A National Partnership to Strengthen Child Care Systems

Across the Unit­ed States, child care sys­tems strug­gle to meet the needs of both providers and par­ents. The num­ber of home-based providers has declined by 25% over the past decade, accord­ing to the 2023 KIDS COUNT^® Data Book. In addi­tion, the cost of child care has tripled since 1990, and many par­ents have report­ed los­ing jobs because of dif­fi­cul­ty access­ing child care.

Hav­ing raised the alarm about this issue, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion recent­ly joined the Invest­ing in Amer­i­ca Child Care Part­ner­ship. This phil­an­thropic effort will increase access to high-qual­i­ty, afford­able child care through coun­ty-based pilots in Ari­zona, Michi­gan, New Hamp­shire and Ohio.

“The part­ner­ship demon­strates how com­mu­ni­ties can draw down on fed­er­al dol­lars to address the child care cri­sis. We are look­ing for­ward to cap­tur­ing lessons from this work to scale this ini­tia­tive beyond the four com­mu­ni­ties in the future,” said Quanic Fullard, senior asso­ciate with the Foundation’s Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty.

In addi­tion to its site-based efforts, the Invest­ing in Amer­i­ca Child Care Part­ner­ship will help meet the child care needs of the nation’s grow­ing work­force by invest­ing in non­prof­it coali­tions work­ing to expand the sup­ply of high-qual­i­ty, afford­able child care.

The part­ner­ship will:

• improve employ­ers’ child care plans and sup­port imple­men­ta­tion to meet the needs of employees; 
• expand local com­mu­ni­ties’ child care capac­i­ty and sup­ply through fed­er­al and state dollars;
• work with coun­ty and city offi­cials to ensure sup­port­ive local policies; 
• sup­port local grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions as they ele­vate the voic­es of child care providers; and
• cre­ate child care solu­tions that work for employ­ers and families.

“When qual­i­ty care is afford­able and acces­si­ble, young chil­dren gain the pos­i­tive ear­ly expe­ri­ences they need to devel­op, par­ents can pur­sue fam­i­ly-sup­port­ing careers and busi­ness­es and our econ­o­my can have the work­ers it needs to grow to its full poten­tial,” said Lisa Hamil­ton, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“It’s won­der­ful to part­ner with so many groups across the coun­try who are find­ing inno­v­a­tive ways to fill the gaps in our child care sys­tem to make that vision a reality.”

The Casey Foun­da­tion announced the part­ner­ship at the Nation­al Child Care Inno­va­tion Sum­mit along­side lead­ers from the Kel­logg Foun­da­tion, the Packard Foun­da­tion, the Buf­fet Ear­ly Child­hood Fund and the Kres­ge Foun­da­tion. The sum­mit brought togeth­er lead­ers from the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors to dis­cuss strate­gies and solu­tions to the nation­al child care crisis. 

Learn how high-cost child care affects families