As an agency that works to better early care and education for all children, we believe that:
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All children have a right to be cared for, both in and outside the home, in safe, healthy, and nurturing environments.
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All children should have access to early learning experiences that help them arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed.
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All families must have access to high quality, affordable, accessible child care for their children.
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All parents must have a choice of appropriate learning and caregiving environments for their children.
Every community must have a strong child care delivery system that includes child care resource and referral in order to coordinate training, supply building, planning, and policy and education efforts on child care needs.
We work on the national, state, and local levels to promote these beliefs and change public policy to provide all children with high quality early care and education, which leads to success in life. Join us in advocating for these rights for all children. For information on our Child Care Parent Advocacy Group, please contact us.
Reports on the state of early care and education:
Child Care Quality Rating and Improvement System
America's long-term economic success depends on ensuring that children - the next generation of citizens - succeed in school and in life. Nurturing and stimulating early care and education programs help to enable children to become active learners and productive citizens. This knowledge has helped to expand the early care and education industry. In fact, public investment in early care and education, especially investment in prekindergarten programs by states has grown. Still families, as consumers on behalf of their children, continue to contribute the lion's share - nearly 60 percent- of the nation's investment in early care and education. (Source: Winning Beginngs NY)
While we now have a greater appreciation of the importance of the early years, we currently do not have a system that adequately ensures that early childhood programs are of high quality and that public and private investment in early care and education is used effectively.
QUALITYstarsNY is New York State’s proposed Quality Rating Improvement System. QUALITYstarsNY is designed to improve the quality of all early care and learning programs. All programs are eligible to participate in this voluntary rating system, whether they are located in nursery schools, child care centers, Head Start, public schools, or private homes. Each participating program receives a star rating (of 1 to 5) that indicates the quality of the program, as well as support and consultation to assist with improvement of the program. (Source: QUALITYstarsNY)
It is essential for New York State to fund QUALITYstarsNY for the rating system to be implemented state-wide. Our children cannot be left behind. Please contact your local legislator and voice your support for QUALITYstarsNY.
For more information, please visit QUALITYstarsNY website or Winning Beginnings NY website, or contact us.