Child Care Division

Who We Are

The Child Care Division (CCD) of the Department of Human and Social Services (DHSS), as the State Administrator of Child Care Developmental Funds (CCDF) allocated by the Administration for Children and Families: Office of Child Care oversees the American Samoa Child Care Program (AS CCP). The American Samoa Child Care Program (AS CCP) provides for the following assistance for families:

• offers subsidies to help with child care expenses;
• guidance in selecting a child care provider;
• information about quality child care programs;
• and referrals to community resources for help with other needs or concerns.

Target Population: The AS CCP helps low-income families sustain their employment, furthering education, and job training by paying a subsidy for their children's care by authorized child care providers.  Unless child care is provided for protective reasons and/ or is part of an Actively Seeking Employment (ASE) initiative, there are income and activity eligibility requirements for this program. Priority placement for services is also afforded to special needs children, including those that have physical, emotional, developmental, or other disabilities. Children served by the AS CCP range from infants to children less than 13 years of age.

The AS CCP aims to protect the health, safety, and well-being of children enrolled in authorized child care settings by developing and enforcing minimum standards for these facilities. This is done through monitoring and capacity building efforts for providers and their staff.

Vision

Children of American Samoa, under the age of 13, are cared for in a nurturing, safe, and healthy child care setting that promotes a love of learning and increases school readiness, while supporting parent self-sufficiency as they engage in employment, training or education, or are actively seeking employment.

Mission

“Connecting Great Kids with Great Care!”

Division Goals and Objectives

Goal 1	Build a Child Care subsidy system that is child-focused, family friendly, and works in partnership with service providers.
Goal 2	Strengthen accountability and transparency.
	Objective 2.1	Planning and implementation practices are data-driven, focusing on outcome-based activities with structured benchmarks that also allows for the collection and analysis of quantitative and/ or qualitative data.
	Objective 2.2	Constantly seek to promote transparency through the sharing of information, data, and other applicable resources
	Objective 2.3	Strengthen licensing systems to utilize nationally recognized best practices.
	Objective 2.4	Integrate technology-based solutions to increase efficiency, accountability, and transparency.
Goal 3	Ensure health and safety of children in child care.
	Objective 3.1	Establish clear and comprehensive health and safety requirements for child care providers.
	Objective 3.2	Formulate and implement consistent monitoring system that provides support and strict accountability measures.
	Objective 3.3	Prevent childhood obesity by integrating and supporting evidence-based best practices in nutrition, physical activity, and screening services in child care settings.
Goal 4	Serve as the primary and effective resource for families seeking information and assistance with high quality child care services.
	Objective 4.1	Provide comprehensive program and service information utilizing various approaches.
	Objective 4.2	Implement social marketing strategies to raise awareness and help more low-income children access quality child care.
Goal 5	Support parent employment and other self-sufficiency activities, while expanding the high-quality choices available to parents across the range of child care settings.
	Objective 5.1	Constantly seek to find ways to expand resource and referral services, reaching out to and supporting low-income families.
	Objective 5.2	Define quality child care services using specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART) measures , with a special focus on quality infant and toddler care.
	Objective 5.3	Implement a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) that will promote and incentivize high quality providers.
Goal 6	Increase the integration of early learning programs and strategies across the range of child care settings.
	Objective 6.1	Build professional development systems and workforce initiatives to help child care professionals pursue better training and higher education, moving up career ladders to higher compensation.
Goal 7	Constantly explore and implement innovative strategies to provide improved services for our communities.
	Objective 7.1	Implement professional development systems and initiatives to help Child Care Division workforce pursue better training and higher education.
	Objective 7.2	Employ compensatory systems based on performance and credentials.
Goal 8	Foster partnerships with public and private organizations that provides resources and services for infants and children less than 13 years of age to maximize available resources that supports a continuum of quality care and education services.