statewide outcome(s).

Strong and stable families and communities.

Minnesotans have the education and skills needed to achieve their goals.

Context:

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 safety, healthy development, and families’ self-sufficiency.

Child Care Development Grants promote services to improve school readiness, and the quality and availability of child care in Minnesota. These services include consumer education to parents and the public, and activities that help parents choose care for more than 230,000 Minnesota children cared for in licensed child care settings. Services include development and implementation of a an early childhood quality rating and improvement system called Parent Aware, and grants, consultation and financial supports to Minnesota’s 13,000 licensed child care providers to improve quality. These grants are funded primarily with federal Child Care and Development Funds with additional federal support from Minnesota’s Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant and some state funds.

It is important that all children and their families have access to high-quality child care and education programs. These grants provide leadership and support to programs working to increase the availability of quality care and education in Minnesota.

Strategies:

The Department of Human Services works with public and private agencies and individuals to promote school readiness through education and training. Grants are used to improve the quality of early childhood and school- age care, and increase access to high quality care, especially for high-need children. Grants help parents support their children's success through information about child care by providing:

·         Information to families and communities through Minnesota's Child Care Resource & Referral parent referral services and Parent Aware;

·         Grants and financial supports to providers for quality improvement;

·         Training, coaching, consultation and other workforce supports for early childhood and school-age care providers to increase their knowledge and skills in child development, instructional practices and ways to meet the needs of individual children; and

·         Reimbursements to child care programs and providers to cover some of the fees associated with completing accreditation with a nationally recognized child care accreditation program.

Results:

Performance Measures	Previous	Current	Trend
Referrals to Parents Made by Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies1	22,181	22,427	Stable
Number of Child Care Centers Receiving Reimbursement for Accreditation Fees2	28	49	Improving
Number of Family Child Care Programs Receiving Reimbursement for Accreditation Fees2	2	16	Improving

Performance Measures Notes:

1.   Data is from a report produced by Wilder Research, “Results of Referral Outcomes Follow-up Surveys, July 2009 through June 2010” (Previous) and “Results of Referral Outcomes Follow-up Surveys, July 2010 through June 2011” (Current).

2.   Family child care and center-based programs are reimbursed for one-half of the direct cost of accreditation fees, upon successful completion of accreditation with a nationally recognized child care accreditation program. Compares 2011 (Previous) and 2012 (Current), as tracked by the Department of Human Services.