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2 workplace and attain self-sufficiency. Providing access to quality child care is a key component in efforts to assist families in achieving economic self-sufficiency. To accomplish the mission and achieve the vision of the CCPO, the following strategies for families accessing quality child care will be applied. a. Access: • Helping families pay child care costs; • Connecting families to the statewide Child Care Resource and Referral Network (CCR&R); and • Recruiting and retaining child care providers. b. Quality: • Licensing child carefacilities; • Providing professional development opportunities for child care providers; • Distributing consumer information about quality child care; • Offering financial and technical support to child care facilities; and • Supporting early childhood care and education initiatives to promote and reflect best practices in the field of Early Childhood Education. 4000-1 CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM OVERVIEW Nationally child care assistance programs have been in existence for over thirty (30) years. Child care programs were initially authorized under Title IV-A of the Social Security Act-Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Child Care, Transitional Child Care and At-Risk Child Care. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) repealed the child care programs authorized under Title IV-A of the Social Security Act and amended section 418 of the Social Security Act to provide new entitlement Federal child care funds and transferred them to the Lead Agency under the amended Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG). Alaska’s Lead Agency is the Department of Health (DOH), Division of Public Assistance (DPA), Child Care Program Office (CCPO).The new statutory provisions unified and streamlined the system for child care programs. This integrated