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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.
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.
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. |
| To create incentives for child care providers with high concentrations of children receiving subsidies from the Child Care Assistance Program to enhance school readiness activities and to support families receiving subsidies to choose from selected providers, the 2007 Legislature authorized the School Readiness Connections Project. An evaluation of the ongoing project was completed in December 2009. The complete report, Evaluation of School Readiness Connections Pilot Project, contains answers to five major evaluation questions and makes recommendations. A report brief provides highlights of the evaluation. |
A new report, “Alternative Methods for Minnesota’s Market Rate Study of Child Care Prices,” examines methods used by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) for collecting and analyzing child care price information and proposes alternatives to current practice.
CCAP provides financial subsidies to help eligible families pay for child care while parents are working, searching for employment, or pursuing education leading to employment. State law requires DHS to set the maximum rates that can be paid for care under CCAP. The federal government requires that states ensure that parents who receive child care assistance have access to the range of providers in the child care market similar to other parents. States are instructed to provide evidence of access based on a local market rate survey. The results of the rate survey also inform the setting of CCAP maximum rates.
The report is organized around four basic questions. What geographic boundaries should be used to set maximum child care rates? How should DHS synthesize various child care prices? What methods should be used to determine maximum payment rates for out-of-school time? Should CCAP maximum rates be set for non-standard hour care? If so on what basis should that maximum be set?
A companion document, “Technical Appendices,” contains methodological background about the study.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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| The current Minnesota Child Care and Development Fund Plan for FFY 2010-2011 (October 1, 2009 – September 30, 2011) is available here, or can be requested by e-mail to dhs.child.care@state.mn.us. The Plan incorporates CCDF economic stimulus funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. |
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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