About Us - Child Care Aware

About Child Care Aware of Kansas

When all families have equitable access to quality child care options, we build the critical infrastructure necessary for our businesses to succeed, our communities to flourish, and our children to grow into happy, healthy, productive Kansans.

Child Care Aware of Kansas connects everyone with a stake in child care — parents, child care providers, businesses, local and state leaders, and community members — to the information and ideas they need to take action. Together, we aim to create an early care and education system that ensures:

Kids have enriching early learning experiences within supportive caregiving environments that honor diverse identities and developmental journeys.
Parents and guardians have access to quality, affordable child care that meets them where they are with what they need.
Diverse individuals enter the child care field and all child care providers stay on a sustainable career path that allows them to support their own families and provide the best care for the kids they serve.Child care businesses offer spaces of belonging for employees and the children and families they serve.
Employers attract and retain a diverse, quality workforce.
Communities — large and small — provide a high quality of life that keeps residents and welcomes new families from all walks of life.

Our Vision

All communities across Kansas value and support a high-quality early childhood care and education system.

Our Mission

To provide statewide leadership that builds a diverse, high-quality child care system.

Our Commitment

Building a diverse, high-quality child care system starts with all of us. That’s why Child Care Aware of Kansas has made an internal commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA). Our ongoing journey has involved training for all staff and board members, funding specific positions focused on advancing DEIA throughout our work, updating policies to be more inclusive, and giving each team member tools to reflect on – and improve – their own behaviors and practices. These steps are only the beginning.

Our work is not about finding a single solution to the child care challenges our state faces. Rather, it’s about an inclusive approach to finding solutions that support all communities, especially those most impacted by child care issues. We continue to learn and grow as a team and – alongside many stakeholders across our state – cultivate a shared focus on creating an equitable system that works for Kansas.

What We Do

We provide opportunities, connections, and support for Kansans to envision what a better child care system can look like for them. Working within a network of Child Care Resource & Referral agencies, we also connect caregivers and providers to the information and support they need.

Our team brings extensive experience and expertise in early care and education. We focus on:

Providing essential information and referrals to families looking for child care.
Supporting and advocating for hardworking child care providers across our state.
Collecting statewide data on child care to inform parents, providers, and decision-makers.
Creating opportunities for families and providers to share their experiences and work with other stakeholders to make changes.
Partnering with local communities and businesses who are looking to implement new solutions to learn about families’ needs and collaborate in designing effective options.
Advancing conversations that build understanding of the barriers people experience and strategies for creating inclusive early care environments.

Together, we can ensure that all families have equitable and consistent access to high-quality early care and learning opportunities for their young kids — which benefits everyone in Kansas.

Child Care Aware of Kansas Advocacy Plan

Goals

Expand enriching early learning experiences by strengthening caregiving environments that promote children’s development and learning.
Increase access to affordable child care for families across income
Improve compensation, training, and support for child care
Strengthen public investment in early care and education
Enhance health, safety, and quality standards in child care

Key Advocacy Strategies

Educate Stakeholders

Share data and information highlighting the importance of child care for families, employers, and communities.
Promote point of time data for policymakers and stakeholders to make informed decisions.
Launch public awareness campaigns on social media.

Engage Policymakers:

Meet with state and local legislators to discuss key child care issues.
Advocate for specific legislative actions.
Testify at hearings and participate meetings to amplify the voices of families and providers.

Build Coalitions and Partnerships:

Partner with child care providers, parent organizations, employers, and community leaders.
Collaborate with advocacy groups focused on education, health care, and family support.
Participate in discussions to unify efforts and align messaging.

Mobilize Grassroots Support:

Encourage families and providers to share their stories.
Organize email campaigns to influence decision-makers.
Attend community partner events and advocacy days.

Monitor and Respond to Policies:

Track legislative developments and regulatory changes at local, state, and federal levels.
Advocate for or against specific proposals based on their impact on child care access, affordability, and quality.
Provide timely updates and calls to action to stakeholders and supporters.

Core Focus Areas

Funding and Affordability:

Advocate for increased state and federal investments in child care subsidies.
Push for tax credits or incentives for families and child care providers.

Workforce Development:

Promote competitive wages, benefits, and professional development opportunities for providers.
Advocate for programs that support recruitment and retention of child care professionals.

Systems Alignment:

Streamline administrative processes to improve access to child care assistance.
Align programs across state agencies to reduce duplication and improve efficiency.

Quality and Safety:

Support regulations and standards that ensure safe, nurturing, and developmentally appropriate care.
Promote initiatives for provider training and accreditation.

Evaluation and Next Steps

Measure Progress:

Track legislative wins, funding increases, and system
Monitor changes in child care access, affordability, and

Adapt Strategies:

Assess the effectiveness of outreach and advocacy tactics and refine them as
Stay responsive to emerging issues and stakeholder

Sustain Efforts:

Secure ongoing funding for advocacy
Foster long-term relationships with policymakers, partners, and community.

Advocacy Plan aligns with Child Care Aware of America and Kansas Action for Children.

Ongoing Efforts to Ensure Accessibility

Child Care Aware of Kansas is committed to providing a fully accessible website experience for all users of all abilities, including those who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, screen enlargement software, and alternative keyboard input devices to navigate the web.

We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 as our guiding principle for determining accessibility. These are internationally agreed-upon standards that cover a wide range of recommendations and best practices for making content useable. As we add new pages and functionality to our website, all designs, code, and content entry practices are checked against these standards.

Website accessibility is an ongoing process. We continually test content and features for WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance and remediate any issues to ensure we meet or exceed the standards. Testing of our website is performed by our team members using industry-standard tools such as the Accessibility Checker WordPress Plugin, color contrast analyzers, keyboard-only navigation techniques, and Flesch-Kincaid readability tests.