Fredericksburg, Va., service for day-care providers moves across town.

By Annette Jones, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Sep. 12--Tomorrow is moving day for The Childcare Network.

The service for day-care providers is moving from the Executive Place building on Caroline Street about a mile down the road to 1907 Charles St. Hilldrup Moving and Storage donated its services.

The new space, the former Charles Street Market, is about double the space the agency has currently.

That means The Childcare Network can hold training sessions for day-care providers right there.

"We use libraries, but the libraries book up pretty quickly," said Childcare Network Executive Director Regina Maloney.

That will be the big difference for the group, which does much of its work over the phone or through the Internet.

"We don't get that many walk-ins," she said.

In addition to offering training and referrals for parents seeking day care for their children, the agency also administers the Rappahannock-area child-care food program, an extension of the school lunch program for nonprofit child-care centers and regulated day-care homes. For providers to be reimbursed, they need to routinely submit their menus to The Childcare Network to ensure that the food meets the federal nutrition guidelines.

The referral service is what people are most aware of when it comes to The Childcare Network. The advent of an e-mail system to send out information has made the agency more efficient.

"It's much quicker for parents and less expensive for us because we don't have to put a stamp on it," Maloney said. When referrals are mailed, it costs the agency at least 60 cents because other information is dispensed in addition to the list of providers.

A nonprofit agency, The Childcare Network gets its funding from a variety of sources, both federal and state as well as local government.

The agency's services and guidelines can be found at thechildcarenetwork.org. Parents can request a list of providers online. Also, there's a form providers can fill out about their availability, services and rates.

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