University of Wisconsin - Extension

Donna E. Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, announced the award last week as part of $10 million in grants and contracts for child care research. The new research will help develop innovative strategies to meet the needs of low-income families struggling to afford quality care for their children.

The Wisconsin Child Care Research Partnership is a unique collaborative effort between UW-Extension and state agencies. Mary Roach and Dave Riley, Family Living specialists at UW-Extension, will co-direct the program with David Edie, director of the Office of Child Care at the Department of Workforce Development, and Diane Adams, former coordinator of the Child Care Resource & Referral Network (CCRRN). Riley is also a professor of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"The federal government was very excited by the cross-governmental partnership we put together for this project," noted Riley. "We are now one of nine such partnerships forging new relationships between academic research and community-based child care data, to address child care issues and policies at the local, state and national level."

"Wisconsin has long been known as a state with high-quality child care. Now, with our state's pioneering efforts in welfare reform, we are also becoming a testing ground for state child care policies," said Roach. "People in Wisconsin want both an adequate supply of child care, and quality child care that promotes healthy development in our youngest citizens. Among other things, this project will help us measure our progress in these areas in Wisconsin."

The purpose of the new project is to conduct research that will guide state and federal policy-makers, using data collected on 35,000 children now receiving subsidized care in Wisconsin through the Office of Child Care. Staff from the project will visit and observe programs across the state to determine the quality of child care being purchased with state funds, allowing a comparison of state-subsidized child care to other services in the state.

"We expect to answer some specific questions, but much of this project focuses on establishing a quality baseline for child care in our state, both in state-subsidized programs and in the private market," explained Riley.

The grant builds upon work on the Early Childhood Excellence Initiative-a Department of Workforce Development project providing funding to 18 exemplary child care programs across the state. Each program serves primarily low-income families, utilizing strong parent involvement and connections to other community programs. The programs strive to provide special enrichment experiences to children in music, foreign language, literacy and other topics during the early years, when a child's potential for development is greatest.

UW-Extension provides technical assistance and evaluation for the Early Childhood Excellence Initiative. UW-Extension's network of 72 county offices provides a mechanism for sharing the knowledge of "best practices" gained from the Centers of Excellence with the other 10,000 regulated child care programs in the state.

"Differences in quality of care are vitally important to the futures of our children," said Roach. "Our project is part of the state's commitment to raising the quality of child care in Wisconsin by engaging the university with professional child care teachers."

"The CCRRN, made up of 17 local child care resource and referral agencies, has demonstrated its commitment to making child care work for families, children and child care providers," added Adams. "We look forward to using our skills in data collection and consumer education effectively in this new research partnership."

UW-Extension provides services that apply University research, knowledge and resources to meet the educational needs of Wisconsin people-wherever they live and work. For more information on the University of Wisconsin-Extension, see http://www.uwex.edu.

Additional information about the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development can be found at http://www.dwd.state.wi.us. To learn more about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, see http://www.hhs.gov