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, Head Start, Child Care Assistance, Prekindergarten, Child Care Tax Strategies, Family, Friend & Neighbor Care, Military Child Care, Unionization
  • Printer-friendly version
  • Send by email

My Take

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.

Read more...
Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Early Childhood Education, Child Care Tax Strategies | Add new 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.

Read more...
Tags: California, Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Early Childhood Education, 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.

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

The Military Child Care System Remains a Model for Improvement

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: February 08, 2012 at 06:16 pm

The military child care system offers a model for providing high-quality, affordable, and accessible child care, as described in the National Women’s Law Center’s 2000 report, Be All That We Can Be: Lessons from the Military for Improving Our Nation’s Child Care System, and 2004 follow-up report. The reports showed that the military child care system provides an example for the civilian child care sector to follow in addressing gaps in the quality and availability of child care. A new study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) demonstrates that the military is continuing to work to expand the supply of high-quality care and make it more affordable for families.

Department of Defense (DoD) officials told GAO that families, particularly those with infants, often had difficulty finding child care due to waiting lists at many on-installation child development centers and a limited supply of eligible off-installation child care. DoD plans to address this shortage by constructing new child development centers that will add over 21,000 on-installation child care spaces, according to the GAO report. It is also taking steps to expand the availability of off-installation child care by increasing coordination with community-based providers and helping them meet DoD quality standards.

Read more...
Tags: Child Care, Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Agenda, Department of Defense, Military, Military Child Care, Military Child Care | Add new comment

California Considers Cutting Child Care Assistance for 62,000 Children

Posted by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst | Posted on: February 01, 2012 at 06:21 pm

With California facing a $9.2 billion budget gap, programs that provide critical supports for children and families are at risk of major cuts. Governor Jerry Brown has proposed to reduce funding for child care and development programs by $517 million (28 percent), eliminating 62,000 children from these programs.

The proposed cuts would come on top of the significant cuts to child care and development programs the state has made over the past few years and exacerbate existing gaps.

Funding for child care and development programs has been reduced by nearly $1 billion since 2008, which has resulted in 100,000 fewer children able to participate in these programs. Nearly 190,000 children are already on the state's waiting list for child care assistance. In addition, California made its previously refundable child and dependent care tax credit nonrefundable as of Tax Year 2011, cutting tax assistance for low- and moderate-income families with child care expenses by more than two-thirds.

Read more...
Tags: Child Care, Child Care & Early Learning, Child Care Assistance | 1 comment