Supporting Child Care Supports Families

A woman and three children using a toy phone

For Child Care Services Association, quality child care means healthy, happy children. Children who start kindergarten ready to grow, learn and succeed. Children who become successful, healthy adults. On this Mother’s Day weekend, CCSA celebrates mothers and the other incredible women in our lives.

In NC, approximately 99 percent of child care teachers are women. That statistic is mirrored in early education centers across the U.S.; women make up a large percentage of our early childhood educators and have an invaluable impact on and connection to our young children. And that connection and stability brings advantages to young children through their school years and well into adulthood. For Sarah,* a middle-school teacher, the impact child care has had on her daughter, Helen,* is immeasurable. Here’s her Child Care Story:

“Helen has been in some form of child care since she was 6 months old–so for more than three and a half years now. When she was born, I was teaching middle school in Adelphi, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. My husband worked in D.C. for the federal government. Put simply, there was no way we could afford the cost of living in the D.C. metro area without both of our salaries, so I had to go back to work.

We ran into a lot of hurdles finding child care in D.C. There are child care centers there with years-long waiting lists; people get on the waiting list before they even get pregnant in some cases. My husband worked for a federal agency that had child care in the building, which would have been so ideal — except it had a long waiting list, and it was incredibly expensive (so expensive my salary would basically have covered the cost of that, and nothing more). Colleagues recommended a variety of places, but space and expense kept being issues.

Finally a friend mentioned that a child had just left her son’s center, and things just fell into place. It was a licensed home-based child care center, and it was incredibly convenient to our house and my work. It was owned and run by a Colombian immigrant, and all of the employees were native Spanish speakers, so we had this unexpected blessing of giving Helen a language immersion experience from infancy.

Being in child care since she was a baby has been a great thing for Helen. She is a very social kid, and she loves the stimulation of being around other children (especially as an only child). She’s great at communicating and sharing and empathizing, and I fully credit her time in child care for those skills. Watching her this year in her preschool setting, I know she was much more prepared for that than some of the other children in her class who had never experienced school. Beyond that, child care has helped her be more independent from me and her dad. She doesn’t cry when we leave her with a babysitter and she feels confident to be with people besides us. And she’s learned a lot. She’s a smart kid who picks up everything she’s exposed to. Thanks to our great child care experiences, we have a 4-year-old who’s fluent in Spanish, an expert on butterfly metamorphosis, and quickly becoming a great little chef.

Child care has also helped Helen grow into a great kid. I’m biased, but I think she’s an extremely kind, thoughtful, intelligent, polite, and self-possessed child. I attribute the development of many of those qualities to her experiences at school. She also feels safe and loved at school, and as a parent, that’s exactly what I want for her.”

CCSA works to ensure that all children, regardless of their circumstances, have equal access to the same wonderful, supportive learning experience that Helen and her family have had. Through financial assistance for families that cannot afford quality care, free referral services to families seeking child care, technical assistance to child care businesses and educational scholarships and salary supplements to child care professionals through the TEACH Early Childhood® and Child Care WAGE$® programs, CCSA works with parents, teachers, and child care centers to put all our young children on a path toward health and happiness. Support that mission by giving to CCSA today.

*Names changed.

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