State Agencies, Organizations, and Initiatives
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Child Care Services Association: Child Care Services Association (CCSA), headquartered in the Triangle region of North Carolina, is a nationally recognized nonprofit working to ensure affordable, accessible, high quality child care for all families through research, services and advocacy. CCSA provides free referral services to families seeking child care, technical assistance to child care businesses, and educational scholarships and salary supplements to child care professionals through the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® and Child Care WAGE$® Projects.
Covenant with North Carolina’s Children: The Covenant with North Carolina's Children is a statewide nonprofit organization that advocates for children at the NC General Assembly. Representing over 100 child advocacy organizations and individuals from around the state, the Covenant pushes for legislation in 8 issue areas -- child welfare, early childhood education, economic security, education, health, juvenile justice, mental health/substance abuse/developmental disabilities, and safety. Check this site to find out who your elected officials are.
FPG Child Development Institute: FPG is one of the oldest multidisciplinary centers devoted to the study of children and families. Located at UNC-Chapel Hill, FPG conducts research on state initiatives, such as the More at Four program evaluation, as well as national research. Researchers focus on parent and family support; early care and education; child health and development; early identification and intervention; equity, access and inclusion; and early childhood policy.
NC Board of Elections: This site offers many voter services: register to vote, research demographics, obtain your voting information, locate your polling place and find answers to many voting/election questions.
NC Department of Public Instruction: Responsible for K-12 education in NC. Find information about curriculum, testing, data and statistics.
NC Division of Child Development: Responsible for child care licensing, regulations and subsidy in NC. Information available for parents and providers.
NC Early Childhood Association: Membership organization dedicated to improving the quality of child care in North Carolina. The association advocates for improvement of the working environment for early childhood professionals. NCECA actively works in the development of legislation and statewide policies that affect children, families, teachers and child care programs.
NC Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development: The Institute serves as an advisory group to the Division of Child Development in the NC Department of Health & Human Services in matters related to developing an educated work force to care for children who are in group care. Information is available for professional development providers and child care providers.
NC Office of School Readiness: The mission of the Office of School Readiness (OSR) is to prepare children for school success through high-quality early education. The office supports publicly funded preschool programs (More at Four) throughout North Carolina, in public schools and licensed child care centers. OSR is part of the NC Department of Public Instruction.
NC Partnership for Children: Provides statewide oversight of the Smart Start initiative. Smart Start is a public-private initiative that provides funding to all of the state’s 100 counties to ensure that young children enter school healthy and ready to succeed. NCPC provides technical assistance and training for local Smart Start partnerships.
NC Public School Success Program: The mission of Success Inc. is to support efforts to meet the needs of all young children and their families through In-service, Networking, and Collaboration among early childhood professionals, families, and agencies. It is a resource for early childhood professionals and part of the NC Department of Public Instruction.
NC Ready Schools Initiative: The NC Ready Schools Initiative supports efforts by local school systems to begin the ready school planning process with each of their elementary schools. Definition, assessment, models and resources are available at this site.
NC Smart Start : Smart Start is a public-private initiative that provides funding to all of the state’s 100 counties to ensure that young children enter school healthy and ready to succeed. NCPC provides technical assistance and training for local Smart Start partnerships.
National Organizations and Initiatives
American Academy of Pediatrics Early Education and Child Care Initiatives has posted the revised versions of the following brochures on their website:
A Child Care Provider's Guide to Safe Sleep
A Parents' Guide to Safe Sleep
Tummy Time
There are additional resources available at Health Child Care America Back to Sleep Campaign
Association for Childhood Education International: Membership organization to promote and support in the global community the optimal education and development of children, from birth through early adolescence, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society.
Birth to Five Policy Alliance: The Birth to Five Policy Alliance works to fulfill the American promise of opportunity for all. Forty-two percent of our nation’s children under 6 live in low-income families and the “opportunity gap” is rooted in these very early years. The Alliance’s goal is to shift the odds for our youngest, most vulnerable children so they can grow up eager to learn and ready for success in life.
Center on Education Policy: The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. The Center helps Americans better understand the role of public education in a democracy and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools.
Child Care Lounge: Child care resources, training, and consultation.
Child Care Aware: National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies’ site for finding high quality child care in your area.
NAEYC Accreditation Information: Accreditation of Programs for Young Children, Associate Degree Programs, Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs.
National Association for Family Child Care: NAFCC is dedicated to advocating for the family child care profession by collaborating with other local, state, and national organizations who contribute to the family child care field to increase awareness about and improve the quality of family child care. Offers accreditation for family child care.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC): NAEYC is a membership organization of individuals who care about the care and education of children ages birth – 8. Sets standards for early childhood practice, provides professional development opportunities, promotes high quality early childhood education. NCaeyc is the North Carolina affiliate of NAEYC.
National Center for Early Development and Learning: NCEDL is a national early childhood research project supported by the US Department of Education's Institute for Educational Sciences (IES). Administratively based at the FPG Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, NCEDL is a collaboration with the University of Virginia & UCLA.
National Center for Learning Disabilities: NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities.
National Prekindergarten Center: Supporting quality education for preschoolers with
information about finance, governance, and professional development.
Research Connections: A comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-use collection of more than 11,000 resources from the many disciplines related to child care and early education.
Week of the Young Child: This link will take you to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) website where you can access tools and information for celebrating the Week of the Young Child held in April each year.