Types of Early Care and Education Providers

High-quality early childhood care and education has a significant impact on the lives of children and their families. High-quality experiences for children from birth to five should include enriching activities in developmentally appropriate environments, while also providing families with necessary resources and support.

Virginia has many quality options for early childhood care and education for children aged birth-to-five:

• Child Care Center A facility that cares for children outside of a residence to provide supervision, protection and well-being of a child under the age of 13.

• Family Day Home Family day is offered in the home of the provider and is the most common form of child care in this country, especially for younger children. Parents may choose family child care for its intimate, home-like setting, flexible hours, consistency of caregiver, and small group size.

• Wrap-Around Care This is care offered to children when their school is closed which includes before and after school care, holidays and summer.

• Head Start Head Start and Early Head Start are federal programs that promote school readiness for children birth to age five. Head Start is a child-centered, family focused, comprehensive and community-based program providing high quality services to promote academic, physical, social and emotional development for income-eligible children and their families

• Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) VPI is a program that distributes state funds to schools and community-based organizations to provide high-quality preschool programs for at-risk four-year-olds not served by Head Start. The purpose of the program is to reduce disparities among children entering kindergarten and to reduce or eliminate those risk factors that may lead to early academic failure.