NWLC Releases New Report on State Child Care Assistance Policies

by Helen Blank,  Director of Leadership and Public Policy, and Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst
National Women's Law Center

Child care is a basic for families. It helps children develop the skills they need to succeed in school and in life. It gives parents the support and peace of mind they need to be productive at work. Despite all of this, a new report from the Center reveals that states fall short of providing low-income parents the support they need to obtain good-quality child care.

This edition of our annual analysis, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2008: Too Little Progress for Children and Families, compares child care assistance policies in 2008 to 2007 and 2001 in four key policy areas: income eligibility (who can get help in paying for child care), waiting lists for assistance, copayment requirements (how much parents have to pay even when they get help), and reimbursement rates for child care providers who care for children receiving assistance. Some states have made modest progress since 2007, but most states continue to be behind where they were in 2001.

For example, in 2008, only 10 states set reimbursement rates for child care providers at federally recommended levels — down from 22 states in 2001. Inadequate reimbursement rates make it difficult for child care providers to support high-quality care and can discourage high-quality providers from serving families receiving child care assistance. In half of the states, the income limits in 2008 were lower as a percentage of poverty than in 2001. As a result, many families with limited incomes struggling to make ends meet cannot qualify for help with their child care costs.

At the root of these insufficient policies is the insufficient funding level for child care assistance, which has failed to keep pace with inflation over the past several years, and has not received even a dime of new funding since 2006. Do responsible parents trying to support their families and ensure their children are in good-quality child care have to pose as irresponsible investment managers to get a little help from the government?

As the U.S. economy struggles to find its footing, what could make more sense than investing in something that helps parents work and be productive today and gives their children the strong start they need so they can contribute to the economy in the future?

To see how your state measures up, read the full report.