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Issue 14—March/April 1997

Innovations in Child Care Consumer Education

Contents

up arrowConsumer Education Efforts Promote Quality Child Care

The goal of child care consumer education is to provide information to parents so that they may select quality services that meet their personal and family needs. The child care system depends on informed consumers in order to function efficiently. The ability of informed parents to select high quality arrangements from an array of choices is essential. Since parents of all incomes are using child care in increasing numbers, consumer education efforts are critical to improving access to quality, affordable care. It is through a combination of individual consumer education and public awareness that parents will seek and assess child care, and eventually increase the demand for high quality care.

To highlight this critical issue, the Child Care Bureau sponsored a national leadership forum in February 1997 on "Innovations in Child Care Consumer Education." It was attended by more than 160 participants, including parents, providers, representatives from states, federal and local governments, national organizations, resource and referral agencies, media consultants, and consumer groups. In her welcoming remarks, Leslie Byrne, Director of the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, spoke of the shared "mission of empowering consumers with information." The day was devoted to presenting and discussing child care resource and referral initiatives, public awareness strategies, marketing campaigns, and consumer education research so that states, territories and tribes can develop consumer education strategies that are effective, useful, and relevant.

Child Care Aware, a nationwide initiative focused on consumer education, has identified eight key principles for designing these efforts. Successful project designs include:

  • outreach to targeted audiences;
  • respect for parents' perspectives;
  • feedback from consumers;
  • the importance of trust;
  • an understanding of adult learning;
  • linkages between consumer education and other family issues;
  • engaging community partners; and
  • partnerships that build upon the strengths of resource and referral programs and public agencies that serve low-income parents.

Innovations that build on these eight key principles are included in a new publication, Promoting Quality Child Care: Innovations in Child Care Consumer Education. The draft document was prepared for the Child Care Bureau by Child Care Aware for preliminary distribution at the forum. A final version of the publication will be available from the National Child Care Information Center in summer 1997.

This issue of the Child Care Bulletin describes a variety of approaches to consumer education. It examines the importance of parents' perspectives, the elements of effective outreach efforts, public awareness, and the strong link between consumer education and promoting quality child care.

up arrowPublic Awareness Strategies for Getting the Message Out by Laurie Miller

As welfare reform puts new responsibilities on states, business and community leaders, parents, and the general public need to become mobilized and engaged in policy decision making processes to ensure that those moving from welfare into the workforce and the working poor get help in bridging the gap between what they can afford and what good quality child care costs.

The Child Care Action Campaign (CCAC) is a national coalition of individuals and organizations that support the development of policies and programs to increase the availability of quality, affordable child care. The CCAC uses the following strategies to "increase the volume" of the voices supporting quality early care and education, and to get information disseminated to consumers, business leaders, policy makers, and others through the media and through community engagement efforts.

  • Child care financing symposia increase the visibility, number, and impact of state and local community-business partnerships working to improve child care. With a state partner, CCAC creates and supports community-business teams that commit to improve child care quality and expand supply in the year following a CCAC Financing Symposium in their state. A symposium unites state and national vision, expertise, and resources for improving child care. At the same time, it offers assistance that is tailored to support local community-business partnerships.
  • Business leadership roundtables in cities and communities inform business leaders of the issues in early care and education. Roundtable discussions link business leaders' concerns for competitiveness and productivity, workforce development, and school readiness with the need to improve early care and education. Through this process, business leaders are encouraged to develop initiatives to increase private sector involvement in community-based programs.
  • Editorial board visits are coordinated with the business leadership roundtables to call attention to their efforts and to the experiences of business leaders supporting improvements in early care and education. Business leaders and child care experts meet with the editorial board of local newspapers to discuss the need for public and private investment in early care and education. Such meetings have resulted in editorials in several of the country's leading papers.
  • An information press kit is available for reporters and others who need to be informed of the breadth of early care and education issues and the views of experts. The kit can be used by organizations as background material for their own media outreach efforts.

Laurie Miller is a Program Associate for the Child Care Action Campaign. To learn more, contact Laurie at: (212) 239-0138, or e-mail at: HN5746@handsnet.org

up arrowUsing the Internet to Increase Consumer Awareness by Pat Spahr

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has launched a World Wide Web communications campaign to help build parents' and the public's understanding of the importance of high quality early childhood education. Biweekly Early Years are Learning Years news releases on a variety of topics aim to increase awareness of the critical role of early childhood programs. Individuals are encouraged to participate in the campaign by downloading the releases from the web site, reproducing and distributing them in these ways:

  • use them for parent handouts and in newsletters;
  • submit them to community newspapers;
  • distribute them at libraries, community centers;
  • leave copies at toy stores, doctors' offices, and other places where parents will see them.

