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Child Care - Overview - Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) consolidates all aspects of childcare and residential services for children, including adoption agencies, to:

·      Set and enforce health, safety, and educational standards for children and youth;

·      Ensure quality childcare through consumer education and professional development and training;

·      Create an integrated system for delivery of quality, accessible, and affordable child care services, birth through school age;

·      Standardize eligibility requirements and intake procedures for families looking for subsidized child care;

·      Prioritize access to state subsidized child care by targeting eligible low income families, authorized welfare-to-work participants, teen parents, and Department of Social Services family support consumers; and

·      Coordinate childcare services with the Department of Education and other state agencies involved with early care and education.

EEC regulates, through licensing, all family childcare homes, group day care centers, and school age child care centers, as well as residential homes for children with special needs and child placement agencies (e.g., foster care or adoption agencies). EEC also administers and purchases subsidized childcare for income eligible families, early learning services, special childcare services, and childcare resource and referral services. EEC implements the Federal Child Care and Development Funds (CCDF) allocated to each State to increase the availability, affordability, and quality of early childhood and school age care.

An overview of the different program types of child care available through various programs in Massachusetts is available in the Child Care - Program Types - Massachusetts topic. It has links to more detailed descriptions of the programs along with links to additional detailed explanatory topics.

Additional Information

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about child care in Massachusetts may be found in the Child Care - Frequently Asked Questions - Massachusetts topic.

For additional information you can visit the website of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care website at:
http://www.eec.state.ma.us/

You can access the Child Care regulations at:
http://www.eec.state.ma.us/kr_regulations.aspx. (You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view most sections of the regulations.)

See also:

Child Care - Program Types - Massachusetts

Child Care - Frequently Asked Questions - Massachusetts

Child Care - Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Definitions - Massachusetts

Source

Information for this topic was drawn from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care website at:
http://www.eec.state.ma.us/

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