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Tag: Childcare

  • Zohran Mamdani will win New York City mayoral election, CNN’s Decision Desk projects

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    (CNN) — Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose focus on working-class issues and personal magnetism attracted a diverse coalition of volunteers and supporters to propel a once-underdog campaign, will win New York City’s general election race for mayor, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.

    Mamdani beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a second time, shattering the political scion’s hopes of a comeback after his loss to Mamdani in the June Democratic primary. Also running in the general election was Republican Curtis Sliwa, who refused to end his campaign despite pressure from Cuomo and his supporters.

    Mamdani’s win marks a victory for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party at a time when national Democrats are divided over how to counter President Donald Trump. The president is himself a native New Yorker who has falsely derided Mamdani as a “communist” and suggested he’d “take over” the city if he is elected.

    The results are likely to echo far beyond New York City, elevating both Mamdani’s profile and platform, including his proposals to freeze the rent for New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, make public buses free to ride and provide universal childcare by taxing the wealthy.

    Mamdani’s win completes a meteoric rise a year after the state assemblyman launched his bid for mayor, promising to make the most expensive city in the country affordable for its working class.

    Who is Zohran Mamdani?

    Mamdani is a three-term state assemblyman who entered the mayor’s race as one of several apparent also-rans to what appeared to be Cuomo’s race to lose.

    Born in Uganda and first raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Mamdani moved to New York City when he was 7. He attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College. He is the son of Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, and Mira Nair, an Indian filmmaker whose credits include “Mississippi Masala” and “Monsoon Wedding.”

    Before becoming an assemblyman, Mamdani was a housing counselor and self-described C-list rapper who went by the name “Mr. Cardamom.” His short-lived music career was sometimes front and center in his opponent’s attack ads.

    The music video for “Nani,” a rap song where Mamdani pays homage to his grandma and New York City’s South Asian culture, also shows him shirtless, donning only an apron, looking directly at the camera while he rocks side to side. The image was plastered across anti-Mamdani campaign ads to poke fun at his past music career and his lack of governmental experience.

    Andrew Epstein, a campaign aide, noted that Mamdani’s rapping career helped him indirectly in his campaign.

    “An incredible asset for anybody seeking to run for office is bravery in the face of embarrassment and being able to push through the natural inclination many of us have not to kind of introduce themselves to strangers or do things in a kind of silly way in front of them,” Epstein told CNN.

    But Mamdani made a steady climb in the mayor’s race by producing a constant stream of social media videos, including interviews with voters who had supported Trump in 2024 due to the high cost of living. He ran a groundbreaking digital campaign in which he spoke in multiple languages and connected with supporters with a message anchored to affordability.  During the campaign, Mamdani, who natively speaks Urdu, released campaign videos in Bangla, Spanish, and Arabic.

    One of his most memorable viral videos tackled what the candidate referred to as “halal-flation.” He set out to interview street meat vendors about the high cost of running a street food business in New York City. With a mouthful of rice and halal meat, Mamdani detailed how an arcane permit system in the city is in part to blame for the prices of what should be cheap street food.

    “This was one of the coldest nights of the year, bitterly cold,” Epstein recalled recently. “We were downtown by Zuccotti Park near Wall Street and Zohran just asking people on the street, ‘Would you rather pay $10 or $8 for halal?’ People were pushing through trying to get home, you know, it was rejection over and over and over and over again, but it never fazed him.”

    Mamdani was cutting into Cuomo’s lead in public polling by the June primary. The city’s traditional power brokers, including the real estate and business sectors concerned with Mamdani’s democratic socialist identity, banded together in support of Cuomo and donated millions of dollars to anti-Mamdani super PACs. Business leaders argued Mamdani would drive wealthy New Yorkers out and discourage businesses from operating in the nation’s financial capital.

    Their push ultimately helped Mamdani cast his campaign as a fight between working-class people and billionaires.

    Still, his primary victory shocked much of the political world.

    “I don’t think the line is so much between progressives and moderates. It’s between fighters and fakers,” said city comptroller Brad Lander, who ran against Mamdani but allied with him under the primary’s ranked-choice voting system. “What Zohran is showing is that it’s worth putting up big bold ideas for change, standing up and fighting for them, and that’s pretty hopeful. Yes, he’s a democratic socialist, but he had a bold vision for the future of the city and that excited people.”

    The general election campaign

    After taking a vacation in Uganda to celebrate his wedding, Mamdani returned to a city mourning the deaths of New York police officer Didarul Islam and three others in a Midtown Manhattan shooting. He was confronted with his years of tweets criticizing the police, including references to law enforcement as racist and wicked and calling for them to be defunded.

    “I am not defunding the police. I am not running to defund the police,” he would tell reporters after meeting with Islam’s family, part of an overall shift away from anti-police rhetoric that culminated in recent weeks with his commitment to retain the current police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

    He also reached out to New York’s Jewish community, roiled by his criticisms of Israel’s government and questions about democratic socialism. Mamdani is an outspoken advocate for  Palestinian rights, a supporter of the movement to boycott and divest from Israel and a fierce critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    “I hate my choices,” said Cydney Schwartz, a 33-year-old liberal Democrat who has lived in Israel and was in line to cast an early vote. She declined to say who she chose.

    The last days of the campaign

    In the closing days of the campaign, Mamdani referred to the race as a choice between “oligarchy and democracy.”  His omnipresence on the campaign trail was on display during the last days of the race and in the lead-up to the last weekend of early voting in the city.

    As more than half a million New Yorkers turned out to cast their votes early, Mamdani was everywhere: He was in church in the morning, calling into radio shows midday, stopping into ethnic supermarkets in the outer boroughs, popping up on influencer live streams, joining a Union Square freestyle rap battle and capping off his Saturday with a whirlwind tour of the city’s nightclub scene.

    Paying homage to the city that never sleeps, Mamdani appeared to hardly do so either, stopping at six nightclubs in Brooklyn just to do it all over again on the last Sunday of early voting. He attended a church service with his parents, met campaign volunteers before stopping on the sidelines of the New York City Marathon, went to Queens for a meet-up with Gov. Kathy Hochul to cheer on the Buffalo Bills, and popped up in the nosebleeds of Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game.

    Cuomo also campaigned across the city. Notably, he tried to cut into Mamdani’s core support of South Asian and Muslim voters by highlighting Mamdani’s opposition to criminal penalties for prostitution. He also laughed when a radio host suggested Mamdani would cheer another 9/11 attack, drawing allegations from Mamdani and others that he was playing to Islamophobia. Cuomo denied he was doing so.

    Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams ended his independent bid and endorsed Cuomo. But Cuomo was unable to push Sliwa, the Republican nominee, out of the race, denying anti-Mamdani voters the chance to consolidate behind one opponent. Sliwa repeatedly and colorfully vowed he would die before making way for Cuomo, arguing he owed it to his supporters to keep running.

    For Cuomo, Tuesday’s results are likely a coda to a long and eventful political career. He was governor of New York for nearly 11 years before resigning in 2021 after he was accused of sexual harassment, allegations he has denied, and amid criticism of how his administration handled Covid-19 cases in nursing homes. Running for mayor, Cuomo leaned into his executive experience, often pointing out Mamdani’s short career in politics and relative lack of work history.

    He relaunched his mayoral bid as an independent after losing to Mamdani in June. He remained focused on public safety, promising to hire additional police officers and build more housing. Cuomo, who has a longstanding relationship with Trump, also sought to portray himself as the better candidate to fend off the president’s attacks on New York City.

    A history-making mayor

    Mamdani will be inaugurated on January 1, 2026. He inherits a deeply complex city home to 8.5 million people, a large bureaucracy, a municipal workforce of roughly 300,000 and a city budget of $115 billion.

    Mamdani will make history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor, the first South Asian to hold the office and one of the youngest mayors elected in modern times. He recently married Rama Duwaji, an artist of Syrian descent who was born in Texas and moved to New York City to complete a master’s degree in illustration. Duwaji skipped traditional campaigning alongside her husband on the trail and while it remains unclear whether she will have any role in his administration, at 28, she will be the first member of Gen Z to serve as New York City’s first lady.

    While Mamdani’s identity as both an immigrant and a South Asian New Yorker was central to his campaign, his connection to that community began to take shape long before he launched his run for City Hall. He first made national headlines in 2021 when he joined New York City cab drivers on a 15-day hunger strike seeking relief from excessive debt.

