Daycare Costs Exceed Rent Payments In Every State In America

The report, which analyzed 2012 survey data, found that daycare fees for two children (an infant and a 4-year-old) exceeded annual median rent payments in every state in the U.S. last year. What's more, it found that average daycare costs for an infant were higher than the average family spent on food and, in 31 states and D.C., higher than a year's tuition and fees at a four-year public college. 

Daycare costs vary greatly by state. Last year, the average annual cost for a 4-year-old was $4,312 in Mississippi and $12,355 in New York, according to the Child Care Aware report.

Meanwhile, the least affordable states for two-parent families with a child in daycare full-time are: Oregon, New York, Minnesota, Vermont, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Washington, Rhode Island, and Illinois.Child-care costs can exceed rent payments for the average American family, according to a new study by Child Care Aware of America, an advocacy group working to increase affordable child care in the U.S.

Escalating child-care costs are part of a long-term trend as the use of organized daycare centers has risen, Child-care payments for families with employed mothers have risen 50% from 2002 to 2011 and 250% over the last three decades, according to the U.S.Census Bureau.child-care costs have grown at eight times the rate of household income in the past year.

For more information on this, check http://www.businessinsider.in/Daycare-Costs-Exceed-Rent-Payments-In-Every-State-In-America/articleshow/25721006.cms

How to Become a Childcare Director

A daycare center director oversees the operation of a child daycare facility. Common duties include supervising daycare staff, managing budgets and ensuring that the center is in compliance with state licensing requirements. 

Daycare center directors often promote a fun learning environment for children. Dealing with challenging employees, children and parents may be somewhat stressful. Directors may find rewards in observing the great strides taken by the children in their charge, however.

To do the best job as a center director,

• You need to Manage: Know what needs to be done. 
• Lead: Get things done through your staff. 
• Use resources wisely: Make the best use of what you have. 

Prepare a vision statement and share it with the staff. To be successful at inspiring the staff to follow your vision, clearly outline both the childcare center's responsibilities and philosophy towards child development. 

Child care management software will help the Director in managing the center, and help staff in documentation for enrollment and registration in new customers. The software also helps in communicating the latest news about the center to the parents and also allows parents to pay bills for the various camps and selected courses.

Responsibilities include meeting the basic needs of the child, such as providing adequate supervision. Popular philosophies include Montessori, which focuses education on the individual child's nature after an observation of his needs; and Waldorf, which focuses on interdisciplinary learning. 

Provide a copy of your vision statement to the parents so they have an understanding of your attitude towards child development.

Most important key point that all child care director should have

Gain Work Experience

Many child care directors have previous work experience as preschool teachers. This experience prepares directors to determine curriculum standards, which often address a child's social, language and motor skill development. Preschool teaching experience also helps directors understand the emotional and physical needs of young children and the potential concerns of their parents. Credentialing organizations also typically require work experience before candidates can apply for credentials.

Earn Professional Credentials

Most states require child care directors to earn professional credentials, such as the Child Development Associate credential (CDA) and the National Administration Credential (NAC), in order to earn a professional license. The Council for Professional Recognition offers the CDA credential for early child care professionals. Requirements include at least 480 hours of child care work experience and 120 hours of education in child care, both within the past five years. Credentials can be earned in preschool-aged or infant/toddler-aged care. The CDA designation is valid for three years and then can be renewed every five years with continuing education.

The NAC designation is offered by the National Child Care Association and is open to child care directors with all levels of experience. Directors can earn the NAC credential by completing a 5-day, 40-hour course. Topics in this program include community relations, facility and staff management and educational curriculum. NAC designations are valid for two years, during which time 20 hours of continuing education is required to maintain designation.

Obtain a License

Most states require child care directors to be licensed. Requirements vary from state to state, but most include a certain amount of years working in child care and a specified amount of hours in child care-related coursework. Licensing is usually maintained by completing a specified number of continuing education hours, which is determined by the state.

Awaiting Child Care Finder App in Mid Valley

It is no more difficult to find out a childcare center nearby you . Parents in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties might soon have an app to make finding childcare easier. Childcare Resource & Referral, a local nonprofit, will contract with a sister agency in Kentucky to bring the app to the Mid-Valley by as soon as November. It's so difficult to find childcare, Parents can punch in their location, child's age and other details to find local providers with openings, along with their ratings — all from their smartphone for free.

They are trying to focus on access for families who are always on the go.They may not have computers, but they have phones. Shannon Vandehey, CCR's program director.has had her eye on the Childcare Finder app for a few years, but the nonprofit could not pick up the $1,500 price tag. She submitted her idea to the 2014 Maps Community Foundation Community Challenge Award, and earned $1,000 seed money this month. CRR will kick in the remaining $500. Maps also gave $1,000 to the nonprofit of Vandehey's choice, which was Catholic Community Services.