The Early Years are Learning Years page is one of the most popular on the NAEYC web site. As campaign participants disseminate the releases to local newspapers, university bulletins, and to parent publications, they educate the public on what to look for in a quality program, and how to support families to help their children learn and grow.

The NAEYC posts Early Years are Learning Years releases in the "Public Policy" section on the NAEYC web site. The articles can either be viewed or downloaded to electronically "cut and paste" for parent newsletters, or as already formatted one-page fliers. Information on how to access the Early Years are Learning Years releases in the different formats is available at the website.

The NAEYC encourages those who do not have access to the World Wide Web to find a friend who does, or to check with a community library or local resource and referral agency which may be able to access the information. The NAEYC can also e-mail or fax the Early Years are Learning Years news releases to organizations and individuals.

Working together to disseminate information, we can all give families the knowledge they need about quality care and education to make a difference in children's lives.

Pat Spahr is the Director of Information Development for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). To learn more, see the NAEYC web site at: <http://www.america-tomorrow.com/naeyc/ > or send e-mail to: jnewberger@naeyc.org. To receive a biweekly fax copy of the Early Years are Learning Years news releases, send a request by fax to: (202) 986-9706.

up arrowParents' Perspectives: Researching the Impact of  Consumer Education Initiatives on Parents' Choices by Christine Ross

To learn about a range of child care consumer education practices, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. interviewed child care administrators in 23 large cities (15 states) as part of the planning effort for the Expanded Child Care Options (ECCO) Demonstration, a project sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Mathematica Policy Research staff conducted telephone and personal interviews with staff members of local agencies that administer child care subsidies, offer child care information and referrals to parents, and provide technical assistance and training to providers. The cities included in the survey are not necessarily representative of child care consumer information practices in all large U.S. cities, but they effectively illustrate a variety of approaches.

The study found that low-income families seek the same features that all families want in a child care setting: safety for their child and the warmth of a caring provider. However, low-income families face more severe constraints, including limited income, jobs with inflexible and nonstandard schedules, an insufficient supply of formal child care, and a lack of other adults in the household to assist with work and childrearing responsibilities. These constraints make the search for child care more difficult. Because low-income families may also have low literacy levels and a limited amount of time and income to spend searching for child care, consumer education initiatives for low-income families must be designed carefully to meet their needs.

Promising Consumer Education Strategies for Low-Income Families

Based on the interviews with child care staff, several approaches to consumer education were identified that could be particularly effective with low-income families:

Parent Information that Addresses the Needs of Low-Income Families. Public assistance staff who have worked with welfare recipients understand the concerns and problems these families face; they produce informative materials that families can understand; and they are willing to consider and discuss informal child care, which may be the most stable child care option for a parent with a nontraditional or constantly changing work schedule. Some additional topics for materials that could be helpful for low-income parents might include an explanation of the changes in eligibility for child care subsidies that parents should anticipate as their circumstances change, their income increases, or as certain time limits expire.

Intensive Parent Information Services. Child care counselors take extra time to give parents information about child care options and how to evaluate a child care setting. Counselors give parents a list of providers to contact who have confirmed vacancies, and they follow up by telephoning the parent to make sure that child care was arranged or to give further assistance as needed. Most child care resource and referral agencies (R&Rs) already offer these "enhanced referral services" to corporate clients; some also extend these services to low-income families.

Information that Distinguishes Poor-Quality and Good-Quality Providers from the Rest. Several resource and referral agencies have begun to improve information available from their databases by identifying variations in the quality of care. These approaches are designed to increase incentives to providers to offer high-quality child care by helping parents to identify providers and programs more likely to offer such care. In Seattle, Washington and Jacksonville, Florida the resource and referral agencies have established voluntary systems to identify in their referral databases certain child care providers who meet objective criteria for quality that are set either by the agency, by a local subsidy program, or by a professional accreditation system. In Jacksonville, child care providers can receive training and on-site technical assistance from the resource and referral agency in exchange for frequent monitoring to ensure compliance with the higher quality standards.

Co-located and Universal Child Care Consumer Education and Financial Assistance Services. The most convenient arrangement for parents is to be able to apply for child care subsidy programs and obtain information about choosing child care at the same time. An advantage of using a resource and referral agency for both services is that any parent in the community who is searching for child care may utilize the services of the agency. Thus, even after the family's eligibility for subsidy ends, the parent can return to the same agency for help in finding child care that meets their needs.