    Mamdani has a strong connection to the cab driver community in New York City, which is largely made up of immigrants, including thousands of South Asians who were among his fiercest supporters. In the last days of the campaign, Mamdani made a stop at LaGuardia Airport’s taxi stand at midnight, catching cabbies at shift change.

    “Without the night shift, there is no morning,” Mamdani told them.

    CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.

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    Gloria Pazmino and CNN

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  • Lightbridge Academy Greenville: Nurturing Every Child’s Growth

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    Posted on
    by Kidding Around Team
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    Deciding when to start childcare is one of the first big choices new parents make, and it often comes with a mix of excitement and questions. Is my baby ready? Will they adjust? What’s the right age to begin?

    The truth is, every family’s journey looks different. Whether you’re returning to work or seeking a nurturing environment where your little one can grow, finding a trusted center close to home makes all the difference. That’s why families across the Upstate are excited to welcome Lightbridge Academy, opening soon in Greenville.

    Special thanks to Lightbridge Academy for sponsoring this article.

    A Gentle Start for Growing Families

    The early months and years of a child’s life are full of change and discovery. During this time, children thrive in environments that are both safe and stimulating – places where they can explore, bond, and feel loved. At Lightbridge Academy, caregivers understand that every child’s readiness is unique. From infancy onward, teachers follow individualized routines that mirror home life, helping little ones adjust comfortably and confidently.

    Families who begin care earlier often find comfort knowing their babies are surrounded by caring professionals who provide:

    • Consistent routines that create a sense of security
    • Gentle social interaction to encourage early communication
    • Sensory-based play that supports healthy brain development
    • Loving guidance that helps children grow at their own pace
    Lightbridge Academy child and women
    Lightbridge Academy

    What Sets Lightbridge Academy Apart

    Choosing childcare means finding more than a place – it means finding a partnership. Lightbridge Academy is built around the Circle of Care, a philosophy that values the needs of everyone involved: children, parents, teachers, owners, and the community. It’s a true partnership that feels like an extension of your own family.

    Here’s what families can expect when they walk through the doors:

    • Nurturing, trained educators who understand early childhood development
    • Bright, secure classrooms designed for comfort and exploration
    • Learning through play, guided by the Seedlings Early Childhood Curriculum
    • Ongoing family communication through the ParentView® app, with real-time updates, photos, and milestones
    Lightbridge academy kids exploring

    A Whole-Child Approach

    Every Lightbridge Academy program – from infant care through pre-K is designed to nurture the whole child. This means blending academic readiness with emotional, social, and physical growth. Through songs, stories, and age-appropriate activities, children build curiosity, confidence, and compassion.

    Families stay connected and engaged through the ParentView® app, which helps parents share in the milestones that make each day special.

    Lightbridge Academy STEM

    Bringing the Circle of Care to Greenville

    Founded in 1997, Lightbridge Academy has grown into one of the nation’s most trusted early education communities. Now, Greenville families can experience that same warmth and quality care right here in the Upstate. The new location will bring together everything parents love about Lightbridge – a balance of structure and play, learning and love, communication and community.

    Coming soon: Lightbridge Academy

    Your Family’s Next Chapter Starts Here

    There’s no perfect age to start daycare — just the right time for your family. When that moment comes, Lightbridge Academy is ready to welcome you with open arms, providing a safe, joyful, and loving environment for your child’s growth.

    Enrollment is now open for all age groups! Keep an eye out for the Lightbridge team at local events, or visit https://lightbridgeacademy.com/greenville-sc/ to learn more and schedule your tour.

    Lightbridge Academy Greenville
    201 Waldo Leslie Lane, Greenville, SC
    Lightbridge Academy Greenville Facebook

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    Kidding Around Team

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  • Why You Should Let Financially Savvy Female Employees Guide Your Company’s Benefits

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    Perks on the job are usually a nice bonus to have, and can actually help boost performance, as a recent report on offering frontline workers food and work-sponsored outings shows. Other perks hit the headlines for different, sometimes quirky reasons, like the current trend for of Silicon Valley startups letting people go shoeless in the office. Now a new report focuses on how some benefits have a more direct appeal to working women. Its findings could make a difference at your company.

    The most significant finding in the new data shows that women with a high degree of financial literacy are the least satisfied with their company’s benefits programs.

    The data, from Oregon-based insurance and investments provider The Standard, show that three-quarters of women who identify themselves as highly financially aware said employers really need to consider benefits more carefully, including offering caregiving benefits, according to HRDive. More than half of the survey respondents said they should also have different benefits from other members of their household so that their overall needs are met. We can interpret this as meaning that one partner’s job has benefits like flexible hours that line up with the school run, while the other partner’s work offers perks that, for example, offers an end-of-year bonus that will help during the holiday season.

    The report also notes that as women’s wages rise, their confidence in their own financial acumen rises, and this confidence leads to dissatisfaction with company benefits. Higher wages also correlate with “women feeling more limited in their choices for family and career,” the report says. Data, for example, show that for women earning over $200,000, 35 percent admitted to wanting more children but felt they couldn’t afford to expand their families, compared to just 29 percent of women earning under $50,000. Meanwhile, 42 percent of women in the top pay bracket said they’d like to shift their careers, compared to 35 percent of lower-paid women, suggesting that the top earners definitely feel more stuck. 

    Anecdotally, this makes sense: higher wages can be perceived as “golden handcuffs,” and taking time off to have children may impact working women’s household earnings (especially if an employer doesn’t offer family-centric perks). 

    The data also show that women report less confidence in understanding benefits and matters like insurance. That’s important, because two-thirds of women are the primary providers of household-related benefits, and this figure is 72 percent for women making less than $50,000 — the group that also reports the lowest level of financial confidence.

    The report quotes The Standard’s senior vice president for External Affairs, Marketing and Communications, Justin Delany, who outlined why the data is important for companies considering tweaks to their staff benefits packages. “To be most effective at retaining and engaging employees, workplace benefits need to meet the unique needs of different employee populations,” Delaney said, adding that the data show “employers have a significant gap — and opportunity — in meeting the needs of women employees with tailored employee benefits and financial education.”

    The report also points out that tailoring benefits packages for women, as well as benefits education programs to help them better understand what’s on offer, could help people choose their best options. Offering flexible benefits packages, tailored to women workers’ needs, could be key to recruiting and then retaining female staff.

    In March this year, for example, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser landed her company’s benefits system in the spotlight because, unusually among Wall Street firms, she decided to make a concerted effort to support working mothers. While many other industry giants are pushing for strict return-to-office rules, citing vague team-building notions to explain the mandates, Fraser told her staff they’re sticking to the hybrid working model that evolved during the pandemic, allowing most workers to be remote at least two days a week. As well as being what she thinks is truly a “new way of working,” the policy is also extremely family-friendly, and may specifically appeal to working mothers who (as The Standard’s data underlines) typically have more family duties than male workers. 

    What can you take away from this for your company?

    First, if your company offers flexible benefits packages, then you may want to offer, repeat or maybe even rejig an in-house educationaa program explaining the benefits to your staff, particularly since The Standard’s data show women have less confidence in their understanding of these topics.

    Secondly, you have an opportunity to carefully tailor your benefits packages to appeal to female staff — particularly your higher-paid workers. Offering suitable benefits could act as a competitive advantage in the job market, and you could attract talented workers who’d perhaps balk at rival firms’ less-promising benefits packages. It may even help you retain your most valuable female workers for the long term.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • Here’s How Music Can Help Your Baby or Toddler to Learn – POPSUGAR Australia

    Here’s How Music Can Help Your Baby or Toddler to Learn – POPSUGAR Australia

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    There comes a time in most parents’ lives when you find yourself in a place so outside your comfort zone – one not taught in any pre-natal classes. You find yourself in a baby music class.

    For some the baby music class (whatever preference or brand you choose to go with, likelihood if it’s your first baby, you’ll attend several) is a place of joy – it’s been your lifelong dream to be in a room where it’s not just cool, but positively encouraged to sing out as loud as your heart desires. But for many people, it can be an uncomfortable place, mumbling words it’s just assumed you know to a million nursery rhymes while getting the hand actions repeatedly wrong. Oh, and if you’re there with a young baby, chances are you’ll miss the majority of the class when the baby does a poo-nami or falls asleep (despite the fact you’d spent the last two hours trying to get them to sleep before the class.

