Child care is expensive – ask any working parent. Child care is often the second largest monthly expense, after mortgage/rent payments, which a family with young children deals with.

Parents with children in more than three dozen South Hampton Roads child care facilities will soon be able to look on a Web site to see how many stars their provider has earned.

“One in five kids isn’t ready for kindergarten. Five out of five parents don’t think it’s their child.”

EDINBURG — Amidst the whirlwind of diaper changes, midnight feedings and sheer excitement that follow a baby's arrival, working parents have an important question to consider: What happens when mom and dad go back to work?

When the director of a national agency talks about the cost of child care, she jokes that parents should send their 2-year-olds to college.

Next fall, North Arlington will provide free full-day preschool for economically disadvantaged three- and four-year-old children, according to the school district. The district currently offers half-day pre-Kindergarten classes, but will expand the program to six hours per day for 37 students in three classes next year with the help of state funding.

The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) announces a partnership with Smart Horizons, a division of Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. (AST), a com pany that specializes in the development of computer-based instruction and training. The partnership will enable NACCRRA to provide more than 800 Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) located through out the United States with the technology to facilitate a variety of e-Learning opportunities for child care professionals. These e-Learning opportunities, which will include a 120-hour Child Development Associate (CDA) training, a pre-service training series, and other state licensing requirements and CDA credential renewal requirements, will provide child care professionals with professional development opportunities that research suggests will lead to higher quality child care.

A July 15 ribbon-cutting at Fort Myer, Va., marked the official opening of a new 50,831-square-foot facility that serves children from birth to age 12. The space can serve up to 438 children and has an atrium, activity rooms, computer labs, multipurpose room, kitchen, laundry and space for outdoor activity, post officials reported.

On June 24, the Alexandria City Council approved $300,000 in funding for the City's early care and education programs. This funding will help ensure that all families who need child care can access it and that all preschool children can receive a quality early education that adequately prepares them for kindergarten. The Council's action also supports Governor Timothy M. Kaine's commitment to providing access to high-quality preschool for more of Virginia's four-year-olds.