History & Mission
The mission of the Early Care & Learning Council – a statewide, not-for-profit, membership organization – is to promote excellence in early care and education with equal access for all families. The Early Care & Learning Council does this primarily through the support of and in partnership with a strong network of community-based organizations that provide Child Care Resource and Referral services (CCR&R.)
Over thirty-five years ago, the vision of a coordinating a New York State early care and education community with common goals had barely come into focus. In late 1972 and early 1973, an important step toward forming such a community was taken when leaders from four child care organizations in Albany, Dutchess and Westchester counties and New York City, came together to create New York’s first statewide child care coordinating council. Their goals:
- to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information on early care and education across New York,
- to make it easier to coordinate and plan on a statewide basis for early care and education services, for resources to fund the services, and for educational opportunities for providers, and
- to support the child care councils that then existed in New York and develop new ones.
By 1975, the original group had become the not-for-profit New York State Association of Child Care Councils (then becoming the New York State Child Care Coordinating Council and currently Early Care & Learning Council). The fledgling organization was dedicated to securing accessible, affordable and high quality child care/early education services for all children in New York.
Child Care Resource and Referral organizations continued to emerge across the state to offer families information and referrals on early care and education services and work to strengthen early care and education in their communities. In 1990, as part of an effort to define standards qualifying local groups for Early Care & Learning Council membership, the Early Care & Learning Council Board developed criteria for groups to be designated as CCR&Rs. New York State defined these organizations in social service law in 1993. Today there are 39 CCR&R agencies providing services to all of New York State’s 62 counties including all five boroughs of New York City.
The Early Care & Learning Council has a range of programs to aid in the development of high quality early care and education for New York State including support for its 39-member CCR&R Network. CCR&Rs are an invaluable link between families, child care providers and communities. CCR&Rs educate families about high-quality care and help them find it; support low-income families to access the financial resources for child care, recruit and train new child care providers; offer providers technical assistance; and encourage government, business leaders and the public to support the expansion of high-quality services. The Early Care & Learning Council’s CCR&R Project supports CCR&Rs throughout the state to continuously improve access to services, quality of services and program administration and to provide data on family need for early care and learning support.
The Early Care & Learning Council’s other programs and recent accomplishments include:
- the Infant and Toddler Program, which promotes the importance of the first three years of a child’s life through a variety of statewide activities, including coordination and support to the seven Regional Infant and Toddler Resource Centers across the state that are located within host CCR&Rs. the Early Care Management Training Project that provides training and technical assistance designed to help child care center directors in all counties across the State.
- the Consultant Services Training Program, which is helping to build stronger and better quality early care and education organizations by providing training to increase the knowledge, skills and capacity of early care and education leaders and boards of directors in New York State.
- the Data Services Program at the Early Care & Learning Council strengthens the data collection infrastructure of the CCR&R Network. Through a series of in-person and web-based trainings on NACCRRAware -- the CCR&R data software -- as well as with onsite technical support, the Data Services program staff works to increase the capacity of CCR&R staff to collect, manage and use data efficiently and consistently.
- the NAPSACC Program, a project that began in year 2007, is a New York State Department of Health, Prevention of Childhood Overweight and Obesity grant. This five-year multi-focused Activ8kids! program focuses on child care programs in several areas of the state to encourage healthy eating and physical activity.
- the creation of a quality rating and improvement system, called QUALITYstarsNY, as the new framework for excellence in early childhood programs and a vehicle to drive strategic investments in early education and care. QUALITYstarsNY is now in a pilot phase. It has established standards of program excellence, serves as a consumer/parent education tool and creates a system for prioritizing and deploying resources in a way that assures quality, promotes best-practices, and develops and supports a qualified workforce. This program began as a grant initiative at the Early Care & Learning Council and now resides at the NYS Office of Children and Family Services.
Working Toward a Better System of Quality Care
From the beginning, the work of the Early Care & Learning Council has been based focused on public policy and education. The Early Care & Learning Council co-convenes Winning Beginning NY (WBNY.) WBNY, in collaboration with its many community partners across New York State, works to inform policy makers and the public about the benefits of a high quality, affordable early care and education system to children and families and to make investments in that system a top priority. WBNY is becoming an important presence on the Albany public policy landscape. With a broad representation of individuals and organizations from child care, education, the medical and academic communities, unions and many others, WBNY is chaired by Early Care & Learning Council, the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, the NYS Association for the Education of Young Children and Center for Children’s Initiatives.