    Experts Featured in This Article

    Jessica Rolph is CEO and co-founder of Lovevery, a company focused on healthy brain development for children under five.

    It can find yourself, by the time you get home, wondering if it’s all really worth it? Well, rest assured, baby and toddler development experts say music can be important for young children, for lots of reasons.

    With that in mind – and if you’d rather take the many verses of Wheels on the Bus while safely at home – renowned toy company Lovevery have launched The Music Set (available from 17 October), a musical version of their award-winning play kits, containing everything from jingle bracelets to concertinas. Ahead of the launch we asked Lovevry CEO Jessica Rolph to explain why music can be so beneficial to small children.

    How Can Music Help Children’s Learning and Wellbeing?

    School readiness: “Early exposure to music has been shown to improve many school readiness skills like language, math, and executive function,” says Rolph. “Studies show that playing music can also boost reasoning skills, as your child learns to translate abstract ideas-like notes on a sheet of music-into sounds, rhythms, and songs.”

    Behaviour: “Engaging with music may also help preschoolers think before they act,” adds Rolph. “Following directions is a big part of music-your child learns to start and stop, play loudly or quietly, and make the right sound by hitting this note and not that one. This musical play can help strengthen your child’s inhibition-an executive function that includes skills like impulse control and emotional regulation.”

    Movement: “And music gets children moving!” says Rolph. “Music gives them a chance to practice both gross motor control and proprioception – the understanding of where their body is in space.”

    Language: “Your child engages with early language skills every time you read them a bedtime story or point out words when you go about your day. Look for similar ways to incorporate music.”

    Rhiannon Evans is the interim content director at PS UK. Rhiannon has been a journalist for 17 years, starting at local newspapers before moving to work for Heat magazine and Grazia. As a senior editor at Grazia, she helped launch parenting brand The Juggle, worked across brand partnerships, and launched the “Grazia Life Advice” podcast. An NCE-qualified journalist (yes, with a 120-words-per-minute shorthand), she has written for The Guardian, Vice and Refinery29.

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    Rhiannon evans

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  • AuPairCare Celebrates International Exchange Day by Championing Multilingual Learning and Literacy in Local Communities

    AuPairCare Celebrates International Exchange Day by Championing Multilingual Learning and Literacy in Local Communities

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    SAN FRANCISCO, August 30, 2024 (Newswire.com)
    –
    AuPairCare (www.aupaircare.com), a leading international au pair agency designated by the U.S. Department of State that facilitates cultural exchange through live-in childcare, celebrated International Exchange Day by promoting cross-cultural understanding and highlighting the importance of international education with hundreds of gatherings across the nation with American host families and their international au pairs.

    Au pairs are international young people who come to the U.S. on a J1 cultural exchange visa and live as a member of an American host family, providing flexible, live-in childcare. Au pairs not only provide flexible childcare but are also instrumental in a child’s development and learning. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) highlights the benefits of early language exposure, noting, “Research shows that children who are exposed to multiple languages from an early age demonstrate improved cognitive abilities, such as enhanced problem-solving skills and greater creativity.” Families across the U.S. are seeking out international au pairs who can interact with their children in multiple languages, recognizing the short-term and long-term benefits of multilingual learning.

    “Children are so smart and can pick up a new language very quickly. Families want to expose their children to new cultures and perspectives through language, food and new customs and traditions,” said Sarah McNamara, Senior Vice President at AuPairCare. AuPairCare has carefully screened au pairs from over 40 different countries around the world who are proficient in speaking, on average, two to three different languages. 

    “The cultural perspective is one of the reasons we are with AuPairCare. We have our children in a Japanese immersion school … and now we have a Japanese au pair. She helps them with their language, and we have learned so much about Japanese culture,” shared Host Mom Tricia Freeman. “It’s such a wonderful thing to bring the world into the home of our children.”

    A big part of multilingual learning for children is through song and books, which is why AuPairCare placed the focus of its Exchange Day events on libraries and literacy. “Local libraries are at the heart of a community, and you will find so many AuPairCare au pairs at the local library with their host children, reading books in English and also Spanish or Mandarin, French or Portuguese,” shared Courtney Biggs, Vice President of AuPairCare. 

    AuPairCare’s dedicated team of local Area Directors, who support host families and au pairs throughout their placement year, aimed to celebrate the spirit of cultural exchange by hosting cultural exchange events with a focus on promoting libraries and literacy in their local communities. Event highlights included Annapolis area au pairs, host families, and local teachers gathering at their local library to celebrate Exchange Day. Au Pair Laurie from Colombia was excited to explore a new library branch with her host child. “We love spending time reading books together on hot days.” The group decorated rocks with uplifting messages, gave back to their community with a book donation, and connected about the amazing impact of the au pair program.

    The AuPairCare au pair and host family groups of South Orange County and North San Diego County, California, met with their Area Director for a special literacy-themed Exchange Day celebration. The event was held at a local county library, where au pairs read books to children, followed by a delightful gelato treat — a perfect blend of learning, cultural exchange, and fun.

    For 35 years, AuPairCare has been enriching lives and bridging cultures. The au pair program has impacted hundreds of thousands of au pairs who come to the U.S. to share in American culture before returning home to spread the values they’ve experienced. This year’s 35th anniversary designated a significant milestone of longevity and a testament to the transformative impact AuPairCare has had on countless lives worldwide.

    About AuPairCare 

    As the premier au pair agency, AuPairCare is dedicated to matching families in the United States with international au pairs who provide live-in childcare and bring the world into your home. Celebrating 35 years in cultural exchange, AuPairCare has matched over 100,000 au pairs from all over the world with loving host families and a focus on cultural exchange here in America. AuPairCare is a Department of State-regulated sponsor agency and a part of Intrax, Inc. For more information, visit www.aupaircare.com.

    Source: AuPairCare, Inc.

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  • J.D. Vance Says Remarks on Kamala Harris and “Childless Cat Ladies” Was “Sarcasm” In Interview with Megyn Kelly

    J.D. Vance Says Remarks on Kamala Harris and “Childless Cat Ladies” Was “Sarcasm” In Interview with Megyn Kelly

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    Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance claimed that his past remarks on the country being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies” was merely a “sarcastic comment” in a face-saving interview with journalist and television personality Megyn Kelly that aired Friday.

    In a 2021 interview with former Fox News host and current ally Tucker Carlson, Vance said, “We’re effectively run in this country—via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs—by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” Vance then mentions Vice President Kamala Harris by name.

    “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment,” Ohio Senator Vance told Kelly on Friday. “I’ve got nothing against cats, I’ve got nothing against dogs, I’ve got one dog at home, and I love him, Megyn.” “But,” he continued, “people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said, and the substance of what I said, Megyn, I’m sorry, it’s true. It’s true that we’ve become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child.”

    In the week since President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and subsequently endorse Harris, there’s been a fresh resurgence of backlash for comments Vance made in the past on the political and social value of parents over childless Americans.

    The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board slammed Vance’s comments as “the sort of smart-aleck crack that gets laughs in certain right-wing male precincts” but “doesn’t play well with the millions of female voters, many of them Republican, who will decide the presidential race.”

    Vance’s 2021 conversation with Carlson was an attempt to address comments he had made just days earlier during a speech hosted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonprofit that promotes conservative thought on college campuses. In that address, Vance said parents should have more voting power than childless Americans.

    “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children,” Vance said at the time. “When you go to the polls in this country, as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our Democratic Republic, than people who don’t have kids.”

    He took aim at Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Harris, claiming that leading Democrats without kids have no “physical commitment to the future of this country.”

    Booker and AOC do not currently have children. The month after Vance’s comments, Buttigieg and his husband Chasten adopted newborn twins. And while Vice President Harris does not have biological children, she is the stepmom of two children, Ella and Cole Emhoff, who refer to her as “Momala.” On Thursday, Ella addressed Vance’s comments about her stepmom on Instagram, saying, “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?”

    On Kelly’s show this week, Vance claimed that his remarks about parental voting power was “obviously” a “thought experiment.”

    “I don’t know her family situation,” he continued, referring to Harris. “I’ve read in the media that she’s got two stepkids. I wish her stepchildren, and Kamala Harris and her whole family, the very best. The point is not that she’s lesser; the point is that her party has pursued a set of policies that are profoundly anti-child.”

    In both past campaign cycles and this one, Harris has been outspoken in her support for implementing policies that benefit parents, such as comprehensive access to child care and paid family leave.