Christine Ross is a Senior Economist for Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. For more information, contact Christine at: (202) 484-9220, or e-mail at: Cross@Mathematica-Mpr.com

up arrowChild Care Aware: Help in the National Consumer Marketplace by Denise Fogarty

Every day, millions of parents face the most important consumer decision they will ever need to make -- choosing child care for their children. Focus group research has revealed that this consumer decision is challenging for many families because:

  • Parents feel isolated when looking for child care and report that they usually do not know what they are looking for at the outset of their search.

  • Parents often go only to other parents, relatives, co-workers, and friends for advice on choosing child care and base their decisions on information that is anecdotal and limited.

  • Most parents are not aware of the availability of child care resource and referral (CCR&R) services.

Child Care Aware's leadership, including the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, the Child Care Action Campaign, the National Association for Family Child Care, and founding sponsor, the Dayton Hudson Corporation, have embarked on an initiative utilizing a consumer marketing approach to help families and to help resolve this child care dilemma. The basis for the initiative includes the following rationale:

  • Marketing principles reveal that multiple (a minimum of three to six) contacts with a consistent message are required to cause action.

  • To reach parents everywhere with the messages and frequency required to change attitudes and behavior, parents must be reached on their "own ground," the consumer marketplace. For example, the national Child Care Aware toll-free information telephone number, (800) 424-2246, which refers parents to their local resource and referral agency, must be accessible through popular media and wherever parents go for shopping, dining, personal services, health care, recreation, transportation, worship, and any other activities.

  • It is hard for parents to make a match between public messages and their ongoing need for child care, particularly as their needs change. Child care resource and referral services bridge the gap between the public awareness messages about quality child care and a parent's own situation and changing needs. When local resource and referral programs are as familiar to parents as the yellow pages, parents will know where to turn for help whenever they need it.

Child Care Aware's mission is to ensure that every parent has access to good information about finding quality child care and resources in their community through national consumer marketing, and by raising visibility for local child care resource and referral programs. Child Care Aware works to accomplish this mission by building consumer awareness on a national level and promoting access to information from child care resource and referral programs on the local community level (see "Child Care Aware: Improving Quality in Family Child Care," in the Child Care Bulletin, March/April 1996).

One of Child Care Aware's goals is that every parent will come into contact with its messages in a variety of places: inside cereal boxes, diaper boxes, on milk cartons, on tags for children's clothing, at their health care facilities, and in various types of media. The cornerstone of the initiative, as with most other state and local consumer education efforts, is the dual approach which ties direct consultation through one-on-one resource and referral services, classes, and other community based contacts, together with public awareness through marketing and communications strategies.

The initiative is a major effort to create a marketplace of informed parents who make better child care choices and increase the demand for quality child care.

  • Child Care Aware's toll free information line, (800) 424-2246, provides callers with information to help connect them with their local child care resource and referral agencies.

  • Child Care Aware has several consumer education resources: a strategies guidebook, research reports, Parents Speak About Child Care, and a resource catalog. To request any of these materials, contact Child Care Aware at: (507) 287-2220.

Denise Fogarty is the Program Director for Child Care Aware. For suggestions of how the national effort may be helpful in states or communities or to obtain other information, contact Denise at: (507) 287-2220.

up arrowBright Dreams: A Child Care Consumer Education Program for Reaching Parents-to-Be and New Parents by Barbara Fedoroff

Programs for Parents is implementing a Child Care Aware consumer education program focused on parents-in-waiting and new parents. The program conveys a message about quality child care to parents attending Lamaze method and parenting classes, and through closed-circuit television in the maternity departments of four large hospitals in Essex County, New Jersey.

Programs for Parents, in collaboration with the Newark Office for Children and the County of Essex, designed the program to reach parents when they are the most receptive to this information, in the late stage of their pregnancy or just after the birth of their baby. At that time, parents are especially open to information that helps them give their child the best possible start in life. The Bright Dreams program capitalizes on this by presenting a brief video showing scenes of quality child care activities and programs. It was filmed at a Montclair State University child care center, which is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and also at the home of an experienced family child care provider. The video includes segments with parents describing why they chose their caregiver, along with charts of what is important to look for when seeking quality care.

Accompanying the video is a newsletter published in English and Spanish that provides information about quality and a checklist for evaluating infant care options.

The need for this type of consumer information was identified by Programs for Parents staff who created an outline for the program and invited input from hospitals in the county. The four with the highest annual birth rates responded and helped to determine how to use the video in hospitals to reach parents. They also agreed to distribute the newsletter, Child Care Matters, in their maternity exit packages.

A draft version of the video was presented to several groups of parents, family child care providers, staff members, and the hospital committee. The producers also attended the meeting, to be responsive to suggestions. Input from providers and parents was also incorporated into the newsletter and checklist.

