Find answers to common questions about Child Care Can, the coalition, child care policy, and ways to get involved.

Child Care Can is a statewide, multi-year campaign to strengthen Nebraska through public investment in affordable, quality child care. The campaign is grounded in a simple belief: The quality of care we provide to children, and to the people who care for them, will help determine Nebraska’s competitiveness and future. 

Child Care Can is working to build public understanding and support for practical policy solutions that increase access to affordable, quality child care across Nebraska.

Child Care Can has one long-term policy goal: secure robust, recurring public investment that increases access to affordable, quality child care throughout Nebraska.

Along the way, establish child care as an important part of Nebraska’s long-term strategy for economic competitiveness and community vitality.

For too many Nebraska families, quality child care has become harder to find, harder to afford, and harder to keep. At the same time, child care providers are working long hours in businesses that can be difficult to sustain.

Nebraska is also competing with other states for families, workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses. Other states, including Montana, Iowa, New Mexico, and Louisiana are making intentional investments in child care as a strategy to support families, strengthen their workforce, and grow their economies.

Child Care Can believes Nebraska has an opportunity to lead by making affordable, quality child care part of its long-term strategy for growth and competitiveness.

Strengthening Nebraska’s child care system is a complex challenge that will require multiple strategies, coordinated action, and sustained work over several years. Child Care Can brings those efforts together in one comprehensive campaign with a shared vision, consistent communications, a broad statewide coalition, and coordinated policy strategies.

Child care makes much of Nebraska’s daily life and economy possible. It allows parents to go to work, gives children a safe place to learn and grow, helps employers attract and retain workers, supports communities, and provides the foundation families need to build their lives here.

When child care works, the benefits extend far beyond an individual family. And when child care is unavailable, unaffordable, or unsustainable, the effects are also felt by employers, communities, child care providers, and Nebraska’s economy. Child care is economic infrastructure, like schools, roads, and hospitals.

Working parents need reliable child care to participate in the workforce. Employers need those workers to operate and grow. Communities need families to live, work, and build their lives there. Affordable, quality child care helps parents work, employers attract and retain talent, providers build sustainable businesses, and communities compete for families and workers. That makes child care not only a family issue, but a workforce and economic development issue.

Infrastructure includes the foundational systems that allow people, communities, and economies to function. Nebraska depends on roads, schools, hospitals, public safety systems — and it also depends on child care. Every day, child care providers in homes, centers, and schools make it possible for parents to go to work and businesses to have the workforce they need. Child care is part of the infrastructure that keeps Nebraska’s economy working.

States compete for people and economic opportunity. Families consider whether they can afford to build a life in a community. Workers need the systems that allow them to work and raise a family. Businesses need access to a reliable workforce.

States that invest in the resources working families need are better positioned to retain young families, attract talent, strengthen their workforce, and grow their economies. Child Care Can believes affordable, quality child care can be a competitive advantage for Nebraska.

Child care helps communities retain families, support working parents, sustain local businesses, and create places where children can learn, grow, and succeed.

The impact can be particularly visible when child care disappears. When a provider closes or families cannot find care, parents may have to drive farther, change work schedules, leave jobs, or reconsider whether a community can meet their family’s needs. A strong child care system helps communities remain strong and positioned for growth.

Fundamentally, Nebraska families need high-quality choices that meet their unique care needs at a price point they can afford without shortchanging other necessities.