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    Katie Herchenroeder

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  • How the $10-a-day child care program can affect your taxes – MoneySense

    How the $10-a-day child care program can affect your taxes – MoneySense

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    Understanding the tax impact of more affordable care

    Here’s the problem: your child-care expense deduction will decrease if you pay less to your child-care provider. As a result, your taxes payable will likely increase, depending on your income level. A reduced child-care expense deduction will also increase the net income on your tax return. This is the figure your refundable tax credits, like the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) are based on. These important monthly benefits, therefore, could shrink.  

    To understand this fully, take a look your tax return from last year. The child-care expense used as a deduction is found on line 21400 after being calculated on form T778. Net income is at line 23600. That important line is used for government “income testing” for a number of provisions on the return, including refundable tax credits like the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Worker’s Benefit and the GST/HST Credit. It will also determine how much OAS (Old Age Security) seniors will get, or whether employment insurance (EI) benefits will be clawed back. Just as important, non-refundable tax credits, like the spousal amount, may be affected. 

    When your net income goes up because of your lower child-care expenses, these benefits are reduced, unfortunately.  

    Invest to offset a reduced net income

    There is some good news for astute investors, howeve,. To keep your family’s net income low despite the reduction in your child-care expense deduction, make an RRSP (registered retirement savings plan) contribution. The resulting RRSP tax deduction reduces your net income and your taxable income and, in the process, works to increase income-tested refundable and non-refundable tax credits too! Check out how much RRSP room you have on your notice of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to make the contribution. 

    The same effect occurs if you can claim a deduction for contributions made to the first home savings account (FHSA). An annual deduction of up to $8,000 may be claimable. 

    Maximize your child-care claim

    The final way to shore up the tax benefits from your child-care expenses is to make sure you claim all of them and to your best tax advantage. 

    Child-care expenses are often missed entirely by parents. If this has happened to you, did you know you can go back and adjust prior filed returns to make that claim and receive the tax-credit benefits and tax refunds you missed? Especially if you are a first-time filer, be warned, however, that the claim for child care is complex and often audited. Be prepared to provide receipts to justify your claim.

    It’s also important to know that the spouse with the lower income is the one that must claim child-care expenses, except in certain defined circumstances: when the lower earner is unable to care for the children due to a mental or physical infirmity, is in full time attendance at a qualifying school, or in hospital or incarcerated for at least two weeks, for example. Another exception is when there is a breakdown in the conjugal relationship for at least 90 days, but a reconciliation takes place within the first 60 days of the year. The usual $5,000, $8,000 or $11,000 maximum amounts claimable by the higher earner may be reduced, however, with a maximum weekly calculation.  

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    Evelyn Jacks, RWM, MFA, MFA-P, FDFS

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  • Veterinarians Putting Children First

    Veterinarians Putting Children First

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    BEND, Ore., June 18, 2024 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Vet Cadets Childcare is a first-of-its-kind, certified childcare center located inside the Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon’s Emergency and Specialty Hospital. It is a center to support both staff and parents in the Bend community with comprehensive, educational programming for children 12 months to six years of age. The great news for Bend families is that parents do not need to be employed by VRCCO to enroll their children.

    Adhering to the VRCCO company values of beyond expectations, one team and compassion, Vet Cadet’s inception was meant to support employee parents dealing with a lack of care facilities in Bend, in a region that is often referred to as Central Oregon’s “child care desert.” Taking into consideration that more than 60% of veterinary professionals are women, VRCCO believed that child care would be an appreciated addition to their new hospital site. Also, working within a 24-hour establishment poses challenges for any parent with young children. VRCCO hopes this center mitigates stress, eliminates extra commutes and enables parents to enjoy their kids throughout the day. 

    Although it may seem like an odd combination, VRCCO has welcomed this program with open arms. Through a secure company volunteer program, employees may even take an active role within the center, another unexpected family forward benefit. School-aged children of employees have been able to participate as volunteers and gain community service hours in the process. These volunteers have quickly become class favorites and these relationships have instilled a beautiful sense of community within the hospital.

    VRCCO didn’t account for all of the added benefits that this center brings to their company. As many are aware, the veterinary industry is notorious for compassion fatigue and burnout. While most people are driven to this field because of their love and compassion for animals, it can be difficult to face the stress of caring for sick/injured pets each day. What came as a surprise to the VRCCO staff was how uplifting the presence of children can be. Hearing their laughter or seeing them play can be a welcome distraction on a difficult day, one that positively impacts the team’s morale.

    Vet Cadet’s teachers have also become esteemed team members, their positions supported by the hospital qualifying them for full company benefits. VRCCO refers to their employees as heroes, which is an appropriate sentiment to the value these teachers have given to this program, to the parents that utilize their service and fortunately to the company as a whole.

    Vet Cadets is currently enrolling. Spots that aren’t filled by employees are welcome to the public through full-time or daily drop-in care. Vet Cadets is also hosting a family-fun community event at Ponch’s Place on Saturday, June 29 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., 62889 NE Oxford Ct. in Bend, OR. Crafts will be set up for children 12 months and older. 

    For program inquiries, please contact: Kelly-Anne MacDowell: kmacdowell@vrcvet.com  | www.vetcadets.com 

    Source: Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon

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  • Canvassing with kids: Dem moms want to use campaign cash for childcare

    Canvassing with kids: Dem moms want to use campaign cash for childcare

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    A group of Democratic mothers in the Arizona Legislature want to know if candidates running for office can use their campaign funds for child care. Led by Sen. Eva Diaz of Tolleson, the women on May 9 asked Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes — the first mother to serve as AG in Arizona — for a legal opinion on whether existing state law deems childcare expenses for a candidate’s children that are necessary because of campaign activities are considered “personal use” or permissible campaign expenses. …

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    Caitlin Sievers | Arizona Mirror

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  • What happens if your child care provider pulls out of $10-a-day daycare? – MoneySense

    What happens if your child care provider pulls out of $10-a-day daycare? – MoneySense

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    While imperfect, the $10-a-day system has been widely applauded for making child care more affordable and equitable for more Canadians. And it looks like it’s here to stay, as legislation that commits the federal government to funding the system long term is poised to become law. However, the national daycare plan is facing some big challenges, including a still-limited number of spaces and the widely reported closures of child care centres that can’t cover their costs.

    “Supply is still insufficient to meet the urgent demand for affordable child care spaces,” says Morna Ballantyne, executive director of Child Care Now, a group that advocates for publicly funded child care. “The early learning and child care sector is undergoing major change.”

    Families who were fortunate enough to secure a subsidized spot for their child and receive rebates for their fees are estimated to save thousands per year: as much as $6,780 annually per child in Nova Scotia and $9,390 annually per child in British Columbia, for example. If a daycare centre were to pull out of the program, or even shut down, these families would be left scrambling to find affordable child care.

    How $10-a-day daycare works

    The goal of the national child care plan is to provide affordable and inclusive care for all families. To make this happen, provincial and territorial governments made funding deals that have rolled out in stages, starting with daycares that elected to join the program and freeze their fees in March of 2022. This was followed by a series of refunds to parents via a child care fee subsidy (whose details vary by province and territory). Currently, CWELCC-participating daycares continue to reduce their frozen fees, with a plan to get the cost down to $10 per day by 2026.

    Why some daycares are pulling out of the program

    Operators in multiple provinces are threatening to pull out of the system—and some have already gone back to their old private fee structure or closed their doors. They say the federal-provincial agreements, which limit the fees they can charge, are not providing enough funding to cover their costs. Daycares that opted in to the program at the outset are still receiving funding coverage to match their revenue at that time, but as inflation neared an annual average of 4% over 2023, the governments’ top-up of less than 3% has been insufficient. As a result, many daycares have faced a shortfall, and some say they have been saddled with unsustainable levels of debt. 

    A group of operators in Alberta, led by the Association of Alberta Childcare Entrepreneurs, held a series of rolling closures in early February to bring attention to the issue. The Alberta government has since promised changes to the funding model, including affordability grants and a streamlined payment process for daycare operators.  

    In Ontario, under the province’s current funding model, the YMCA, the largest licensed daycare provider in the province, says it’s running at a loss of $10,000 to $13,000 per year for each infant in its care. The YMCA has said it hoped to see a new funding formula in the fall of 2023, but that hasn’t materialized. A spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said the province is pushing for more federal money. 

