Strategic Planning for Child Care Programs Tool Kit

The following materials and process suggestions are intended to assist States and Territories in engaging a strategic planning process to support quality child care for infants and toddlers. The process is modeled on the early care and education system model (ecomodel) and planning process used by the National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative, a project of the Child Care Bureau. It is designed to maximize involvement of planning committee members and other stakeholders while minimizing face-to-face meeting requirements. The process can be used to conduct a complete analysis of the State/Territory’s early care and education system’s support for infant and toddler child care and/or plan for the use of CCDF infant toddler targeted funds. It can also be used to address specific issues such as the development of infant toddler specialist networks or credentials for the infant toddler workforce It is recommended that two half-day or one full-day be scheduled for an issue specific planning process and a day and a half to two days be allocated for an early care and education system analysis.