The Bright Dreams program is being enhanced with a media campaign that includes public service announcements, press releases, and bus advertisements. Campaign materials are produced in both English and Spanish. Local television stations that broadcast to a primarily Latino audience have expressed interest in designing a program around the video. Cable television stations have also recently expressed similar interests.

The success of the Bright Dreams program is largely due to obtaining input from a variety of audiences. Their involvement helped to define the final product, which is being well received by parents, hospitals, and the media.

Barbara Fedoroff is the Executive Director for Programs for Parents, Inc. To learn more, contact Barbara at: (201) 297-1114. For availability of Bright Dreams consumer education materials, contact Donna Taaffe, Public Relations Director, at the same telephone number.

up arrowCalifornia Study Reveals Data About Child Care Consumers

Communities need reliable data for making decisions about how to maximize resources and meet the child care needs of families. A new study, The California Child Care Portfolio, provides a county-by-county profile of child care consumers' needs and an analysis of the demand and supply of licensed care in California. The study, based on a survey of 38,000 providers and an analysis of 45,000 requests for care, offers a snapshot of the state's child care system, including the spaces and hours available, costs, and ages of children served. It is an informational resource for state and local decision makers as they address issues that affect the availability of care.

Among its findings, the study indicates a need for more infant care. Only 4 percent of the available space in the state's licensed centers are reserved for very young children, yet 36 percent of parents inquiring with resource and referral agencies are seeking infant care. "We've always known that it is difficult for parents to find infant care; now we have precise data that shows how tough it is for parents to locate care for children under two," said Patty Siegel, Executive Director of the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network in San Francisco, which conducted the study. Other findings revealed that only 2 percent of centers offer care during nontraditional hours such as evenings and weekends; and that a single parent moving off welfare to work in a minimum wage job may spend 50 percent of her income on care for a child 2-5 years old, or nearly 68 to 90 percent of her income for infant care.

The Network represents 60 local resource and referral agencies. The study data reflects the agencies' close association with parents and providers as they work to educate consumers and decision makers about child care issues.

For more information, contact the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network at: (415) 882-0234.

up arrowChild Care Initiatives Across the Country

Alabama: Employers' Alliance Supports Quality Care

In 1993, several employers in Lee County, Alabama, along with Child Care Resource Center, Inc. and the Opelika and Auburn Chambers of Commerce, sponsored a symposium to assist employers in developing family friendly benefits and addressing child care concerns of employees. Following the symposium, the Employers' Child Care Alliance (ECCA) was formed. The group now includes 17 employers from service, industry, manufacturing, and local government and it represents more than 12,000 employees.

A survey conducted by the group indicated that parents' most common child care concerns were:

  • Care for Children Whose Parents Work Non-Standard Shifts
  • Care for 10-14 Year Olds
  • Information and Referral Services
  • Quality of Child Care
  • Care for Mildly Ill Children

Action plans were developed to address these concerns, and implementation funding was provided by employer contributions and grants from the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation and the Department of Economic and Community Affairs of the Governor's Office.

One of ECCA's initiatives is the Quality Enhancement Partnership which funds training for child care providers and assists centers working toward accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The ECCA also feels strongly that lasting enhancements in the quality of care will come when consumers demand it. For this reason, another major ECCA effort is consumer education through enhanced resource and referral services. Some specific consumer education efforts will include:

  • Brochures, newsletters, and work place seminars on topics such as indicators of quality child care;
  • A media campaign of advertising by newspaper, public service announcements, cable television, and billboards;
  • Brief videos for use in places where parents may spend time waiting in a lobby, such as in public agencies and medical offices, and also for use in presentations to community and civic groups;
  • Development of inexpensive paper placemats with messages about quality child care for use in family restaurants.

As an ECCA employer states, "The workers I am trying to hire today were in child care when I started this business 15 years ago." The ECCA's efforts and support of quality child care are a good investment in the productivity and stability of the current workforce, as well as in the future of their businesses and the community.

To learn more, contact Gail Piggott, Manager of the Employers' Child Care Alliance, at: (334) 749-8400.

Colorado: Consumer Education - So Much More to Know

Colorado has operated a statewide child care resource and referral system since 1991. The experience of assisting families with questions about child care revealed that they also need information on other family related services such as health care, respite care, and parent education. Through its comprehensive data base of health and human service programs, the state resource and referral system actively works to blend consumer education services for families. Support for these services comes from Family Preservation/Family Support, Part B and H funding from the state Department of Education, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Developmental Disabilities Planning Council and others. Organizational structures of state agencies have supported the broadened information services.

