Financing Child Care in the United States - Ewing Marion Kauffman ...

ANNUAL AMOUNT
The Child Care Accreditation Initiative Grant Program,
which provides grants to centers for equipment and
improvements, is capitalized with $1.7 million for 1997
through 2002. Contributors to the grant program include
Bank of America Foundation/United Way of America
Success by 6 ® Enhancement Initiative, Francis Families
Foundation, Hall Family Foundation, Heart of America
United Way and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The Accreditation Project provides ongoing technical and
professional assistance to sites seeking accreditation.
The project is funded at $572,000 annually, with
investment from foundations, individual donations, the
Independence Missouri School District, the Diocese of
Kansas City–St. Joseph, Kansas City Missouri School
District, Greater Kansas City Association for the
Education of Young Children, Heart of America United
Way, Wyandotte County United Way and the Missouri
Department of Health.
SERVICES FUNDED
The Child Care Accreditation Initiative Grant Program is
available on a competitive basis to centers seeking
accreditation after they complete an assessment
facilitated by Heart of America Family Services’
Accreditation Project. The Accreditation Initiative grants
can be used to improve facilities and equip classrooms,
with an average grant size of $15,000. At the beginning
of 2000, 17 United Way child care programs and 42
other programs were participating in the Accreditation
Initiative. Priority is given to programs located in the urban
core of the metropolitan area, to child care programs that
demonstrate readiness to move toward meeting
accreditation standards and to child care programs
participating in the Accreditation Project.
The Accreditation Project provides three types of
assistance to child care programs seeking to become
accredited: on–site assessment and consultation to
achieve accreditation, training and a director’s support
group. Consultants with expertise in program design and
implementation, administration and management, and
other relevant areas have been trained to work on–site
with the centers seeking accreditation.
Child care centers are not required to participate in both
the Accreditation Initiative Grant Program and the
Accreditation Project. The Accreditation Project is able to
accommodate all the programs that request assistance,
and it has been successful in attracting funding from
educational and religious groups that have set
accreditation goals for their child care programs, including
Heart of America United Way, the Independence School
District and the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph. The
Accreditation Initiative, however, is competitive and a
center’s prospects for an award are enhanced if the
center also is participating in the Accreditation Project.
HOW FUNDS DISTRIBUTED
Child care programs apply to participate in the
Accreditation Initiative grant program and/or the
Accreditation Project through Heart of America Family
Services. Depending on the affiliation of the center, it may
be given priority access to either the Accreditation
Initiative or the Project. For example, child care centers
funded by Heart of America United Way are given priority
for participation due to United Way’s decision to insist
upon accreditation for its programs, and its key role in
fundraising for the Accreditation Initiative. Likewise, the
Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph has set a goal for its
centers to become accredited and has funded the
Accreditation Project in order to ensure access for its
centers.
POPULATION SERVED
The Kansas City Accreditation Project is available
primarily to child care centers. The Accreditation Initiative
Grant Program gives priority to centers serving the urban
core of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• Organizations in Kansas City have developed a number
of strategic initiatives to improve child care quality.
These initiatives are implemented by several
organizations whose roles in child care quality
improvement have been recognized by the community
as a whole. Instrumental to this effort was the
development of a 24–member group, Partners in
Quality, founded in 1996, as a mechanism for
developing a community–wide plan for child care
quality improvement that required each of the
participating partners to identify and take responsibility
for action steps. Partners in Quality includes key
stakeholders in the local community, and its
membership is drawn from private and public funders,
businesses and child care training and support
organizations. The Partners in Quality community plan
includes a short–term goal for the year 2002 to
accredit 100 of the 500 child care centers in the
region and a longer–term goal for the year 2010 of
accrediting 80 percent of the centers in the region.
While the strategic planning for the initiatives described
in this profile was completed before the formation of
Partners in Quality, the original organizations are now
fully committed to the broader community effort and
infrastructure that it provides.
• Prior to the creation of Partners in Quality, Heart of
America United Way undertook an accreditation
feasibility study of the 17 child care centers it funded
and determined that it would be appropriate to develop
a policy requiring that its participating child care
agencies become accredited. United Way set about to
raise the necessary funds to aid its 17 programs as
part of its commitment to the Partners in Quality
community goals.
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