Child Care Services Association’s vision is that all children have equitable access to affordable, high-quality early care and education to lay the foundation for successful life outcomes.

CCSA improves the quality of child care in North Carolina for all children by helping families find child care, offering informational events for families, professional development opportunities and programs for providers and comprehensive child care research for policymakers.


How CCSA Helps

CCSA’s mission is to lead efforts to strengthen accessible and affordable quality early care and education by providing supports for families, communities and the workforce.

As a nonprofit organization and United Way member, we are proud to be a leader in early care and education systems on local, state and national levels.

Program Highlights

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship NC provides debt-free college education with comprehensive scholarships for the early education workforce. T.E.A.C.H. is also offered nationally through the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® National Center

Professional Development

The education level of early childhood teachers has been linked with quality care in numerous research studies. CCSA offers a variety of professional development opportunities to support high-quality services, and actively encourages providers to enroll in early childhood courses.

Child Care WAGE$®

The Child Care WAGE$® program provides tiered education-based salary supplements to teachers, directors and family child care educators in North Carolina. The goal is better-educated teachers and better outcomes for children.

Families

We offer a wide range of services to help families find, evaluate and pay for quality child care.

Find Child Care

Child Care Referral Central offers free and convenient ways to obtain referrals to child care in your area.

Evaluate Child Care

When families need child care, it’s important that their children are enrolled in the highest quality care possible.

Pay for Child Care

Quality child care can be expensive. We provide a number of resources for families to get help paying for child care.


See All Resources for Families »

Providers

Our work helps educators and directors provide quality child care services to families.

Wage & Scholarship Support

Whether you’re just getting started or already working in child care, we have a variety of wage support options and scholarships for furthering education.

Program Development

We offer coaching, technical assistance, professional development opportunities and more.

Healthy Beginnings

From nutrition to behavior to homelessness services, we can help you provide healthy beginnings for all children.


See All Resources for Providers »

Upcoming Events

Research

In order to improve an early care and education (ECE) system, comprehensive accurate data which identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the system must first be collected. Therefore, our research department conducts a broad array of studies to address issues related to early care and education.

In-Depth Studies

Read about topics such as childhood systems and child care workforce.​

NC ECE Data Repository

Search the NC ECE Data Repository and download child care fact sheets.​

Other Resources

See CCSA’s list of national and North Carolina-specific data resources.

How to Support CCSA Research & More

Our work results in enormous benefits for children, families and the community. Your gift may help fund our research, support a parent who is starting a new job, or assist a child care teacher who wants to finish an early childhood education degree.

Help us make sure every child has a good start to lifelong learning in a safe, nurturing, quality environment.

See Other Ways to Contribute »

Latest News

  • Observations and Meaningful Change

    When working with one of our skilled Birth-to-Three Specialist (B-3S) coaches, Practice-Based Coaching (PBC) participants get the benefit of supportive and constructive feedback related to their teaching and administrative practices. This feedback has the potential to not only improve quality in the child care facility, but increase professionalism and a sense of wellbeing for staff, children and families through development of a warm and nurturing environment. An essential part of the feedback process is regular PBC participant observation to understand the impact of classroom change as it occurs. Many participants ask for the reasoning behind our diligent observation efforts. In this article, we unpack how these observations work logistically, what they are intended to do and why they are essential to helping our project enhance our coaching services.
    Continue reading Observations and Meaningful Change »
  • Meet Allison Miller

    In our employee spotlight series, we highlight some of the wonderful people who make Child Care Services Association a success. Meet Allison Miller and learn about her perspective of CCSA and how it has changed over the years. As we celebrate our 50th year, learn about the profound impact of our staff’s commitment to CCSA and everyone we serve.
    Continue reading Meet Allison Miller »
  • Durham PreK Provides Hope to Early Childhood Education in North Carolina

    In this article about the challenges facing the child care sector in North Carolina, Durham PreK serves as a glimmer of hope. Linda Chappel, Senior Vice President of Child Care Services Association, and County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs, discuss the importance of Durham County’s local investment in ensuring young learners are not left behind due to unaffordable care.
    Continue reading Durham PreK Provides Hope to Early Childhood Education in North Carolina »

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Have questions? We can help!

Contact us.

We are available online or by phone at 919-967-3272, Monday—Friday, 8 a.m.—5 p.m.