ACCESS CHILD CARE FOR MY FAMILY
Navigating early childhood education can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone. Explore these links and tools designed to help you confidently choose the right learning environment for your child.
Finding Opportunities
One of the most important decisions when searching for early child care and education is finding the right location for your family. No matter your priorities – programming, location, size, cost, or something else – tools exist to help you understand the various options available to your family.
Great Start to Quality
Great Start to Quality is Michigan’s system for helping families find and compare licensed child care and preschool programs. Every program in the system is rated on things like the learning environment, staff qualifications, and how well the program partners with families — so you can see more than just what’s nearby and what it costs.
Choosing a program that participates means choosing one that has opened its doors to review and committed to improving. You can search by location, age, and schedule, and the Upper Peninsula Resource Center is available to help you sort through options or find payment support if cost is a barrier.
PreK for all
Michigan’s PreK for All initiative offers free, high-quality preschool to 4-year-olds through several programs — the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Head Start, and participating community-based centers. GSRP has met all 10 quality benchmarks set by the National Institute for Early Education Research, one of only a handful of states in the country to do so.
Children who turn 4 by December 1 can enroll and the income cap has been removed, so all Michigan families are eligible — though enrollment happens in rounds, with the highest-need families placed first. Michigan is also piloting a home-based PreK option.
Learn more about the Pre-K for All Initiative.
You can also call the Great Start to Quality Upper Peninsula Resource Center at 906-228-3362 to find out whether it’s available near you.
Covering the Cost
Quality care is an investment, but you don’t have to carry the cost alone.
The following links share potential resources to help families cover the costs of Early Care and Education:
MI Tri-Share
MI Tri-Share divides the cost of licensed child care three ways: one-third paid by the family, one-third by the employer, and one-third by the State of Michigan. Eligibility is based on household size and income, and participation requires that your employer be enrolled in the program. Families may often continue with their current provider, provided that provider is licensed. A regional facilitator hub (in the U.P. that’s the Marquette-Alger RESA) coordinates enrollment and payments and can confirm whether your employer participates.
Michigan 211
211 helpline provides referrals to programs to assist with food, housing, financial assistance, utility assistance, early care and education, and more. Help is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, from anywhere in the state of Michigan.