    In other parts of the country, particularly in big cities where the cost of living is high, the story is much the same. An analysis by Cardus, a public policy group, said the rollout of child care expansion programs in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have all been slow to start and have had underwhelming results. In its first year, New Brunswick only created 300 new child care spaces, which is barely a dent in its five-year target of 3,400 additional spots. While the funding to cover operating costs—which have been on the rise due to inflation—is a major piece of the puzzle in many areas, it’s just part of the problem. Staffing daycares is the other issue. 

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    Karen Robock

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  • This Effective Way to Fund Childcare Does Not Rely on Congress

    This Effective Way to Fund Childcare Does Not Rely on Congress

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    Erica Gallegos, who worked as an organizer in New Mexico a decade ago, at one point had “stepped foot in every single childcare center in the state,” she told me, sometimes spending a week in small towns five hours from her home, getting to know people, hearing their concerns and building trust. While you may have heard the good news about New Mexico’s constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to early childhood education that passed with 70% of the vote via ballot initiative in 2022, you may not know that it took around 12 years of building constituent power around this issue before it passed. In addition to getting to know childcare providers, parents, and other stakeholders, advocates used political power in 2020 to successfully primary four conservative Democrats who were blocking getting the amendment before voters. After all that legwork, they got support from allies like New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and New Mexicans got the chance to vote for transformational change more than a decade in the making. 

    It was a win worth celebrating. And yet make no mistake: America is still in the midst of a severe childcare crisis. The pandemic decimated the already threadbare industry forcing 16,000 childcare centers to close nationwide and 100,000 workers to leave the profession. And unfortunately, the sector is now sustaining another body blow: billions in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that’s been keeping remaining providers afloat began running out at the end of September. The predictions for what will happen are dire: more than 3 million children may lose their spots, and more than 70,000 centers may close. A 2023 poll conducted by the First Five Years Fund found that nearly 80% of voters from across the political spectrum support more federal funding for childcare, and yet after the failure of Build Back Better’s social legislation to pass in 2021, there’s little chance of major funding for at least a few more years.

    Read More: The Biden Administration Tries to Fix Childcare–Again

    So how can we attempt to stabilize the industry now rather than waiting around for a federal miracle? After speaking with more than 40 care leaders for my report, A Playbook to Transform How America Cares for the Better Life Lab at New America, I discovered a broad consensus that ballot initiatives like the one in New Mexico are one of the most effective ways of getting meaningful funding for care policies for kids right now.

    Given the intensity of the 2020 election, you might be forgiven if you did not track what Children’s Funding Project CEO Elizabeth Gaines called “a children’s wave” with seven ballot initiatives passing to fund early childhood initiatives, often using a mechanism called voter-approved children’s funds, where dedicated local public revenue for children’s services outside of K-12 education is approved by voters. There are currently more than 50 local funds across the country, and this tactic unlocks $1.5 billion annually. 

    While getting funding for kids on the ballot might seem like a quick workaround for politics as usual, there typically is no such thing as an overnight success – although our current nationwide childcare catastrophe may create more urgency for this type of action. 

    New Mexico is funding its program using a unique existing $26 billion fund that was created in 1912 and funded by oil and gas revenue along with interest, so it didn’t require raising new taxes. In many other areas, the political calculus revolves around the question of whether voters, especially in red states, really want to vote to raise their own taxes for early childhood funding.

    Sometimes, it turns out, the answer is yes.

    Read More: As People Return to Offices, It’s Back to Misery for America’s Working Moms

    Activists in New Orleans learned a lot about this after their first ballot initiative for early childhood funding failed. In 2020, Mayor LaToya Cantrell approached some early-childcare advocates with an idea: through a ballot initiative, she wanted to adjust the city budget to fund 100 more childcare seats for low-income students by shifting some of the library budget to early-childhood funding. “We were operating under two assumptions,” says Hamilton Simons-Jones, secretary of Ready Kids New Orleans. “One was that we can’t pass a new tax. We have to figure out how to do this within the existing amount of tax people are paying. And two, that we gotta take what they give us.” 

    The campaign did not go well. The opposition to cutting the library budget was fierce, and those pushing the initiative had a hard time generating enthusiastic support in the community about adding only 100 new seats. “Our childcare-provider advocates were out waving signs on Election Day, and motorists were stopping to cuss at them,” Simons-Jones recalls. “They’d yell, ‘You’re taking money from libraries!’ It was terrible.” The December 2020 ballot referendum failed, with only 43% of voters supporting it.

    But instead of giving up, advocates licked their wounds, regrouped, and decided to go bigger. They conducted their own voter polling and found that, contrary to previous assumptions, people actually were willing to vote to increase taxes for early education, under the right circumstances. Based on their research, they came up with the highest property tax hike they thought voters would pass and calculated that, with the help of matching funds from the State of Louisiana, they would be able to access a total of over $40 million annually for early-childhood seats for 2,000 low-income students in New Orleans, rather than only 100 in the Mayor’s first proposal. An advocacy group called For Providers By Providers kicked into high gear for get-out-the-vote efforts and the campaign was able to pay a stipend to childcare workers to phone bank and go door-to-door, sharing their own experiences to illustrate why this funding was so important. These stories strongly resonated with voters, and the measure passed with 61% of the vote, delivering a huge victory for advocates and low-income families. 

    And it’s not just New Orleans that has been able to find bipartisan support for these funds. In 2020 Escambia County in the Florida panhandle approved the creation of a children’s service trust with 61% of the vote at the same time Trump won the area with 57% of the vote. Child advocates were able to bring on business leaders to support the proposal. After the community suffered $300 million in damage as a result of Hurricane Sally in September 2020, more leaders got on board with the idea that kids’ services needed a stable source of funding, especially given the instability of the pandemic as well. The initiative is now raising $10 million per year for 10 years funded through a property-tax increase. 

    Gaines thinks unlocking funding through ballot initiatives creates important momentum. “We have to be incentivizing each other all over the place,” she explains. “The feds need to be incentivizing the states, the states need to be incentivizing the locals. Locals need to be pushing up and saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing it. Why aren’t you doing it?’” 

    Putting funding for kids on the ballot at the state and local level won’t solve the nation’s childcare woes (especially since not all states allow ballot initiatives) or fully stabilize the industry (it needs billions that only the federal government can provide). But it does offer some meaningful partial solutions and shows people with power that communities want and need childcare solutions now and will vote to raise their own taxes to support them. Now that we’re being forced to deal with the fallout of the ARPA funding cliff, ballot initiatives for future “children’s waves” are needed more than ever. 

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    Katherine Goldstein

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  • To Attract the Next Generation, Transit Provider Offering Child Care Benefits to Employees

    To Attract the Next Generation, Transit Provider Offering Child Care Benefits to Employees

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    TOOTRiS Child Care On-Demand and the Memphis Area Transit Authority partner to provide Child Care benefits to new and current employees

    Press Release
    –

    Jan 5, 2023


    SAN DIEGO, January 5, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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    With 9 in 10 transit agencies across the country struggling to hire bus operators, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is launching an innovative solution. MATA is partnering with TOOTRiS Child Care On-Demand to provide new Child Care benefits to employees – including $200/month in financial assistance.

    Effective immediately, MATA working parents will have access to the TOOTRiS platform enabling them to quickly search, vet and enroll their children in real-time. With over 185,000 licensed Child Care providers on its nationwide network, TOOTRiS provides parents options including full-time, part-time care, drop-in care, after-school programs, summer camps, and care for non-standard hours – an important option for drivers with night and weekend shifts. 

    “We’re proud of the valued service our team provides to Memphis, with over 5 million passenger trips each year,” said Bacarra Mauldin, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of MATA. “By partnering with TOOTRiS, we are appealing to a new generation of workers who care about the community and want to work for an organization that cares about them.”

    The number of bus drivers across the US is declining as many are nearing retirement. A recent American Public Transportation Association survey found the average transit operator is nearly 53 years old, more than 10 years older than workers in other industries. With the cost of Child Care for two children in Tennessee averaging $16,199, offering Child Care benefits is a way to help parents while providing a rewarding job.

    “Innovative agencies like MATA realize that to attract the next generation of employees you need a culture that supports their families as well,” said Alessandra Lezama, TOOTRiS CEO and select member of the ReadyNation CEO Task Force on Early Childhood. “They are an excellent example of how employers can support working parents by providing turn-key Child Care benefits – specifically as it enables more women to return to the workforce.”

