Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
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Helping children succeed in school and life by supporting the professional growth of early childhood educators and connecting families to quality child care.
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
2d ago
Learn more about mentoring in a child care setting from new videos about two of our programs: the Empower to Educate mentoring program, and the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood apprenticeship program. We appreciate the mentors and mentees who agreed to go on camera and talk about their positive experiences with mentoring! The videos are available to…
The post New Mentoring Videos Available to View appeared first on Child Care Aware MN ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
2w ago
Recently, the online publication EdSurge ran an article on “What’s Behind the Explosion of Apprenticeships in Early Childhood Education?” Erin Young, the Director of T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Minnesota, is featured in the article, talking about the mentorship component of Minnesota’s new registered apprenticeship program, which began last year. In the article, Young explains that each…
The post Apprenticeships in Early Childhood Education appeared first on Child Care Aware MN ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
1M ago
Workforce retention is a constant challenge in child care programs. Fortunately, Minnesota has a program to help these programs retain and support staff. The Retaining Early Educators Through Attaining Incentives Now (REETAIN) program provides competitive bonuses of $500 – $3,000 to incentivize well-trained child care professionals to stay in the workforce, creating more consistent care…
The post REETAIN Bonuses Help Child Care Professionals Stay in the Field appeared first on Child Care Aware MN ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
6M ago
When parents seeking child care dial 888-291-9811, they reach a trio of friendly, helpful Child Care Resource Specialists on the other end of the line. They can reach this same help through on-line chat at ParentAware.org. We asked our specialists Jen, AnnaMarie, and Vanessa what they love most about their work.
“We get to help educate families about what high-quality, early education looks like. We make sure that parents can find a qualified, safe, educational environment for their child. We have all been there ourselves, and can meet parents where they are.
When parents call in, they are oft ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
7M ago
Child Care Aware of Minnesota strives to offer quality service to everyone we touch. In the past year, we measured the following satisfaction levels with our programs:
Professional Development
98% of people seeking customer support for Eager-to-Learn or from a professional development advisor received the help they needed promptly.
Parent Aware
95% of the most recent cohort were satisfied with their experience.
95% found the process to join easy and understandable.
Financial Supports
REETAIN Bonuses:
86% were satisfied overall with various aspects of the program.
91% reported no cha ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
8M ago
Workforce retention is a constant challenge in child care programs. Fortunately, Minnesota has a program to help these programs retain and support staff. The Retaining Early Educators Through Attaining Incentives Now (REETAIN) program provides competitive bonuses of $500 – $3,000 to incentivize well-trained child care professionals to stay in the workforce, creating more consistent care for children over time. Recipients of REETAIN bonuses commit to remain in their position or business for at least one year after the grant is awarded.
Since 2003, REETAIN has awarded grants to over 3,000 early ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
9M ago
The 2024 Legislative session began on February 12. While this is the “short” session focused on bonding and policy, there will be some activity related to early childhood issues.
Child Care Aware of Minnesota helps you stay informed about the latest child care and early education policy news. Each week during the legislative session, our legislative update provides a brief overview of bills that have been introduced, action that has been taken at the committee level or on the floor, and any other pertinent news related to early care and education and school-age care issues. We also produce a b ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
9M ago
Child Care Aware of Minnesota staff throughout the state work hard to meet the needs of the field through numerous programs, including training, grants and scholarships, help entering the early childhood field, and Parent Aware Ratings. We measure how satisfied our constituents are through surveys of program participants, and the results for the past year are in! Here is an overview by program:
Professional Development
98% of people seeking customer support for Eager-to-Learn or from a professional development advisor received the help they needed promptly.
REETAIN Bonuses
86% were satisfie ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
9M ago
People in the early childhood field know that the amount that most child care programs can charge families for tuition is usually less than the actual cost of operating the programs, much less running a profitable business. A new report demonstrates this is true across almost all geographies and program types in Minnesota.
In fall 2021, the Minnesota Department of Human Services contracted with First Children’s Finance (FCF) to develop a cost model to estimate the cost of child care in Minnesota. The model estimates the cost of meeting health and safety requirements for licensed child care pro ..read more
Child Care Aware of Minnesota Blog
9M ago
Child Care Wayfinder is a one-stop navigation network for starting and growing child care programs. It provides encouragement, support, and connection to resources required for initial licensing and resources needed for sustaining or expanding currently licensed child care programs. It began in 2022 and operates through a system of local navigators in Child Care Aware agencies throughout the state and at Minnesota Tribal Resources for Early Childhood Care (MNTREC).
Child Care Aware of Minnesota recently interviewed the navigators in our Child Care Wayfinder program to see how this new initiati ..read more