CRR will be the first organization in Oregon to use the tool, which was developed in part by the Childcare Council of Kentucky., that society might as well use all of the tools available, and smartphones are great technology to improve access.

Childcare Resource & Referral is part of the Community Action Agency, a private nonprofit. This is the second Maps Community Foundation Community Challenge Award for the agency in the last two years. Two years ago, HOME Youth & Resource Center earned a grant to expand its internship program for homeless and at-risk youth.

Benefits of Web Based Child Care Software

Web-based child care software is quickly replacing traditional desktop software due to it’s many advantage, however we still get lots of questions about what web-based (or cloud) software is and what it’s advantages are for the child care industry. Web-based software is software that runs in a web browser over the Internet, and it doesn’t require installation on your computer.

Advantages of Web based Software

1. Web-based software allows you to securely login with your own user name and password from any computer, laptop, or mobile device (with internet access). 
2. Security is always a top concern when you’re transferring and storing sensitive information on the Internet. Since you’re storing information for children at your childcare center, keeping it secure is extremely important. 
3. Most web-based software programs provide the service of automatically backing up all of your information. With Sandbox Software, all of your information is automatically backed up daily. 
4. It won’t be lost if your computer crashes, your hard-drive is stolen, or you lose your zip drive. 
5. Your information will always be safe. This provides peace of mind and is much more reliable than more traditional backup methods where information is backed up locally, and you have to remember to manually back up your information on a regular basis. 
6. Since web-based child care software runs in a web browser, it’s compatible with any device that has one of the major four web browsers installed: Google Chrome (recommended), Windows IE, Safari, or Firefox. No need to worry about compatibility issues 
7. You’re always able to easily access the software, as well as share information with other educators and staff at your center since it’s stored in one central location. Access is based on login permissions, so that each user can only access the information that they need to see. 
8. The monthly cost of web-based software provides you with the flexibility to cancel at any time. 

Grandparents Raising Kids is Increasing in US

United States Census data from 2010 indicates 4.9 million American children are being raised solely by their grandparents. CanGrads, a National Kinship Support organization, says approximately 62,500 children are being raised by grandparents and other family in Canada. Many grandparents provide part-time care when their older children have to move back home with their families, as roughly 13 million children are now living in homes with their grandparents.

Get the right equipment. Children certainly require a lot of gear, more than grandparents likely used when raising their own children. Child care management software in centers and various other places provides helping hand in managing the center.

Certain safety requirements are in place to safeguard young children, and that often means investing in new cribs, car seats, high chairs, and other items. Grandparents should resist the temptation to use old items they may have kept in storage, as such items may no longer be safe and could put grandchildren at risk for injury.

Gather important documents. Grandparents should keep pertinent documents in one easily accessible place in their homes should an emergency arise. These include birth certificates, health immunization records, death certificates (if the child’s parents are deceased), dental records, school papers, citizenship papers, and proof of income and assets.

Speak with an attorney. Lawyers can help grandparents wade through legal arrangements, such as filing for custody, guardianship or adoption. Options vary depending on where petitioners live, but lawyers can provide peace of mind to grandparents concerned about their grand kids’ futures.

Investigate financial assistance. Seniors may not earn the income they once did and may be on assistance programs or living off of retirement savings. Grandparents who find themselves caring for a child may be eligible for financial assistance. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a joint federal and state program that can provide need-based financial assistance. The AARP or the organization GrandFamilies may be able to put grandparents in touch with financial advisors in their areas.

Contact schools and daycare centers. School-aged children will need to be enrolled in school. Grandparents should contact the department of education where they live to learn about local school systems, especially when grand kids are moving in with their grandparents. Some grandparents can qualify for free or low-cost daycare, and such programs can be discussed with local Social Services offices. Enrollment in school or daycare can provide grandparents with much-needed free time during the day.

Find emotional support. Taking care of grandchildren is a full-time job. At times, grandparents may feel stressed or out of sorts. Having a strong support system available can help grandparents work through the peaks and valleys of this new and unexpected stage in life. Church- or community center-based counseling services may be available. Grandparents also can check with their healthcare providers to determine if counseling or therapy sessions are covered under their plans.