For more information, contact Gail Wilson, Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Resource and Referral Agencies (CORRA), at: (303) 290-9088, e-mail at: HN4770@handsnet.org. Visit the CORRA web site at: http://www.corra.org/

Illinois: AmeriCorps Links Parents with Quality Information

Since the fall of 1994, the Illinois ChildCorps project has brought the creativity and energy of about 25 AmeriCorps members to the state's community based resource and referral agencies (see "AmeriCorps and School-Age Child Care," Child Care Bulletin, March/April 1995). Recruited from the communities they serve, ChildCorps members are helping to weave child care consumer education into the fabric of their communities.

They have extended the consumer education outreach of resource and referral agencies by establishing new partnerships, developing publications, providing one-on-one consultations to parents, and promoting professional recognition of child care providers.

Partnerships

ChildCorps members talk to parents about child care and resource and referral services at a variety of community settings, including developmental screenings in public schools, "agency days" in McDonald's restaurants, and at family oriented fairs. One ChildCorps member assisted a public school with establishing a resource room for parents and providers. Another is entering immunization data from seven centers using software from the local health department. This helps centers to notify parents when their children's next immunization shots are due.

Publications

Committed to not only establishing, but also maintaining quality child care arrangements, ChildCorps members created a flier for parents to use once they have selected a caregiver. It reminds them of the importance of "consistent child care," from a provider who is "kind and caring." One member also wrote a child care article for a local Family Gazette. The newspaper staff then decided to make a child care column from the resource and referral agency a regular feature in the publication.

Professional Recognition

ChildCorps members support centers and family child care professionals in several ways as they work toward accreditation. At one of the resource and referral agencies, once a family child care home or a child care center achieves accreditation, the ChildCorps member writes to the parents of all the enrolled children, praising the accomplishment and enclosing a picture frame magnet inscribed with "My Child Goes to An Accredited Child Care."

At resource and referral agencies all across Illinois, ChildCorps members help to increase their communities' understanding of quality child care while they live up to their AmeriCorps pledge to "get things done."

To learn more, contact Lee Kreader, Statewide Child Care Resource and Referral Director, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, at: (312) 793-5641, or send an e-mail message to: lkreader@pop.state.il.us

Maryland: Consumer Education Helps Teen Parents to Locate Quality Child Care

Finding child care is complicated enough for most parents, but teen parents face additional challenges. As the resource and referral agency for Montgomery County, Maryland, Child Care Connection has assisted teen parents in finding child care.

Through CCDBG funding, Child Care Connection has published "A Teen Parent's Guide to Child Care," a brochure specifically for these young parents. The brochure uses an easily read format to describe the steps in finding and keeping child care. A jargon-free checklist for identifying quality child care is included. During its development, teen parents were asked to read the brochure and comment on its readability, length, and usefulness. Revisions were made based on their feedback. The brochure was also translated into Spanish, with some changes made in content based on the cultural context.

Child Care Connection mails the brochure to parents along with referral information. It is also distributed during school-site seminars and provided in quantities to school and community personnel who work with teen parents.

Child Care Connection works with school teams in four of the county's 21 high schools. The interdisciplinary teams assist pregnant and new teen parents in accessing medical care, financial subsidies, and child care. Teen parents are referred to Child Care Connection by the school teams. At the remaining high schools, the school nurses are usually the source of referrals.

Through the efforts of Child Care Connection, teen parents are receiving the support and knowledge they need to be better parents and better informed child care consumers.

For more information, contact Carol Walsh, Executive Director, Child Care Connection, Inc., at: (301) 279-1773, or e-mail at: HN7198@handsnet.org

Washington: Coalition Educates Consumers in Rural Areas

The Northeast Tri-County Health District, in coordination with Tri-County Family & Child Care Referral and other local agencies, has begun a Parenting Coalition for the rural areas of Stevens, Ferry, and Pend Oreille counties in Washington state. The rural areas served also include the lands of the Kalispel Tribe of Indians and the Colville Confederated Tribes.

Educating community members is important to each participant in the Parenting Coalition. There are representatives from child care services, home school support groups, the library system, Head Start, preschools, and nutrition information service agencies within the county-based groups. Each county is focusing on the particular issues that are most important to its residents and each group has its own specific mission statement and goals. The common purpose of the Parenting Coalition is to provide parents with information, support, and resources. The outreach effort to parents is accomplished through contacts with child care providers, libraries, the health district and other service agencies participating in the Parenting Coalition.

The health district is working with the county-based groups to develop a web site, a trainer's directory, and a quarterly calendar of seminars, workshops, and events for children and parents. Other planned activities include one-on-one sessions with parents to address specific needs, workshops for parents to learn about activities that are developmentally appropriate for children in specific age groups, training seminars, and informational materials.

This project is a collective effort by community members seeking ways to educate parents about child care and other issues, and to support parents to be effective in their various roles.

