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Leadership Forums, Issues Meetings, and Audioconferences are sponsored by the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and coordinated by the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC). Each meeting focuses on critical issues affecting children and families.
Leadership Forums elicit input from national organizations and leaders on topics important to the child care field and to the Child Care Bureau. Some Leadership Forums result in publications, listed below, while others inform policy and decision making.
 Leadership Forums
- National Leadership Forum on Literacy
in Early Care and Education Settings (February 26, 2002)
On February 26, 2002, the Child Care Bureau held a National Leadership Forum on Literacy in Early Care and Education Settings. Early literacy is one of the key priorities of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and child care plays an essential role in ensuring the achievement of ACF early literacy goals.
In addition to discussing the latest research and innovative state models, participants helped to identify concrete actions for policy makers, families and practitioners, and helped the Child Care Bureau to identify ways in which literacy efforts for young children can be encouraged and supported.
Follow-up publications on Literacy in Early Care and Education Settings are available at http://nccic.org/pubs/literacy and http://nccic.org/ccb/issue27.html and http://nccic.org/ccb/issue27sp.html.
- Child Care and Mental Health (March 6, 2001)
On March 6, 2001, the Child Care Bureau held a National Leadership Forum on Child Care and Mental Health. This Leadership Forum was a collaboration between the Child Care Bureau, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The Leadership Forum provided a unique opportunity to address the development of coordinated efforts to better meet the mental health needs of children in child care. State child care administrators, State mental health directors, Healthy Child Care America grantees, national organizations, Federal agencies, and community child care leaders joined in this critical dialogue. The work of the Forum built upon recent groundbreaking research on children's social and emotional development and offered recommendations for new strategies for effective planning and policy development. Child Care Bulletin Issue #25 focuses on Child Care and Mental Health.
- Expanding Child Care to Underserved Populations: Meeting the Needs of Rural Communities (February 23, 2000)
View video clips of each speaker participating in the one-day forum. On February 23, 2000, the Child Care Bureau convened a National Leadership Forum on Expanding Child Care To Underserved Populations: Meeting The Needs Of Rural Communities. Leaders and recognized experts in the field came together at this meeting to share information, develop recommendations and serve as a catalyst for sustained action towards identified goals.
- Child Care Issues of the Hispanic Community (November 30, 1999)
This forum was designed to focus attention on the critical need for high quality, affordable child care in the Latino community, the roles demographics and culture play, and the unique challenges faced by Latino families. The Latino population is among the fastest growing and youngest segments of American society. This shift has sparked an urgent need for assessing ways to deliver quality and affordable child care to children and families of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. A Child Care Bulletin Number 24, “National Leadership Forum on Child Care: Issues of the Hispanic Community,” highlighting keynote speeches, panel presentations and recommendations, is available in English and Spanish.
- Child Care Resource and Referral (March 3, 1999)
On March 3, 1999, the Child Care Bureau held a National Leadership Forum on Child Care Resource and Referral (R&R). The forum provided an opportunity for state child care administrators, resource and referral agencies, federal staff, national organizations, and other leaders to dialogue and develop strategies to support and strengthen the child care infrastructure, and thereby meet the needs of children and families.
It also allowed participants to identify the range and scope of R&R services to states, communities, tribes, parents, providers, and employers and the key issues impacting on these services; to more fully understand the perspectives of those delivering and using resource and referral services; to explore the potential for child care R&R agencies to collect information about child care supply and demand; and to share innovative practices. National Leadership Forum on Child Care Resource and Referral, a 16-page issue of the Child Care Bulletin (Issue 22) highlights the aims, strategies, and promising practices that emerged during the forum.
- Child Care Policy Research (October, 1998)
This event provided an opportunity to bring together state child care administrators, policy researchers, practitioners, data systems analysts from the state and local level and others in the child care field to discuss ongoing child care policy research, gaps in current knowledge and strategies for the future. Participants at the meeting separated to discuss five main issue areas related to child care policy research: infants/toddlers and pre-schoolers; school age child care; child care, employment & self-sufficiency; dynamics of supply and demand; and building a research infrastructure. The Forum built on and expanded the work begun by the National Academy of Sciences in Child Care for Low-Income Families: Directions for Research and the White House National Science and Technology Council in Investing in our Future: A National Research Initiative for America's Children for the 21st Century. Additional information on child care policy research can also be found in Using Research to Improve Child Care for Low-Income Families.
