Child Care Associates

Early education & care services:child care associates prepares children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life. Cca operates 15 early education campuses across tarrant county serving 790 children 0-5 in 2024. Cca serves young children and their families comprehensively with full-day and/or full-year programming as well as support services. Head start children receive support services in educational growth, special needs, health, dental health and mental health in addition to family supports. Cca integrates services for children with special needs, serving over 10% children with disabilities. Each campus is supported by a family engagement advocate to help connect families to community resources and services. For families not ready for center-based support, cca offers home visiting supports for families of infants and toddlers (72) as well as among pregnant mothers (39). Campuses also partner to deliver prekindergarten and/or child care services.

Child care training & technical assistance:child care associates strengthened the child care system across texas by partnering with the texas workforce commission (twc) to provide statewide business coaching and operational support to licensed child care centers. Cca directly coached child care business owners and operators to address operational challenges, improve management practices, and enhance financial stability. Providers received assistance in developing business plans, accessing resources, and implementing strategies to promote long-term sustainability. Additionally, cca maintained a child care knowledge hub and provided technical assistance related to specialized funding. Cca served and impacted approximately 1,800 child care providers. This program concluded in may 2024 following completion of the three-year program term.

North central texas child care services (ccs):child care associates supports working families and parents completing degrees and workforce credentials by offsetting the cost of quality child care through child care scholarships. Cca serves the following counties in north central texas: allen, arlington, carrollton, dallas, denton, fort worth, frisco, garland, grand prairie, irving, lewisville, mckinney, mesquite, plano, and richardson. Cca served approximately 5,200 families and 8,000 children via 696 child care provider partners in the program year. Additionally, ccs improves the quality of child care in tarrant county via our team of texas rising star mentors. Child care quality is systematically improved along the state's child care quality rating system in areas such as training, credentials, instruction, teacher-child interactions, curriculum, learning environments, health, safety and nutrition. Ccs increases the child care scholarship amounts paid to child care providers based assessments of quality as well as invests in child care quality improvement.child care innovation:child care associates leads and collaborates to develop the early childhood system that supports quality, mixed delivery system of early learning and child care services, supports innovative solutions to build a corps of quality early childhood professionals, and supports parents as leaders in their children's education. Cca operates the center for the early educator helping to build the north texas early care and education educators needed in the region. Cca also operates pilots and research studies that help inform innovative solutions. Furthermore, cca helps to educate policymakers and leaders to shape policy that strengthen the early education system.