    About MATA

    The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is the public transportation provider for the Memphis area. As one of the largest transit operators in Tennessee, MATA transports customers in the City of Memphis and parts of Shelby County on fixed-route buses, paratransit vehicles and vintage rail trolleys. For more information, visit www.matatransit.com.

    About TOOTRiS

    TOOTRiS is reinventing the Child Care industry as the first and only technology that unites all the key stakeholders – parents, providers, employers, agencies – into a single platform enabling them to connect and transact in real-time. Through TOOTRiS, parents and providers also connect directly, allowing working parents to quickly find and secure quality Child Care while allowing providers to unlock their potential and fully monetize their program. 

    Contact Information: 

    Jeff McAdam – Creative Director – Press and Media Production
    jmcadam@tootris.com 
    720-988-0984 

    Source: TOOTRiS

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  • Long Hours at Day Care Don’t Worsen Young Kid’s Behavior: Study

    Long Hours at Day Care Don’t Worsen Young Kid’s Behavior: Study

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    Nov. 16, 2022 — Working parents will be relieved to know that young children who spend extended hours in childcare centers are not at greater risk for behavior problems.    

    In a new study published in the journal Child Development,  researchers looked at data on more than 10,000 preschoolers enrolled in seven studies from five countries in North America and Europe. It found that longer periods spent in center-based child care was not tied to overt antisocial behavior in toddlers and preschoolers.  

    Based on teacher and parent reports, the international investigators found no increase in “externalizing” behaviors, like bullying, picking fights, hitting, biting, kicking, hair pulling, and even restlessness.

    “This is reassuring given that trends in child-care use and parental participation in the labor force are likely to remain stable,” wrote the group led by Catalina Rey-Guerra, a PhD candidate at Boston College in Massachusetts.

    The study also found no evidence that socioeconomic status such as household income and mother’s educational level changed the effect of time a child spent in center-based care.

    And far from worsening behavior, care centers can provide stimulation through lasting learning benefits. 

    “Given the existing evidence of long-term achievement benefits of early childhood care and education for children, I think our findings speak to both the direct positive effects that attending child care might have on children and also the indirect positive effects through their parents being able to participate in the workforce without the fear of any harmful effects to their child,” Rey-Guerra says. 

    Policies ensuring access to quality child care should be an international priority, she says. 

    For nearly 40 years, researchers have debated whether time in center-based child care directly causes children to develop behavioral problems. 

    “Disagreements have been difficult to settle because the vast majority of studies done are purely ‘correlational,’ leaving open many alternative explanations as to why children who spend large amounts of time in center care could be at risk other than center care per se,” Rey-Guerra says. 

    The research has also relied on just a few studies from the U.S.

    “Our aim was to improve the research, providing rigorous tests of whether increasing a child’s time in center-based care leads to increases in problem behaviors, and using data from seven studies from five countries,” she continues. 

    Research results have so far been mixed and inconclusive, and concern has lingered after some suggested harm. A 2001 analysis, for example, found that 17% of children spending more than 30 hours per week in child care exhibited aggressive behaviors, while these behaviors were seen in only 8% of children with fewer hours.   

    But other research, such as a 2015 study from Norway, found that the amount of time spent in care centers by age or entry had insignificant effects on behavior. And research from Canada found that aggressive behaviors were more often exhibited by children in exclusive maternal care than those attending group day care. 

    Several explanations for bad behaviors have been proposed, from severing the parent-child attachment to young children’s imitation of disruptive behaviors seen in their childcare mates. 

    But “most of these hypotheses have not proven true,” Rey-Guerra says. “There is some evidence, however, that risk goes up if children spend continuous time, across their childhoods, in classrooms that have excessively large groups of young children, such as when centers exceed the recommended teacher-to-child ratios.” (These are 1:4 for infants, 1:7 for toddlers, and 1:8 for preschoolers.)

    Carol Weitzman, MD, a pediatrician in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, cautions that there are vast differences across countries in parental leave and family policies, and therefore the experience of one is not necessarily applicable to another. 

    “However, that is what makes the findings of this study so robust. In no setting was the amount of child care associated with behavior problems,” says Weitzman, who was not involved in the international study. 

    Regardless of care settings — whether center-based, other nonparental care, or parental care — quality is key, with undesirable reactions more likely in children whose needs are not being met. 

    “Then you are more likely to see maladaptive and stressed behaviors such as aggression, acting out, and mood dysregulation,” Weitzman says. 

    She notes that preschoolers are developmentally ready to negotiate interpersonal situations such as sharing, taking turns with toys, and waiting to have immediate needs met.

    “Quality child care scaffolds children so they can learn to identify and describe emotions and negotiate increasingly complex social situations.” It can also help preschoolers develop friendship and understand the experiences of others.

    So why does this question about the bad effects of center-based care continue to be asked? 

    “One must wonder if there’s an underlying bias that children not in maternal care will fare worse and there will be threats to attachment,”  Weitzman says. “When women comprise approximately 50% of the U.S. workforce, our questions should be about how to ensure quality and affordable care for all children and how to establish and enforce child-friendly parental leave policies.” She adds that the other four countries in the study all ranked higher than the U.S. in terms of paid parental and maternity leave. 

    “In fact, we are last when compared with 40 other developed nations,” she says. 

    In her view, all types of childcare settings should have the same mission and standards —  all aimed at promoting optimal development in the young.

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  • Parents Encouraged to Keep Kids Home if Sick With GI Bugs

    Parents Encouraged to Keep Kids Home if Sick With GI Bugs

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    Nov. 1, 2022 – Attention parents: If your child is showing signs of a stomach bug, do not send them to school or day care. 

    That’s the take-home message in a new CDC report, which found that nearly 90% of outbreaks of acute gastrointestinal infections in schools and child care settings result from person-to-person contact. 

    “Clinicians should encourage parents to keep children out of school for up to 24 hours after symptoms have subsided, as viral shedding may continue after symptoms stop,” says Janine Cory, a spokesperson for the CDC. 

    She also encouraged pediatricians to reinforce good hygiene habits with parents, including making sure children stay home if they are sick and that they wash their hands with warm water and soap, as most hand sanitizers are not effective against the germs most often linked to GI outbreaks in kids. 

    The report, published in the journal Pediatrics, was based on an analysis by CDC researchers and their colleagues of more than 4,600 outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis – what many people call a “stomach flu” – between 2009 and 2020. 

    Most outbreaks occurred in schools between October and March, and typically involved viral infections. Around 86% of all outbreaks in the study were linked to person-to-person contact. Roughly two-thirds of all outbreaks during the study period involved strains of norovirus or the bacteria species shigella. 

    Symptoms of norovirus infection include diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain, according to the CDC. Shigellosis, the infection caused by shigella, can cause bloody stool and diarrhea, high fever, severe stomach cramping and tenderness, and dehydration. 

    Schools and child care centers accounted for an average of 457 outbreaks and 15,779 cases per year during the study period. (The number of outbreaks plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, as kids stayed home during lockdowns, according to the researchers.)

    While outbreaks in schools were significantly larger than those in child care centers, sickness in child care centers lasted longer. Outbreaks in schools lasted 9 days, on average, while child care center outbreaks lasted for an average of 15 days. Around 98% of outbreaks were to blame for at least one visit to the emergency room, the researchers report. 

    Bacterial outbreaks may spread more in child care facilities due to the presence of diapered children, poor hand hygiene, and the younger age of the children, the researchers say.  

    Tim Joos, MD, a pediatrician and internist in Seattle, says fielding calls about norovirus infections and shigellosis is a routine part of his day – particularly during the school year.

    “The phrase ‘something going around the day care’ is heard daily in clinics and emergency rooms,” he says.  

     “As practicing clinicians, we often get caught up with not seeing the forest for the trees. We are often seeing the individual patient’s needs but not the larger trends. Thanks to this study, we now have an overview of the landscape of gastroenteritis,” Joos says. 

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  • Seattle Childcare Company Launches Nationwide Expansion

    Seattle Childcare Company Launches Nationwide Expansion

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    National Leader in Policy Framework for the In-home Childcare industry steps up to Expand Service Area

    Press Release
    –

    Aug 12, 2022


    SEATTLE, August 12, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Seattle Nanny Network, Inc. launches National Nanny Network – allowing for placements of best-in-class, in-home childcare providers nationwide. The company was recently named a finalist in the prestigious multi-state Better Business Bureau Torch Awards for Ethics in Business and has been assisting local families for over two decades.  

