Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst

Karen Schulman is a Senior Policy Analyst in NWLC's Family Economic Security division. She researches and writes about child care and early education policies. She received her bachelor's degree from Williams College and her master's degree in Public Policy from Duke University. Prior to joining NWLC, she worked at the Children's Defense Fund. She enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews and is glad they will grow up thinking there is nothing unusual about a woman being Speaker of the House or running for President.

Expert in: Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care, Child Care Assistance, Child Care Tax Strategies, Head Start, Family, Friend & Neighbor Care, Prekindergarten, Military Child Care, Unionization
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My Take

Investments in Child Care Help Moms

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: May 10, 2012 at 12:13 pm

This blog post is a part of NWLC’s Mother’s Day 2012 blog series. For all our Mother’s Day posts, please click here.

As mothers across the country celebrate Mother’s Day with their children this Sunday, many will be enjoying their time together with their daughters and sons. But many mothers who have young children and work outside the home will be looking ahead to the work week with trepidation, worrying about their child care arrangements.

Some mothers will be fortunate enough to have grandparents or relatives available and willing to provide child care—just like my brother and sister, who have children ranging in ages from 3 to 14, are able to rely on our Mom and Dad to provide care and after-school pick-ups and drop-offs. Some mothers earn enough to afford high-quality, dependable child care in a center or family child care home, where their children receive plenty of attention, nurturing, support, and opportunities to learn. And some mothers are able to receive child care assistance to help them afford the care they want for their children and that they need to work and to have peace of mind while at work.

Yet, many other mothers do not have any good child care options. In many cases, grandparents and relatives live far away, have to work themselves, or are not available to provide care for other reasons. Mothers often are not able to find conveniently located, high-quality child care with slots available, or are not able to find child care that covers their work hours—particularly if they work hours other than the traditional 9am to 5pm. Or they may find a terrific child care program, but are not able to afford it.

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Assistance | Add new comment

Bill to Ensure Child Care Assistance for Low-Income Families Is a Step Forward

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: May 04, 2012 at 09:34 am

Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) recently introduced the Ensuring Child Care for Working Families Act of 2012 (H.R. 5188), a bill that would guarantee child care assistance for families with incomes up to 200 percent of poverty who need child care to work or attend an education or training program. The bill would eliminate the cap on federal funding for child care, and states would receive matching federal funds for every eligible family they serve.

The bill would provide tremendous help to parents with incomes at or below 200 percent of poverty who are straining to make ends meet and afford their basic needs.  These parents are trying to work to support their families and gain some financial stability. But in order to work—or attend an education or training program that will give them the knowledge and skills required for a stable job with decent pay—they need child care, which can be difficult to afford. The average cost of full-time care for one child ranges from $3,600 to $18,200 annually, depending on where the family lives, the type of care, and the age of the child.

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Child Care Assistance | Add new comment

Child Care Center Directors Speak about Quality Rating and Improvement Systems

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: May 01, 2012 at 10:07 am

Three child care center directors spoke about the benefits and challenges of quality rating and improvement systems during a conference call held last week by the National Women’s Law Center and the Center for Law and Social Policy. Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) assess the quality of child care programs, offer incentives and assistance to programs to improve their ratings, and give information to parents about the quality of child care. To gain an inside perspective on these systems and develop recommendations for strengthening them, CLASP and NWLC interviewed a number of child care directors from across the country and produced a report, A Count for Quality, based on their experiences and insights. Participants in last week’s conference call had a chance to hear first-hand from three of the directors interviewed for that report.

The directors, who were from Maine, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, praised QRIS for giving high-quality providers validation, setting a bar for quality, establishing high expectations, providing a rallying point and mutual goal for staff, and engaging parents. The directors also appreciated the financial benefits provided by QRIS, including higher reimbursements for higher-quality programs serving children receiving child care assistance, scholarships for staff to receive additional education, and grants for materials, as well as the technical assistance they received. The director from Maine highlighted the fact that parents using highly rated care receive double the standard amount for the state’s child care tax credit.

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Early Learning, Child Care Tax Strategies | 1 comment

Mixed Signals on Child Care and Early Education

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: April 12, 2012 at 09:56 am

Child care and early education issues are gaining increased attention at the federal and state level. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services announced that of the $550 million appropriated for the Race to the Top education grant competition in 2012, $133 million will be used for a second round of Early Learning Challenge grants to help states strengthen their early care and education systems. (Five states that just missed out on the first round of funding will be eligible to compete for this latest round.) At the state level, nearly half of the governors mentioned early care and education in their state of the state addresses this year, indicating they recognize that giving children get a strong start helps children, and their states, succeed in the future.

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Tags: California, Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Early Learning, Head Start, Maine, Pennsylvania, Head Start | 1 comment

Huffington Post: Low-Income Mothers Trapped on Welfare without Affordable Child Care

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: April 11, 2012 at 10:03 am

The tremendous challenge families confront in trying to move off welfare and gain self-sufficiency without stable, affordable child care is powerfully illustrated in a recent article in the Huffington Post. The article tells the stories of mothers in California who are doing everything they can to support themselves and take care of their children, yet are losing ground due to lack of help paying for child care.

Many low-income families in California are unable to receive child care assistance due to long waiting lists. The unmet need has only grown in recent years due to cuts in funding—and the governor is proposing additional cuts that could result in 62,000 more children losing access to child care and early education programs.

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Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Low-Income Workers and Families, Child Care Assistance, Data on Poverty & Income, Poverty & Income Support | 1 comment