For more information, contact Jamie Baskin, Program Director, Tri-County Family & Child Care Referral, at: (509) 445-2424, or e-mail at: ruralnet@povn.com

up arrowConsumer Education in the Neighborhood

Pennsylvania's statewide family child care association and the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children (DVAEYC) have worked together on a Child Care Aware consumer education project. The two organizations, which are also partners in a regional accreditation support project, took this opportunity to explore some issues raised by consumer education research: 1) often parents do not understand the value of accreditation and professional development of their child care providers and 2) many parents rely on the "word-of-mouth" parent network as their information source.

The DVAEYC worked with a group of National Association of Family Child Care (NAFCC) accredited providers in a low-income neighborhood in Chester, Pennsylvania. The focus was on the critical role of "word-of-mouth" networks in consumer education and on helping accredited family child care providers to see themselves as child care consumer educators.

Providers participating in this project were encouraged to talk with parents about quality and the importance of accreditation. The providers were encouraged to use the Child Care Aware brochure, Give Your Child Something That Will Last a Lifetime...Quality Child Care, and to note the section that explains why parents should look for accredited programs. Each provider was given a supply of brochures to personalize with their own contact information.

The strategy was simple: to tap into the "word-of-mouth" network as a mechanism for conveying information about quality child care. Accredited providers would give the brochures to enrolled parents, who could use them when speaking to friends seeking child care. Providers also gave brochures to parents who inquired about child care openings.

It did not take long for the providers to begin receiving calls from parents seeking accredited child care. The focus on accreditation also influenced the provider community. Seven more providers from the neighborhood are participating in the accreditation project.

These are a few of the child care consumer education lessons learned through this project:

Parents learn about child care primarily through their everyday experience. Whether they have a positive experience with a quality child care program, or a differing experience with an underskilled provider, parents pass this information on to others through the informal "word-of-mouth" network.

Parents learn about child care in the context of relationships. This project revealed that parents seeking child care responded well to the information about quality that they received from providers and from peers using accredited programs. As parents inquire about accreditation when contacting providers, they begin to increase the demand for accredited programs.

Providers have a lot of knowledge to offer parents about good quality care. Providers who participated in this project reported that it enhanced their sense of professionalism. They wanted parents to value their accreditation and understand what quality child care is and why it matters.

"Word-of-mouth" is a powerful consumer education and marketing force. This project showed that it is possible to work with the "word-of-mouth" network to be an informative resource for child care consumer education.

To learn more, contact Alison Lutton, Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children (DVAEYC), at: (215) 963-0094.

up arrowDiscussing Quality Issues with Parents Who Already Have Child Care

Question: How do you inform parents about quality issues when they may believe that they already have good child care services?

Answer: By working with people parents trust, respecting their values and concerns, and by finding out what grabs their attention.

Initiatives For Children, Inc. in Houston, Texas, focused on 1,600 parents for a Child Care Aware consumer education project. The goal was to increase parents' demand for quality in their child care programs.

An essential element of the project's success was that it reached parents whose caregivers participated in projects of the local business collaboration, Corporate Hands (see "Involving the Private Sector in Planning for Child Care Systems," Child Care Bulletin, January/February 1997). Corporate Hands provides funds for training, educational equipment and supplies, and expansion of programs serving infants, toddlers, and school-age children. This connection gave the Initiatives For Children staff a link to parents through 260 child care providers and 30 employers.

Parents were invited to their child care center to plan how to spend a Corporate Hands equipment grant. More than 340 parents attended the 52 meetings which generated discussions about parents' concerns, appropriate activities and toys, indicators of quality, and the meaning of accreditation. Initiatives For Children also involved parents in their child's program by talking with caregivers about training and volunteering to help with tasks such as raising money and building play equipment. The project also gave parents newsletters about quality care and early learning.

A year-end survey showed that parents now feel that they have a better understanding of how children learn and of the link between provider training, accreditation, and good quality care.

For more information, contact Jeanette Zey, Development Director, Initiatives for Children, Inc., at: (713) 840-0948, ext. 113.

up arrowGrowing Up With Someplace To Go: Consumer Education Campaign Empowers Parents to Choose Quality Child Care by Elizabeth Bonbright Thompson

Across the nation, parents from all income levels are grappling with the difficult decisions involved with finding and maintaining quality care situations for their children. The search is never easy and the solutions always involve compromises between family and work. However, there appears to be a growing awareness of both the stress of finding quality care and of the significant role child care and youth programs play in the social and economic health of our society.

Recent media attention has highlighted brain research which documents the importance of quality interaction with a child from birth through age four and the brief window of opportunity for stimulating specific brain development. Working parents tend to acknowledge the extreme vulnerability of this age group and understand the necessity for placing their infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in the care of responsible adults.

