EXCERPT FROM: Record Enterprise
By Meghan Siegler
LAKES REGION — Decreased funding from the state has posed financial challenges for Lakes Region Child Care Services, but Director Marti Ilg says it's not all bad – the hardships have forced the organization to get creative, and the community has rallied around the nonprofit to help it continue to provide quality childcare to low and moderate-income families.

EXCERPT FROM: Foster's Daily Democrat
BY Conor Makem
FARMINGTON — Anna Wheeler has been running a day care facility for 25 years and has never had an opening for more than a month — until this past year.

EXCERPT FROM: Foster's Daily Democrat
By Conor Makem
ROCHESTER — Lori Metivier-McBride has been living on pins and needles since December. For the past year and a half, she has received state assistance for day care for her 21⁄2 year old daughter, Olivia. But state cuts to day care tuition aid, coupled with what she says was a Department of Health and Human Services error have put into doubt her daughter's day care future.

EXCERPT FROM: Concord Monitor
By Karen Langley
A waiting list for families seeking child-care assistance has grown three times as fast as expected but has not trimmed costs enough to avoid further cuts.

EXCERPT FROM: Foster's Daily Democrat
By Geoff Cunningham Jr.
KITTERY — A lack of funding amid a tough economy has resulted in the decision to close the Family Resource Center at Landmark Hill just before the Christmas holiday.

EXCERPT FROM: Concord Monitor
By Shira Schoenberg
Child-care workers will soon need to be fingerprinted for criminal background checks under a new state law that takes effect Jan. 4.

EXCERPT FROM: Foster's Daily Democrat
By Leslie Modica
DOVER — A nonprofit that provides child care primarily for low-income families is struggling to pay its rent in the McConnell Center and now the City Council must decide if it will increase its planned subsidy while the McConnell Center continues to operate in the red.

Child care advocates fear that low-income parents will keep their kids out of child care programs because of a shortage of tuition aid.

DOVER — Over a thousand low-income families requiring child care assistance could be placed on a waiting list after a dramatic increase in enrollment drained state resources.

Faced with soaring numbers of requests for child-care assistance, the state will start a waiting list this week for any new families seeking subsidies. No additional families are likely to receive aid until July, when more than 1,000 could be on the list, according to the administrator of the state Child Development Bureau.