- Quality Care for Infants and Toddlers (September, 1998)
The purpose of the Child Care and Head Start National Leadership Forum on Quality Care for Infants and Toddlers was to bring together experts from around the country to discuss the issues related to caring for infants and toddlers, and to make recommendations that States, Territories, Tribes, and communities can use to increase the capacity and improve the safety and quality of services. Ensuring that families have access to safe, affordable, and high quality child care appropriate for infants and toddlers is a high priority for the Administration for Children and Families. At the meeting, participants discussed five priority issue areas: partnerships with families: collaboration and linkages for comprehensive, family-centered services; health and safety: ensuring children's optimal development; building and sustaining an effective infant/toddler child care workforce; capacity building: increasing availability and ensuring quality for infants and toddlers; and research and evaluation: what we know, what we need to know more about, and ways to communicate the findings about care for infants and toddlers. A 70-page report, Quality Care for Infants and Toddlers, was developed based on the work of the participants at the Forum.
- Intergenerational Child Care (April, 1998)
This Leadership Forum was designed to bring together experts in the field to further a national dialogue on the dynamics of intergenerational child care. Older adults make an important contribution to the quality of early childhood programs as part of the child care workforce, as volunteers and mentors, and through other planned activities of mutual benefit. This one day event provided an opportunity partners at the State, Territorial, Tribal and community level to share information on successful initiatives that showcase a broad array of intergenerational programs and services. As a result of the Forum, a brochure on Intergenerational Child Care was developed and distributed.
- Innovations In Child Care Consumer Education (February, 1997)
On February 19, 1997, at the ANA Hotel in Washington, DC, the Child Care Bureau convened a meeting for the fields of child care and consumer education to discuss the issues in child care consumer education, particularly consumer education campaigns for low-income families. Participants discussed successful public awareness strategies, marketing campaigns and consumer education research to help parents select quality child care that responds to family needs. Information about different child care consumer education initiatives can be found in Reaching Parents with Child Care Consumer Education.
- Child Care Policy Research/ Welfare Reform (June 19, 1996)
This forum brought together leaders in the field to look at welfare reform, child care research findings, and policy implications.
- Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities Child Care Roundtable (April 24, 1996)
- Promoting Family-Centered Child Care (February, 1996)
The participants at this Leadership Forum addressed the critical issues that relate to family-centered child care and provided the basis for the development of guidelines for understanding and implementing successful family focused programs. The work of the day resulted in development of a brochure, Promoting Family-Centered Child Care which highlights the guiding principles and common characteristics of programs which are family-centered. The brochure includes a section on welcoming fathers and selected readings to help programs learn about the principles of family-centered child care. Recommendations and findings from the work of the participants were reported in the Spring 1996 issue of the ERIC/EECE newsletter. Creating Family-Centered Child Care Programs outlines the roles of parents, providers and other community agencies.
- Passages to Inclusion: Creating Systems of Care for ALL Children (June, 1995)
This Leadership Forum brought together experts from around the country to discuss issues related to the inclusion of children with disabilities in child care settings and to formulate recommendations that can be used to design and build effective inclusive systems of care for all children. Participants discussed issues related to staffing, facilities and environments, administration of inclusive practices, financing, and community resources for inclusive care settings. A technical assistance monograph for states, territories and tribes has been developed based on the work of the Leadership Forum. The monograph, Passages to Inclusion: Creating Systems of Care for ALL Children, includes program models, organizations working in inclusion, and other resources that may be helpful to states, territories and tribes interested in creating inclusive child care systems.
Issues Meetings
- A Meeting Summary; A Long-Awaited Conversation: Dialogue to Bridge the High-Tech/High-Touch Gap In Early Childhood Workforce Preparation and Professional Development (May 6-7, 2004)
- Rate Setting Policies: Ensuring Access and Improving Quality (November 28-29, 2000)
The Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, convened an Issues Forum focused on rate setting policies. The two-day forum brought together Sate Child Care Administrators, Federal Agency staff, and representatives from national organizations, universities, research institutions, and child care programs, and resource and referral agencies to examine different approaches to conducting market rate surveys and to learn more about how rate-setting policies impact access to and the quality of child care in communities throughout the United States.
- Licensing and Financing (November 2-4, 1998)
NCCIC State Technical Assistance Audioconferences
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