Unfortunately, this recognition of the importance of adult supervision often does not extend as fully to school-age children. Many parents choose (or feel compelled by economic limitations) to allow their five to fourteen year old children to stay home alone, or under the care of another school-age sibling, before and after school hours while their parents are at work.

In 1995, the Washington State Child Care Resource and Referral Network and a broad collaborative involving 14 statewide early childhood and youth organizations, 4 state agencies, and the state's Child Care Coordinating Committee embarked on the Child Care 2000 Campaign, an ambitious consumer education and parent engagement campaign to inform parents about the importance of quality adult caregiving relationships for children and youth of all ages. The campaign sought to empower parents with the confidence to seek and to demand quality in their child care arrangements regardless of the age of the child or the type of care situation.

Recognizing the diversity of issues facing parents of children from birth to age fourteen, the campaign organizers chose to approach the issue with a statewide, multimedia effort targeting four key populations: child care consumers, business leaders, public policy makers, and child care providers.

To be effective, any campaign relying on external media requires a common "access point." The access point identified was a simple one -- parenthood. The communication angle was to speak first to the parent within the business leaders, the parent within the policy makers, and the parent within the child care providers to capture their undivided attention. Then, the messages are communicated to each of these populations within the context of their systemic role. For example, in the case of a business leader, this means defining the bottom line cost of having a work force that is distracted by concerns about their children's well-being.

The campaign relies on repetition within a targeted multimedia approach. To effectively reach the intended audience, the campaign launched its message in a specific sequence that would help ensure the 6 to 10 distinct exposures needed for consumers to retain the information. Direct mail, billboards, radio, television, posters, print media, grocery bags, bus advertisements, speakers bureaus, and the Internet are all part of the campaign.

One of the lessons learned through this consumer education project is that one message certainly does not fit all parents' situations. Therefore, parallel messages were designed: one for the parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, and one for parents of school-agers.

The slogan written specifically for parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers is meant to encourage parents to think carefully about the quality of the care environments for their young children during the most critical developmental years: Child Care: It's More Than Just Graham Crackers And A Nap.

The message to the parents of school-agers is more relevant to the complexities involved in the process of choosing an appropriate place for their school-age child: in an after-school youth program, in structured lessons, being allowed to go home alone, or a combination of arrangements. A positive message was chosen which grabs parents' attention without conveying guilt or fear: School Age Care: Growing Up With Someplace To Go.

In this project, evidence of a successful consumer education and parent engagement campaign will be:

  • the empowerment of parents to explore and utilize all child care and youth options;
  • education of the business community about the impact adequate child care has on their bottom line; and,
  • policy decisions that result in increased quantity and improved quality of child care, along with the recognition of child care as a professional industry needing measures and standards similar to any other critical component of our market economy.

To learn more, contact Elizabeth Bonbright Thompson, Executive Director, Washington State Child Care Resource & Referral Network, at: (206) 383-1735, or e-mail at: Wsccrrn@aol.com

up arrowFocus Groups Convey Parents' Perspectives on Quality

"I didn't think that the learning part of child care was so important until Ms. Jessica helped me to see what my son Robert is learning."

"My nineteen year old sister stopped me cold when she said to me, 'You'll trust me to take care of your 6-week old daughter all day by myself without any special training, but you won't let me drive your new car, because you don't trust me?'"

This is a sampling of comments made by parents who have attended focus groups sponsored by early care and education professionals in a 12 county area surrounding San Antonio, Texas. "For a long time we've tried to influence consumers' understanding about the importance of quality child care and have achieved only marginal success. We decided that we needed to listen. Organizing the parent focus groups has been a tremendous project with a lot of hard work, but we've learned so much by listening to the parents' perspectives," says Nancy Hard, Director of Family Service Association of San Antonio, who is serving as the lead facilitator for this community initiative.

As part of an effort to create a marketing plan for a statewide Early Care and Education Career Development System for Texas and to design a local corporate-sponsored public education initiative called SMART START, parent focus groups were convened. A group of 20 volunteers organized 14 focus groups attended by nearly 200 parents who had experience with all types of formal and informal child care in urban and rural settings. The focus groups were conducted in neighborhood settings during evening and weekend hours. The volunteers recruited parents, secured meeting facilities, and provided transportation, child care, and refreshments. At the meetings, information was gathered regarding consumers' beliefs, values, and perceptions about child care and the key role of caregivers in fulfilling parents' expectations.

Through the focus groups, parents were able to share their experiences and perspectives about child care with other parents and providers. In addition, some parents have chosen to speak to local and state policymakers about the need for child care which supports families and promotes the healthy development of children. A final report of the project and replication guide is expected to be completed in spring 1997.

