This guest blog was written by our UW Public Humanities Fellow, Kate MacCrimmon. She has been at Kids Forward over the past academic year. Kate offers a unique perspective as both a former Family Child Care provider and doctoral candidate researching the subject. This is the second in a two-part series connecting family child care...

This guest blog was written by our UW Public Humanities Fellow, Kate MacCrimmon. She has been at Kids Forward over the past academic year. Kate offers a unique perspective as both a former Family Child Care provider and doctoral candidate researching the subject. This is the first in a two part series connecting provider voices to...

Kids Forward has just released the results of a survey of child care providers in Brown County and surrounding areas. We think this is useful information for policy makers and advocates who want to improve Wisconsin's early care and education system. Many thanks to Family & Childcare Resources of Northeast Wisconsin for conducting...

One of the critical aspects of Family Resource Centers (FRCs) are their strong roots in the settlement movement model (i.e., settlement houses). By focusing on mobilizing community assets, people at FRCs strive to work collectively for families. In the area of Early Care and Education (ECE), they offer resources to parents while they...

In October we put out a blog indicating federal home visiting funding was in trouble. It’s still in trouble, but help may be on the way. With many advocates and bi-partisan members of Congress working on a solution, there is a reasonable chance that the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) funding may be...

I participated in a Webinar on the looming tax bill in Washington in late October that makes me worry about future services for children and families in Wisconsin. While the bill is still under debate in the Congress, the signs look ominous. The webinar, sponsored by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), warned about possible impacts....

BAD NEWS! Congress let funding expire for two crucial federal resources for America’s young children, the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This is terrible news for Wisconsin’s children and their families. Many of you have been involved in helping...

The final 2017-19 budget summary shows a significant increase in funding for the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program relative to the current spending level, especially in the second fiscal year of the 2017-19 two year budget. Nevertheless, the increased appropriations are far below the amounts expended in past years, before the...

We have known for some time that Wisconsin’s gap between black and white students in graduation rates and fourth –grade testing are the largest in the nation. A new study, Kindergarten  Readiness in Wisconsin, provides a first-time look at inequalities in school readiness among Wisconsin’s kindergarten students with a large sample size....