Andrea Greenstein, Intern

Earlier this year, over 800 West Virginia families with 1,400 children were told they would lose their child care assistance due to changes in the state's eligibility requirements as of January 2013. But this week, those families received a reprieve when Governor Tomblin, recognizing how important child care is to helping families, announced he would be tabling the changes for further review.

West Virginia's income eligibility limit for a family to initially qualify for child care assistance is 150 percent of poverty ($28,635 a year for a family of three), but families already receiving assistance can continue to receive it with incomes up to 185 percent of poverty ($35,317 a year for a family of three). Under the proposed changes, families would have lost assistance as soon as their income reached 150 percent of poverty. Families would have had to find a way to cover the entire cost of care on their own just as they were starting to make progress in their financial situation, but when they were still far from being financially secure.

A report from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy issued in November helped make the case against the proposed cuts by highlighting the effects the cuts would have on children, families, and the economy. The report called for the state to step up and invest its own resources following the expiration of the additional federal child care funds that had been provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.