96 new licensed home-based child care spaces have been created in Danbury.  The child care initiative from United Way of Western Connecticut, called Cora’s Kids, is helping to fill the need for safe, affordable child care for lower-wage workers. 

The program was launched in 2018 in response to what some felt was a child care crisis in the city with not enough licensed spaces, especially for infants and toddlers.  Parents were resorting to placing their children in unlicensed, potentially unsafe care that didn’t meet their children’s developmental needs.  Teachers were reporting children in preschools and kindergarten lacked basic, age-appropriate skills to thrive in educational settings. 

Cora’s Kids launched 16 new Family Child Care homes over the past 21 months. 19 additional providers are in the process of getting their licenses.  The United Way has also created a broader Danbury Family Child Care Network to improve the quality of child care across Greater Danbury. 

There are now 40 providers who are part of the Family Child Care network: the 16 newly licensed providers and another 24 previously licensed providers.