This summer, you can be a Child Care Champion!
Child care continues to be a hot topic among working parents and small businesses across all 50 states. Wait lists are long and, even when families can find child care, they often can’t afford it. And that’s hard on parents, kids, employers, and state economies.
As you connect with your community over the August recess, let them know that you are ready to make their child care challenges a priority. Included in our Child Care Champion Toolkit is a list of helpful resources including:
- GET LOCAL: State-specific fact sheets with information to use in newsletters, op-eds and more
- SHARE: Sample social media posts, graphics, and printable signs.
- TAKE NOTE: New polling gives insight into what voters are thinking about child care and federal funding
- ACT: A Child Care Champion Checklist with ways to take action this August.
- CONNECT: Sample newsletter and op-ed text to personalize and share.
- LEARN MORE: Polling, briefing books, explainers, and information on the Bipartisan Child Care and Pre-K Caucus.
As always, First Five Years Fund is grateful for the work you and your team do every day to fight for America’s littlest learners and their families! — Sarah Rittling, Executive Director, First Five Years Fund
Get Local: Child Care State Fact Sheets
First Five Years Fund has a new series of state fact sheets with specific details about child care and early learning programs in your state or district. These contain information on how many children ages 0-5 need child care, how federal funds are distributed, how much parents pay for care, and more. Use them to customize messages — like newsletter items, op-eds and social media — to update constituents about child care in your states.
Share: Social Media
Social media is a great way to connect with your constituents! Below is a series of tweets you can use to show your support for child care through your boss’s social media platforms. We’ve also included printable signs your boss can pose with to highlight their support for child care, as well as social graphics!
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram
I'm a #ChildCareChampion because child care
- Allows parents to work
- Ensures local businesses can employ workers
- Gives children a safe place to learn, grow, and thrive!
That's why I'm committed to supporting federal programs and investing in child care solutions.
Child care issues keep too many employees in our state from going to work each year. That’s why I'm committed to supporting federal child care programs that ensure working parents have access to quality, affordable #ChildCare.
Access to high-quality, affordable child care is crucial for children, working parents, and the economy. I proudly support investments for #childcare funding, so parents can access the child care that works best for them.
Graphics
A tip on using these graphics. Click to expand, right click to copy, then…
- Print them out, fill in the blank ("moms," "local businesses," "kids in [state]," more!) and snap a photo with your boss. Post them on your socials!
- Print them and hang them in your office.
- Paste them into your constituent newsletters and updates.
Take Note: New Polling
In July 2023, Public Opinion Strategies completed a poll on behalf of the First Five Years Fund, examining voter attitudes toward the issue of child care and early childhood education programs. The poll surveyed a national audience as well as voters in Alabama, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Findings include:
• 93% of voters believe it is important for working parents to be able to find and afford quality child care programs. (This cuts across party lines, among 90% of Republicans, 93% of Independents, and 96% of Democrats)
• 74% of voters, even after acknowledging concerns around the federal deficit, say they still believe that “increasing funding for child care and early childhood education programs is an important priority and a good use of tax dollars.”
• 59% of part-time or non-working parents say they would go back to work full-time if their child had access to quality child care at a reasonable cost.
ACT: The Child Care Champion Checklist
Here are the First Five Ways You Can Be A #ChildCareChampion This Summer
1. Print our “I ❤️ Child Care” sign (above) take a picture with it, and tweet/share it out on your social media channels!
2. Host an event! Tour a child care facility in your district or hold a parent roundtable to talk about the child care challenges they face and what Congress is doing to help.
3. Call a local reporter and talk to them about what your boss is doing around child care, including their commitment to protecting and prioritizing funding for child care and early learning programs.
4. Connect directly with your constituents about what you’re doing to support child care with a newsletter.
5. Pen an op-ed for your local news outlet about how your office is supporting kids and working families. (You can find a draft of an op-ed below!)
Looking for more ways to be a Child Care Champion? Contact First Five Years Fund Government Affairs Manager Vicky Kawesa at vkawesa@ffyf.org for more ideas.
Connect - Newsletters and Op-Eds
Sample Newsletter Copy
(Fill in the blanks with information from your State Fact Sheet.)
Across [State/District], child care providers have struggled to keep their doors open, making it difficult for working parents to find quality, affordable child care options for their young children. These challenges impact our local economy as more parents have left the workforce to care for their children.
While I’m back at home this August, I am hearing stories from countless parents about how they just want a job to provide for their family, and from small businesses who continue to struggle to find and retain workers because their employees are experiencing child care issues.
That’s why I’m prioritizing solutions that will help ensure a more sustainable, stable child care sector that works for parents and businesses alike. Chief among those are federal early learning programs, which help create and sustain affordable child care spots so parents have a safe place to send their kids while they work.
I know that this is an issue that runs deep in [state], where the average cost of child care is [data from state fact sheet] and [data from state fact sheet] percent of parents live in a child care desert. That’s why I’m committed to ensuring that Congress continues to invest in America’s littlest learners.
It’s never been more important to ensure parents can afford child care. Investing in child care programs will ensure more parents have access to the affordable child care options that best fit their needs.
To follow my continued efforts on early learning and others, you can sign up for my e-newsletter, follow me on social media, or contact my office at any time.
Sample Op-Ed
(Fill in the blanks with information from your state fact sheet!)
High-quality child care is a necessity for working families in [state/district], supporting children’s learning and healthy development while parents work or attend school. But for too many families, quality child care options are completely out of reach. This is in part because the average price of center-based child care in [state] is [$ data from state fact sheet] annually, forcing many families to have to make the impossible choice between having a job or affording someone to look after their kids. And it doesn’t help that [XX%] of [state] is a child care desert, meaning access to child care parents rely on to go to work is incredibly difficult to find.
We must protect and prioritize investments in America’s federal early childhood programs. These critical programs directly serve [data from state fact sheet] thousand families in [state] while acting as the foundation for America’s entire child care system.
In my role as [insert name of caucus or committee], I am committed to finding ways to ensure that prices go down and spots open up for parents. Ultimately, if Congress is to address the child care challenges in America, we must invest in our early learning programs, helping to strengthen the early learning workforce, expand the supply of quality child care facilities, and drastically lower child care costs for families.
Federal early learning programs are foundational to helping [state] providers, kids, and families. And Congress has the power to provide that foundation. I am committed to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to ensure that we protect and prioritize these programs - for our kids and for our futures.
Learn More
- The 118th Congress Child Care Briefing Book
- Federal Funding: A Foundation To Child Care (a look at the ways federal funding supports child care while maximizing options for families and providing stability to local economies)
- The First Five Things To Know About: A New Poll Showing Voter Support For Child Care Funding
- House Members: First Five Things About the House Child Care and Bipartisan Pre-K Caucus (and how you can join!)
Credits:
Created with images by Robert Kneschke - "Kinder und Erzieher beim Malen und Zeichnen" • bernardbodo - "Learning teamwork through play" • Kenishirotie - "Checklist box" • dglimages - "Story Time at Nursery" • kenkuza - "Closeup asian baby girl lie on carpet in cute motion"