CCLC® Opens Child Care Center in Washington, D.C., to Support Child Care Needs for Parents and Businesses

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The need for work-life balance continues to be a major theme among working parents and their employers, particularly in Washington, D.C. Helping to address this need, CCLC^®, a national child care provider dedicated to quality employer-sponsored early childhood education, announced plans to build a child care center in the heart of Washington, D.C. The CCLC @ 2200 Penn Child Care Center is an expansion of existing CCLC backup care offerings – providing both full-time and backup child care to local businesses and their working families, as well as to the community.

“With this new center and our recent announcement of a CCLC backup center in New York City, our goal is to provide hard-working parents with flexibility, and options that adjust to their changing schedules and last-minute child care needs.”

Backup child care offers parents resources when their usual care arrangements are disrupted or if their child’s caregiver is ill or on vacation. The CCLC @ 2200 Penn Child Care Center is designed to care for up to 67 children ages six weeks to five years. In addition to backup child care, approximately half of the spaces will be available for regular, full-time enrollment by families in the community. The new center is scheduled to open in late spring 2011, and will be conveniently located at 2200 Pennsylvania Avenue.

“As the nation’s capital and our country’s ‘political headquarters,’ it’s no surprise that working parents and local businesses in Washington, D.C., are in need of more child care support and work-life solutions,” said Fran Durekas, CCLC Founder and Chief Development Officer. “With this new center and our recent announcement of a CCLC backup center in New York City, our goal is to provide hard-working parents with flexibility, and options that adjust to their changing schedules and last-minute child care needs.”

Backup care is an important recruiting differentiator for companies. In addition to saving businesses money, offering backup child care reduces turnover and absenteeism in the workplace.

In a study of employees with children in company-sponsored child care programs, 93 percent of respondents said that work-site child care was an important factor in considering a job change (Simmons College).
A national survey also found that 59 percent of employees and their spouses missed between three and ten days of work in the last year due to the lack of adequate backup child care. (Workplace Options, Public Policy Polling).

Neighborhood businesses will have the opportunity to partner with CCLC to provide backup child care benefits to their employees. Businesses may also be able to take advantage of alternate benefits, including priority access, and tuition subsidies or discounts to increase availability and affordability of child care. Interested businesses can contact CCLC at 2200Penn@cclc.com.

New Backup Center to Be Eco-Healthy

In addition to giving employers a unique benefit to offer employees, the CCLC @ 2200 Penn Child Care Center also will offer an eco-healthy environment for children. All CCLC^®programs are endorsed as Eco-Healthy Child Care centers by the Oregon Environmental Council and focus on providing the healthiest possible physical space, nutritious meals and stewardship of the environment. One-hundred percent of CCLC centers meet the Oregon Environmental Council’s Eco-Healthy Child Care National Standards covering areas such as pesticides, air quality, household chemicals, lead, mercury, furniture and carpets, non-toxic art supplies, plastics, playground equipment, recycling and nutrition.

Curriculum

CCLC utilizes a play-based, thematic and multicultural curriculum for all age groups through its proprietary program, which incorporates physical, social, language, cognitive and emotional development. In addition, the centers offer supplemental enrichment programs for accelerated learning.

About CCLC^®

CCLC is a national child care provider dedicated to developing unique and effective employer-sponsored child care programs. Founded in 1992, CCLC currently operates more than 100 employer-sponsored child development centers. Recognized for its unique approach, CCLC has been honored by Working Mother’s inaugural Best Companies for Hourly Workers awards and named to the prestigious Center for Companies That Care Honor Roll for the past two years. In 2009, CCLC also received the Moving Into the Future Award from The Conference Board's Work Life Leadership Council for its Eco-Healthy Child Care initiative. CCLC offers high-quality child care programs for children ages six weeks to 12 years through on-site or near-site child development centers, before and after school programs, summer camps and specialized dependent care programs such as priority access and backup child care. CCLC has extensive experience providing quality, convenient and affordable child care programs for working families, creating professional work environments for early childhood educators and helping our clients realize their goals for recruitment, retention and work-life benefits. For more information visit www.cclc.com, and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ConnectCCLC.