    “This wouldn’t be possible without the phenomenal providers we have the privilege to represent every day. Without them, we wouldn’t be relevant,” founder Emily Dills said. “The pandemic has challenged parents and childcare on so many levels. The providers who do this work are essential, and the realization that we could take the terrific work we do locally and offer that to families nationwide is pretty exciting.”

    Seattlenanny.com has been in business since the 1990s. They lead the industry with best practices framework and credit their success to an ability to organically attract applicants based on a reputation for lifting the work through local, state, and federal advocacy. The company was instrumental in creating city-wide “return to work safely” procedures in the midst of the pandemic. They are often called upon as an expert to provide industry commentary. Nationalnanny.com offers the same service that Seattle area families have relied on for decades, making it available to a wider audience.

    Maria Zamora, a 15-year veteran nanny who was placed by the firm in 2020, says she is grateful to them for “guiding me and mediating as an HR team” with her employer. This level of support is critical to work that takes place in isolation, inside private homes, in a largely unregulated industry. 

    National Nanny Network partners with experts across the workplace safety, employee screening, and domestic payroll spaces to provide cutting-edge resources to their clients and job applicants. They also offer educational and mental health resources during a time when the industry is experiencing a major shift due to demand for an often overlooked and undervalued workforce. 

    Contact info@nationalnanny.com 425-803-9511

    Source: National Nanny Network

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  • BookJane Partners With OneHSN to Solve Labor Shortages in Childcare Centres in North America

    BookJane Partners With OneHSN to Solve Labor Shortages in Childcare Centres in North America

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    Press Release
    –

    Mar 31, 2022


    TORONTO, March 31, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    BookJane is pleased to announce that they have partnered with One Human Service Network (OneHSN) to support up to 450 childcare providers across the District of Columba, with their innovative, leading-edge shift call out platform.

    BookJane will make it easier for childcare centers to fill shifts with highly qualified staff by automating and enhancing the shift callout process while also connecting to a substitute pool of qualified childcare workers for facilities to leverage when shifts cannot be filled in real-time. 

    Childcare providers in the District of Columbia area have been experiencing severe staffing shortages as COVID-19 exacerbated already short supplies of qualified childcare workers. Limiting accessibility to affordable childcare and jeopardizing economic recovery as parents are prevented from returning to work to care for their children. 

    By implementing BookJane, childcare centres will be able to use their workforce more efficiently by instantly connecting with available, under-utilized staff and empowering them to accept new shifts based on their own personal availability. This gives the workforce the flexibility to work when they want. With the J360 Workforce, the District of Columbia will be able to reduce administration time by over 50% and increase staff retention by 15-25%.

    With the J360 Workforce will equip childcare centers with a full suite of capabilities, including: 

    • Automated call-out to instantly broadcast open shifts to available staff in real-time
    • The childcare workers will have access to a mobile app to centralize all shift information and empower staff to accept new shifts 
    • Team communications to centralize all announcements and messaging
    • End-to-End scheduling to create, manage and monitor complex schedules
    • Childcare agency integration to access a wider pool of available qualified staff 

    “We are thrilled to be partnering with OneHSN to transform childcare in the District of Columbia,” says Curtis Khan, CEO and Founder of BookJane. “Innovative technology plays an important role in delivering quality care. With the J360 Workforce, Childcare centers will not only be able to improve the efficiency of their childcare centers and ensure they are providing the best care possible, but they will also be able to offer more flexibility and control to staff which is vital to recruitment and retention.”

    About BookJane 

    BookJane is an award-winning shift fulfillment platform transforming the way healthcare facilities across North America schedule and fulfill shifts. Their all-in-one platform streamlines complex call out, connecting qualified internal and external workers force to open shifts through their centralized Mobile App. With BookJane, facilities can easily engage staff, manage open shifts, and fulfill vacancies with automated and rule-based shift callouts, eliminating the administrative burden of scheduling, so they can focus on what matters most: caring for clients.

    Learn more at www.bookjane.com

    For more information:

    Contact:

    Mallory Tretter

    Email: mallory.tretter@bookjane.com

    Phone: 416-859-2229

    Source: BookJane

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  • TOOTRiS & NCCA Partner to Transform the Child Care Industry and Reinvigorate the Economy

    TOOTRiS & NCCA Partner to Transform the Child Care Industry and Reinvigorate the Economy

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    Press Release
    –

    Feb 8, 2022


    SAN DIEGO, February 8, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The Child Care industry continues to suffer a major blow as providers and parents struggle to adapt to constantly changing health and safety guidelines due to the latest COVID variant.

    Family Child Care homes – which make up a large portion of the industry – have been the silent voices of this paralyzed sector. These micro-businesses have had little resources to help boost their programs, although they have been primarily responsible for stepping up and supporting essential workers through the pandemic.

    Meanwhile, larger Child Care Centers continue to grapple with staff recruitment and retention, staggered enrollments, and closures, causing further chaos in an already under-supported and under-funded industry.

    In an effort to empower early childhood educators, TOOTRiS, an on-demand Child Care platform, has partnered with the National Child Care Association (NCCA), which promotes the success of licensed providers in quality early care and education through professional development, advocacy and community engagement.

    The partnership will give Child Care providers across the U.S. access to free software tools and full program automation, including payments, which will help relieve them of administrative burdens so they can focus more of their time improving the quality of their programs and boosting enrollments.

    “Historically, there has been little if any investment made in providers. Most resources are directed towards helping low-income families subsidize the cost of Child Care, which as helpful as it may be for a segment of the population, it does not solve the Child Care supply issue,” said TOOTRiS CEO Alessandra Lezama. “We need to invest in our Early Childhood Education workforce to stimulate the profession and help increase the quality and overall supply of Child Care programs in our country.”

    NCCA member providers will have the opportunity to create free profiles on the TOOTRiS platform, giving their programs more visibility. TOOTRiS – which connects providers, parents and employers in real time – also partners with businesses to offer employer-sponsored Child Care, which helps providers ensure they have full enrollments, maximizing their financial success.

    Under the partnership, TOOTRiS will leverage NCCA’s accreditations to help raise Child Care industry standards. The NCCA’s parent organization, The National Early Childhood Program Accreditation, is one of the top accreditation organizations in the US.

    “This has been one of the most unprecedented times in the history of Child Care. Our partnership with TOOTRiS will bring much-needed resources and a more unified voice to the industry,” said Cindy Lehnhoff, NCCA Director. “TOOTRiS is very innovative and can really help the industry as it goes through a lot of change and transition. TOOTRiS offers a lot of hope and people need hope right now.”

    The partnership is also expected to stimulate the Child Care sector by boosting the number of licensed providers, ensuring all children have access to quality and affordable Child Care.

    “The pandemic will continue to take people out of the industry. Couple that with early childhood education being one of the lowest-paid careers, and you have a crisis,” Lehnhoff said. “We can change that by leveraging the TOOTRiS platform and marketing to those who are passionate about starting their own Child Care programs. The time is now.”

    Visit tootris.com for more information.

    Media Contact 
    Press@tootris.com  
    (858) 263-0725 

    Source: TOOTRiS

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  • Child Care On-Demand for Parents Nationwide

    Child Care On-Demand for Parents Nationwide

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    Press Release
    –

    Jan 18, 2022


    SAN DIEGO, January 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    While COVID continues to ravage the nation, working families are struggling as thousands of Child Care providers have closed their doors. This has left millions of desperate parents who are either juggling working from home while watching the kids or who are quitting work all together. In an effort to help bolster the nation’s crippled economy and get parents back in the workforce, TOOTRiS has expanded its on-demand Child Care platform to all 50 states. With more than 180,000 licensed providers currently on its platform, TOOTRiS touts the largest network of available, real-time Child Care options in the nation.

    The expansion provides much-needed resources and tools to thousands of parents, providers and employers at a time when communities across the nation face an alarming Child Care deficit.

    “American families are in trouble. If we don’t fix the broken Child Care sector, our economy will not rebound and working parents – especially women – will continue to suffer the consequences,” said TOOTRiS Founder and CEO Alessandra Lezama.

    Currently, a majority of US families do not have access to affordable and quality Child Care, primarily due to one or more of the following reasons: a) they can’t afford it, b) they don’t know where to go to search or can’t find open enrollments, or c) the only programs that are available to them don’t meet their needs.