For more information, contact: Nancy Hard, Director, Family Service Association, at: (210) 225-0276.

up arrowHealthy Child Care Update: Arkansas

As the agency that administers the quality set-aside funds of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the Arkansas Early Childhood Commission (AECC), has developed two initiatives which combine health and programmatic objectives.

One is an enhancement grant program which utilizes CCDBG funds to provide grants to early childhood programs for purchase of equipment, materials, supplies, and minor renovations. The grants are available to all licensed or registered programs (centers and family child care homes), for-profit and nonprofit.

Grantees must provide proof of age-appropriate immunizations for all children in care. The immunization documentation focuses attention on the need for all children to receive appropriate health care. Immunization records are audited as a part of the grant application review. Without proper documentation, the application is not considered for funding and applicants must wait six months before applying again.

Due to this requirement, providers are working more closely with their local county health departments to review immunization records before the grant is submitted, and strongly encouraging parents to get children immunized. Although a seemingly minor part of the grant process, the requirement has emphasized the need to ensure current immunization of all children in early childhood programs and the number of grant declinations for this reason is decreasing each month.

The second initiative has been a collaboration between the AECC and the Arkansas Department of Health to develop a Healthy Children Handbook for use in early childhood programs. The Handbook includes health and safety information and chapters on child growth and development. As a partner with the Department of Health, the AECC has assisted with this initiative by distributing the Handbook to all licensed and registered programs in the state of Arkansas, as well as to child care licensing specialists for use with newly established programs. The AECC also provides updates and revisions to the Handbook.

The AECC promotes good health practices in programs to ensure that children are adequately protected. These simple measures have had a significant, statewide impact on the quality of those programs.

For more information, contact Glenda Bean, Executive Director, Arkansas Early Childhood Commission, at: (501) 682-4891.

up arrowResources in Child Care

With each issue, the Child Care Bulletin highlights resources available to the child care community. We encourage providers, parents, administrators, and other readers to share knowledge of what is available so that we may pass it on to the field.

Publications

Promoting Quality Child Care: Innovations in Child Care Consumer Education
Denise Fogarty and Fran Anderson
Prepared by Child Care Aware for the Child Care Bureau, this guide examines effective child care consumer education approaches. It outlines 8 key principles of successful programs and provides practical information for replicating multimedia public awareness efforts and examples of consumer education resources, brochures, posters, public service announcements, and other materials. (Available summer 1997 from the National Child Care Information Center at: (800) 616-2242).

1997 Consumer's Resource Handbook
United States Office of Consumer Affairs
A book that contains tips on buying products and services, along with contact information for consumer organizations, corporations, and government agencies at various levels. (Single copies are available free by writing: Handbook, U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, 750 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006-4607).

"I Wish the Kids Didn't Watch So Much TV" Out-of-School Time in Three Low Income Communities
B. Miller, S. O'Connor, S. Sirignano, and P. Joshi
A new report from the School-Age Child Care Project describes findings from a study of children's out-of-school time. It examines the lack of resources for families in low-income communities, the dominant presence of television, and parents' efforts to find enriching activities for children. It includes how child care needs relate to decisions about employment and care arrangements, along with recommendations for increasing options. (An executive summary and full report are both available. For more information, contact: Steffi Peck, Publications Coordinator, SACC-Project, Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, at: (617) 283-2525).

1996 Child Care Aware Conference Report: Meeting the Needs of Low-Income Families Through Family Child Care Professional Development and Consumer Education
Written by Fran Anderson for Child Care Aware
The 1996 conference brought together child care professionals to discuss innovations and new strategies from communities across the country that have been implementing Child Care Aware initiatives. The focus of the conference was on meeting the needs of low-income families, professional development for family child care providers, and consumer education. The conference report includes examples of strategies, lessons learned, and contacts for more information. (Available for $10 from Child Care Aware, 2116 Campus Drive, SE, Rochester, MN 55904, or call: (507) 287-2220).

Marketing Matters: Building an Effective Communications Program
Prepared by Advanced Resource Technologies, Inc., with assistance from Oglivy Adams &Rinehart for The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect
This book is a resource and reference tool for designing effective communications programs to achieve specific goals. Created to assist individuals and organizations with enhancing collaboration efforts, developing effective materials, and working with the media, the book provides worksheets and examples from community based public education programs that combine child maltreatment and substance abuse messages. (Free publication available from the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect at: (800) 394-3366 or send e-mail to: nccanch@calib.com.Visit the clearinghouse web site at: http://www.calib.com/nccanch/).

This page is being maintained on the NCCIC web site for historical purposes. As a result, not all information may be current.

 
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