Due to limited funding, starting Friday, August 1, 2025, the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) will not be accepting new applications. Applications received or postmarked after July 31, 2025, will not be reviewed.

Children currently served by the Child Care Assistance Program will continue to receive assistance for the duration of their agreement and at scheduled redeterminations, as long as they remain eligible. Unfortunately, new children cannot be added to existing CCAP cases after July 31, 2025.

If you need assistance paying for child care, you can check whether you are eligible for the Head Start child care program or if your school district has free child care for three- and four-year-olds.

Additional funding is not anticipated for the foreseeable future.

Please visit the ChildCareNJ.gov CCAP Application Closed page for information.

 

 

Adult & Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED Classes are now scheduled for July, August, & September!

Check out our flyer or the calendar on our website for more details. 

We are thrilled to announce that we have scheduled our next Child Development Associate (CDA) Training Series!

Share our flyer with anyone who might be interested, and visit our CDA Virtual Classroom for more information. We hope to see you in June!

If you are a family receiving child care assistance through New Jersey’s Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development, federal law requires you to share in the cost of child care using a sliding fee scale (meaning cost is adjusted depending on your income). This fee is known as copayment or copay. Please note that your child care provider will begin collecting copayments from you starting August 1, 2024.

Copayments had been temporarily suspended since the onset of, and recovery from, the COVID-19 pandemic due to the availability of additional federal funding. That funding is no longer available, and federal law requires families receiving child care assistance to share in the cost of child care by making copayments, with limited exceptions.

Are you interested in strengthening your child care/preschool business by working with other like-minded owners/directors? Consider applying to be a member of the Mercer County Early Childhood Shared Services Alliance! Click here for more information.

Find out what’s in the December edition by clicking here! 

Child Care Connection has updated its Mercer County Quick Facts: Children, Families, and Child Care.  For a copy, Click Here.

Child Care Connection has added a job bank to our website for Mercer County-based child care centers seeking employees. Please contact if you would like to post a job opening.  To look at the posted job openings, Click Here.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA)  approved the creation of the $54.5 million Child Care Facilities Improvement Pilot Program for child care centers and family child care homes. Through Phase 1 of the program, the NJEDA will provide nearly $15 million in grants of up to $200,000 to licensed child care centers in New Jersey to cover the costs of facility improvements. The Child Care Facilities Improvement Program provides grants to New Jersey child care providers for facilities improvements that will contribute to high quality early childhood learning environments.  

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) announced  that it will close applications for Phase 1 of its Child Care Facilities Improvement Program on October 20, 2023. Following overwhelming interest in, and demand throughout, Phase 1 of the program the NJEDA plans to open applications for Phase 2 in 2024. This second phase will provide grants to Registered Family Child Care Homes (FCCs) to address facilities improvements.

 

Child Care Connection has just posted its ECC newsletter for providers.  Click here to view it!