Who can help me find a child care provider or a quality child care program in my area? How important is quality?
Question
Who can help me find a child care provider or a quality child care program in my area? How important is quality?
Answer
For information about the availability of child care, contact your local child care resource and referral (CCR&R) agency. It is a community agency that can help you choose high-quality child care that meets local regulations and standards and that best meets your needs. To learn how to locate a CCR&R agency in your area, visit the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC), a service of the Child Care Bureau, Web site at http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/statedata/dirs/display.cfm?title=ccrr.
There are various tools and checklists that can help you choose quality child care. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests looking for the following qualities when choosing child care: • Adult caregivers with training or experience in child development; • A warm, nurturing, developmentally appropriate, and intellectually stimulating environment; • Small child-staff ratios with consistent, long-term adult caregivers; and • Good parent-staff communication.
You can also find information about a child care provider in your area or learn if a complaint has been filed against a regulated child care program by contacting your State child care licensing agency. Contact information for all State licensing agencies is available on NCCIC’s Web site at http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/statedata/dirs/display.cfm?title=licensing.
The National Network for Child Care provides several resources on how to choose quality child care settings on the Web at http://www.nncc.org.
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