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Child Care

Access to quality early childhood programs, including preschool and child care, is essential for low-income working parents. If parents are expected to work, then early childhood programs must be safe, affordable, and available. Beyond that, society has an interest in ensuring that the programs are of good quality, providing something more than just babysitting.

The 1996 welfare reform law consolidated several different sources of federal funding for child care into the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). CCDBG provides a block grant to states for child care assistance to help low-income working families become and remain independent. CCDBG provides money for child care assistance for low-income families, families receiving public assistance, and those enrolled in training or education or who are working and transitioning from public assistance. States can use these funds to help families who need child care in order to work and to help families move out of and stay off of welfare. CCDBG includes funds specifically dedicated to improving the quality, as well as the amount of child care available, to low income families.

Funding of CCDBG comes from three sources:

  • CCDBG funding is included at a mandatory level specified in the welfare law.
  • Congress annually appropriates a discretionary amount.
  • States may choose to use part of their federal welfare block grant for child care. The amount varies from year to year and has decreased dramatically because of states’ fiscal crises.

For many parents, child care is essential in order for them to work. For families leaving welfare, child care is pivotal to a parent’s ability to make a smooth transition from welfare to work. For child care arrangements to support working families, they must be affordable, available, reliable, and of good quality. Many low-income parents, however, have difficulty finding child care settings that are affordable and flexible enough to accommodate their work schedules, while also meeting their child’s developmental needs.

We support annual funding increases for Head Start and the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG), so that both programs are able to serve a greater number of eligible children. Federal child care assistance only reaches one out of every seven eligible children, and we continue to advocate for funding increases so that more children and their families can be served. RESULTS and our allies call on Congress to include a $1 billion increase for CCDBG and a $1 billion increase for Head Start in the FY 2011 Labor-HHS appropriations bill. See our Current Campaigns Summary  for the latest on Congress' action on these important programs. You can take action by sending e-mails to Congress using our Head Start and child care funding action alert. In addition, RESULTS strongly supports the Children First Act of 2010 (S. 3667/H.R. 5938), which expands funding and improves quality for child care for low-income families by increasing mandatory child care funding by $800 million in FY 2011, with provisions for inflation adjustments until FY 2014.

Cost of Child Care Increasingly Strains Household Budgets

For low-income and other families, child care is often the highest or second highest cost in family budgets.  More parents now spend large portions of their income on child care; some are forced to quit their jobs and turn to welfare when child care assistance is not available.  Despite the importance of high-quality child care to school readiness and later success, only about one in six children eligible for federal child care assistance receives help, and this unmet need continues to grow as the eligible population has increased and the number of children receiving assistance has declined. The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) report, Parents and the High Cost of Child Care - 2010 Update, reveals that child care prices continue to rise, despite the nation's economic downturn. NACCRRA found that since 2000, the cost of child care has increased twice as fast as the median income of families with children and the cost of care for an infant in a child care center is more than the cost of college tuition and related expenses in 40 states. As child care costs rise, parents are shifting their children from licensed programs to informal care that potentially compromises their safety, health, and school readiness.

Reauthorization Long Overdue

Program rules for operating CCDBG have not been reauthorized for several years. CCDBG has been operating under a series of extensions. Reauthorization in 2011 would be an opportunity to improve the program.

One of the leading organizations for child care providers is the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA). NACCRRA recommends congressional hearings on CCDBG to examine quality and affordability issues. NACCRRA points out that the military child care system was revamped in a way that assures high quality, affordability and accountability. The Military Child Care Act of 1989 strengthened the system. CCDBG should be reformed on this model. See NACCRRA’s key legislation policy statement. NACCRRA also released a 12-point plan to create a national community-based training system for the child care workforce. Recommendations include:

  • requiring all paid providers to have a minimum of 40 hours of training in child development and guidance, first aid, health and safety practices, etc. prior to working with children
  • expanding training options in languages other than English and in distance education through means such as on-line training
  • developing wage incentive, bonus, and recognition models that reward higher levels of training and competency
  • developing training evaluation models and assessment measures to evaluate the effectiveness of training in improving individual child care provider competency

Child care is not effective if the quality is poor. Therefore, it is essential for child care providers to receive proper training so that they are prepared to handle different challenges and are able to provide important services to children and their families.

In May 2009, Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) reintroduced his Starting Early, Starting Right Act (S.1000). The bill amends CCDBG with a focus on bolstering the quality of child care as well as increasing access to child care assistance for low-income families. An increase of $50 billion in mandatory child care funds over five years would assist states in expanding families’ access to high-quality child care. The companion House bill is H.R.4358 by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI-2).

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