    “We applaud TOOTRiS for introducing an innovative way of helping working parents and employers easily connect with real-time availability of affordable quality Child Care,” said Cindy Lehnhoff, Director of the National Child Care Association, a nationwide nonprofit that advocates and promotes high quality Child Care. “This type of universal online platform also levels the playing field for Family Child Care providers and allows them to stay afloat during these uncertain times.”

    TOOTRiS connects parents, providers and employers in real-time, enabling:

    • Parents to search near their home or work, using filters to find daycare or non-standard hour care that fits their needs and budgetary requirements, even for temporary slots and drop-ins – all accessible for online via desktop, tablet, or a mobile app.
    • Providers to have access to free tools and resources needed to grow their programs and boost enrollments, while automating the administrative functions such as payments.
    • Employers – big and small – to have affordable and seamless solutions to offer Child Care as a Benefit, which is critical for attracting and retaining talent at a time when there are 9.2 million unfilled jobs across the US.

    “Child Care is a business issue and a workforce enabler. Through TOOTRiS, we can re-engineer a scalable and thriving Child Care system of the future, while redesigning the workplace to be more equitable and family friendly,” Lezama said. “This is the future of work, and key to our nation’s ability to compete on a global scale.”

    The nationwide TOOTRiS rollout is a milestone for the startup, founded in 2019 to transform Child Care so that every working parent — especially women — has the same opportunity for advancement by having access to affordable, high quality Child Care; and so that every child, regardless of household income, has the same opportunity to early childhood education that can ensure their kindergarten readiness, and academic success.

    About TOOTRiS
    TOOTRiS is reinventing Child Care, making it convenient, affordable and on-demand. As the world shifts to digitalized services, TOOTRiS helps parents and providers connect and transact in real-time, empowering working parents – especially women – to secure quality Child Care, while allowing providers to unlock their potential and fully monetize their program. It is the only system in today’s marketplace that tracks, publishes and forecasts Child Care availability in real-time and is accessible in multiple languages. TOOTRiS’ unique technology enables employers to provide fully managed Child Care Benefits, giving their workforce the flexibility and family support paramount to regaining employee productivity and increasing their ROI. Visit tootris.com for more information.

    Media Contact
    Press@tootris.com 
    (858) 263-0725

    Source: TOOTRiS

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  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce Honors TOOTRiS With ‘Dream Big’ Minority-Owned Business Achievement Award

    U.S. Chamber of Commerce Honors TOOTRiS With ‘Dream Big’ Minority-Owned Business Achievement Award

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    Innovative on Demand Platform Changing the Child Care Landscape While Creating an Equitable Workforce & Economy 

    Press Release
    –

    Oct 26, 2021


    SAN DIEGO, October 26, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    As the nation’s Child Care crisis escalates, TOOTRiS is garnering national attention for an innovative, real-time platform that is pioneering a new way to connect parents, providers, employers, and service organizations.   

    TOOTRiS, the first on-demand Child Care platform, was recently recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with the Dream Big Minority-Owned Business Achievement Award. The annual Dream Big Awards, held virtually Oct. 21, 2021, celebrates the achievements of small businesses and highlights their contributions to America’s economic growth. TOOTRiS was chosen from a record 1,000+ applications submitted from U.S. businesses.  

    “I’m very excited and humbled by this amazing recognition because we dream big every day,” said TOOTRiS CEO Alessandra Lezama. “Our dedicated team at TOOTRiS shares this recognition with and pays tribute to all the amazing Child Care providers – especially women of color – who hold our communities together and are an integral part of moving our economy forward by helping parents get back to work.” 

    Lezama – a seasoned technology executive and single mom of color – founded TOOTRiS in 2019 with a mission to create a platform that enables more parents – especially women – to participate and thrive in the workforce, while empowering a new crop of women entrepreneurs to launch their own Child Care business. Now, the startup has more than 150,000 Child Care providers on its platform across the U.S.  

    TOOTRiS is also being recognized for helping to create a more equitable workforce by partnering with companies and organizations to make it easier for employees to find quality Child Care by seamlessly integrating its platform with existing benefits programs.

    “Through the Dream Big Awards, the U.S. Chamber is proud to honor the very best in American small business – the innovators, dreamers, and doers who despite this year’s obstacles, continue to be a beacon of hope through their actions, contributions, and leadership. Congratulations to TOOTRiS and all of this year’s award winners and finalists,” said Tom Sullivan, U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president of small business policy.  

    About TOOTRiS 
    TOOTRiS is reinventing Child Care, making it convenient, affordable and on-demand. As the world shifts to digitalized services, TOOTRiS helps parents and providers connect and transact in real-time, empowering working parents – especially women – to secure quality Child Care, while allowing providers to unlock their potential and fully monetize their program. TOOTRiS is creating a new digital economy that promotes entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals with passion and talent to become Child Care providers, improving their quality of life while increasing the much-needed supply of Child Care across the state. TOOTRiS’ unique technology enables employers to provide fully managed Child Care Benefits, giving their workforce the flexibility and family support paramount to regaining employee productivity and increasing their ROI. Visit tootris.com for more information.  

    About the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 
    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business organization representing companies of all sizes across every sector of the economy. Our members range from the small businesses and local chambers of commerce that line the Main Streets of America to leading industry associations and large corporations. They all share one thing: They count on the U.S. Chamber to be their voice in Washington, across the country, and around the world. For more than 100 years, we have advocated for pro-business policies that help businesses create jobs and grow our economy. 

    Media Contact:
    press@tootris.com
    (858) 263-0725

    Source: TOOTRiS

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  • Lux Bus America Partners With TOOTRiS to Provide Employees Across California Access to Child Care

    Lux Bus America Partners With TOOTRiS to Provide Employees Across California Access to Child Care

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Sep 14, 2021


    ANAHEIM, Calif., September 14, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    While many industries are boosting wages and recruitment efforts to desperately find workers during the ongoing pandemic, one charter transportation company is upping the ante by providing its staff access to quality and affordable Child Care.

    Under a partnership with TOOTRiS, Lux Bus America’s employees will have access to thousands of quality and affordable Child Care providers across California. TOOTRiS’ on-demand platform allows parents to search for Child Care providers by entering a zip code and can filter hundreds of criteria such as age, provider type, learning hubs, languages, amenities, activities, meals and more. Parents can also verify a daycare’s licensing, look for compliance red flags, read reviews, contact the director, and more. TOOTRiS – which is available in English, Spanish and Arabic – is the only system in today’s marketplace that tracks, publishes and forecasts Child Care availability in real-time.

    By giving its 1,000 employees access to TOOTRiS, the award-winning Lux Bus America hopes to increase productivity and improve morale, while retaining and recruiting new employees.

    “Like many industries, the transportation sector has taken a hit during the pandemic. As our industry continues to rebound, it’s critical that we give our employees the tools and resources they need to thrive,” said Emma Pitre, Vice President of Operations for Lux Bus America. “Offering our valued staff access to affordable and quality Child Care is part of our continued commitment to providing excellent service. This allows our employees to maintain their stellar productivity while giving them peace of mind that their children are well cared for.”

    Lux Bus America is the first transportation company to join TOOTRiS, and is part of a growing list of national and global organizations that have partnered with the on-demand platform to provide employer-sponsored Child Care.

    “Lux Bus America is a forward-thinking company and I applaud its continued leadership in the industry,” said TOOTRiS Founder and CEO Alessandra Lezama. “As entrepreneurs and company leaders, we can help lay the groundwork for the nation’s economic recovery by supporting the Child Care sector and working parents with innovative solutions.”

    About TOOTRIS
    TOOTRiS is reinventing Child Care, making it convenient, affordable and on-demand. As the world shifts to digitalized services, TOOTRiS helps parents and providers connect and transact in real-time, empowering working parents – especially women – to secure quality Child Care, while allowing providers to unlock their potential and fully monetize their program. TOOTRiS is creating a new digital economy that promotes entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals with passion and talent to become Child Care providers, improving their quality of life while increasing the much-needed supply of Child Care across the state. TOOTRiS’ unique technology enables employers to provide fully managed Child Care Benefits, giving their workforce the flexibility and family support paramount to regaining employee productivity and increasing their ROI.  Visit tootris.com for more information.   

    Media Contact:
    press@tootris.com 
    858-263-0725

    Source: TOOTRiS

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