Parent Portal Application in Daycare Management Software

This is an easy way of communication for the parents as well as the day care centers. This mainly improves parent satisfaction so there are much software that is coming in to the market with this facility where the parents can register and communication through online service portal. School systems should recognize the potential of portals to motivate parents to sustain their involvement in their child’s learning. Most importantly, schools need to help parents understand that portals are more than just sources of student data to be monitored—that they are, instead, a tool that parents can use in meaningful ways to understand and support their child’s learning.

Why do parents use a parent portal? Parents were motivated to use the portal out of their concern for their child’s academic performance. More specifically, parents used the portal as the preferred means of checking or monitoring their child’s current grades but did not access the portal to view their child’s attendance or their teachers’ open-ended comments about class work, behavior, and other issues. Parents also reported feeling it was their “responsibility” to access data through the portal once they had been granted access.

The main benefits of Parent portal application are as follows

1. Registration and Enrollment
2. Updating family data
3. Bills, Statements, Receipts
4. Tax Statement
5. Payments via Credit Cards, EFT
6. Center Calendar & Bulletins Email Delivery
7. Center Closing Bulletins
8. Making up online payments using debit cards and bank accounts.
9. Register online for various programs (e.g. after-school, summer camp etc)
10. Manage their schedule by enrolling into activities online
11. Manage information on children
12. Manage information on family members, emergency contacts etc
13. Enroll in auto-pay (automatic payment by credit card or bank account)
14. Track account transactions
15. Print invoices and payment reports
16. Print Tax Statements
17. View bulletins and calendar
18. registration forms and other Download documents
19. view programs and classes
20. tracking attendance

Parents are notified of critical messages with push notifications, bridging the communication gap between teachers and parents. They can also initiate conversations with the school principal and teachers. Parents can track the children’s attendance on the go; at their convenience Creation of multiple profiles is also possible through this application.

Time Clock in Child Care Management Software

The time clock software can be used for tracking staff and employees hours worked, overtime and vacations but did you know that you can also use the system to keep track of the children being cared for in the center. You can track the time the children are in the center and you now also have a list of the children inside the center at any point in time. 

This would be very useful to make sure that everybody is safe in the event of a fire or other emergency. If parents clock their children in and out themselves, it will save time for other employees, keeping them free for the more important tasks thus helping the center to run more efficiently.

Benefits

• Ensure accurate attendance 
• Enhance parent communication 
• Improve staffing efficiency 
• Reduce administrative time 
• Eliminate separate time-clocks and door release systems 

The Time Clock comes with child care management software that makes this communication between the keypad and computer possible . The software sends the in/out times to a database within the software itself for storage. If there are any messages, balances due, immunizations, etc. the software grabs that from the database and sends it back to be displayed on the clock.

Healthy Food Habits for Kinds in Daycare

Health and Happiness are two important treasures that one must have , but difficult to attain

In long day childcare centers, menus should aim to meet a significant amount of a child’s daily nutrition requirements. Children with a food allergy or allergies need special care. 

It is recommended that each childcare centers use childcare software for managing their operations of the center. Working together, you and your caregivers can help your child establish healthful food habits that will last a lifetime. 

By practicing good health habits, including healthy eating, you can give your child a head start on a healthy lifestyle.

Important point to be noted by parents as well as childcare providers

A variety of foods should be given to the children should be provided to children in care, including a range of textures and tastes, appropriate to the developmental stages of different age groups and they are as follows :

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Cereals
• Lean meat,                                    
• Fish,
• Chicken,
• Milks
• Yoghurts
• Cheeses

Recipe for a Healthy Weekend

• Eat meals as a family
• Limit TV time
• Eat fruits and vegetables
• Take a walk outside together
• Read a book inside together
• Get a good night’s sleep
  
  

Guidelines for Child Care Professionals

1. Provide healthy meals and snacks, including plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains,for the kids on day to day basis that meet the requirements of USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
2. Do not use food as punishment or reward.
3. Limit consumption of sugar , and also limit fat consumption.
4. Teach healthy eating habits through modeling sound diet and eating behavior.
5. Taste new foods, and do not eat or drink items in front of the children that they are not permitted, such as soda, candy, or coffee.
6. Promote a healthy body image by supporting, accepting, and encouraging everyone equally.

Other important points:

1. Food should be an appropriate size and texture for the age and ability of the child so they can easily chew and swallow their food.
2. Nuts and other hard foods that are difficult for young children to chew should be avoided.
3. Children should not be force-fed.
4. Children should be seated quietly at mealtimes.

To know more click on the below links for more information on healthy food habits 

http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/what_we_do.aspx?id=165

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Childcare_and_healthy_eating

http://www.sesamestreet.org/cms_services/services?action=download&uid=77960fa1-69ad-47c9-a54d-e98b95863ffa