Child Care

While Washington begins debate on an FY 2013 budget proposal that would slash federal safety net programs (and everything else), some states facing projected budget shortfalls in FY 2013 have already proposed draconian cuts of their own. Alabama is one of those states, and as Greg Kaufman recently reported in The Nation, the steps Alabama’s legislature takes over the next few months to close its FY 2013 budget gap could be disastrous for struggling women and their families.

For example, at a hearing late last month, a state legislator with a lead role in budget drafting suggested that a 25 percent cut to general fund revenues flowing to the state’s Department of Human Resources (DHR) is likely next year. That’s a huge cut – so huge that the Commissioner of DHR, Nancy Buckner, testified that she would be forced to entirely eliminate the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child support enforcement programs.

Shutting down these programs would be devastating for vulnerable families in Alabama. Read more »

It's Valentine's Day, and we have an idea about how our Senators could show all Americans how much they care about us!

Millions of hardworking Americans will be cut off of unemployment insurance (UI) unless Congress acts to fully renew the federal UI program that's set to expire at the end of this month. But House Republican leaders are at it again, trying to slash benefits, impose onerous new burdens on unemployed workers, and dismantle the UI system that is a lifeline for so many families.

We need your help! Call your Senators toll-free today at 1-888-245-3381 and ask them to have a heart this Valentine's Day: fully and cleanly renew unemployment insurance for the rest of the year with no cuts and no barriers to benefits! Read more »

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 »

You may have already received your W-2 in the mail from your employer, which means (drum roll please!) the 2012 tax filing season is officially underway. In the spirit of the season, so to speak, the IRS is kicking things off with EITC Awareness Day. In case you aren’t familiar with the EITC, aka the Earned Income Tax Credit, it is a refundable federal tax credit for working families that can be worth up to $5,751 for tax year 2011 (the year for which you’ll be filing your taxes now, in 2012). Along with the federal Child Tax Credit (a refundable credit worth up to $1,000 per child) and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (a nonrefundable credit that helps families with child and dependent care costs incurred in order to work or look for work), as well as analogous state tax credits, the EITC can provide working families a significant financial boost.  And in these tough economic times, families need all the help they can get. Read more »

As 2012 begins, states are continuing to make, or propose, cuts to child care. Maryland’s waiting list for child care assistance, started last year, has grown to over 14,000 children. California’s governor has proposed to reduce spending for child care and early education by $517 million, which would deprive 62,000 children of the opportunity to participate in these programs. Washington’s governor has proposed to cut funding for child care assistance by $50 million, which would result in 4,000 fewer children receiving help.

A CNN story aired this weekend demonstrates what these cuts mean for parents who need help affording child care so they can hold onto their jobs and make sure their children are in care that nurtures their growth and learning. Read more »

Last week the winners of the first round of the Early Learning Challenge grant competition were announced.

The 9 states selected to receive the grant awards (California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington) have laid out comprehensive, collaborative strategies to achieve stronger early learning systems that increase low-income children’s access to high-quality early care and education.

We hope that the states’ efforts will include steps to address continuing gaps in their child care assistance policies. Because according to our analysis of data from our recent report, many of these states are falling short in providing the help low-income families need to afford reliable, high-quality care. Be sure to check out the highlights of our analysis here! Read more »

 “There’s a long history of recognition that child care is essential to helping low-income women work. That commitment is being eroded.” - Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy at the National Women’s Law Center, quoted in the NY Times 

A front-page story in today’s New York Times, citing NWLC’s recent report and its finding that child care assistance has eroded in 37 states, shows the impact of this for families across the country. A mother on the waiting list for assistance in Virginia has her daughter spend her after-school hours with her grandmother while the grandmother does her job driving a bus across the city. A mother on the waiting list in Maryland uses a patchwork of arrangements—including a grandmother in ill health—that often fall through, forcing her to miss work and lose pay. A mother in Pennsylvania receives child care assistance, but constantly worries about losing her job, losing her assistance, and being placed at the end of a long waiting list before she could receive it again. Read more »

The “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act” (H.R. 3630), introduced by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R. Mich.), contains a very Scrooge-like pay-for to extend unemployment insurance benefits, payroll tax cuts, and doctors’ Medicare reimbursements: taking tax benefits away from low-income working families. H.R. 3630 would impose a new requirement for tax filers claiming the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit. As suggested by its name, this credit is intended to help families meet the costs of raising children. The credit is refundable for low-income families with at least $3,000 in earnings.

Specifically, H.R. 3630 would prevent tax filers from claiming the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit without a Social Security Number. This means that the brunt of the cuts to this important tax benefit would fall upon immigrant families. Read more »

Each year we partner with advocates and community leaders across the country to conduct a public education campaign aimed at informing families about state and federal tax benefits for which they may be eligible. This year, the tax credits available to low- and moderate-income families are more valuable than ever.

With your help, families could receive:

• Up to $5,751 from the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Up to $1,000 per child from the federal Child Tax Credit.
• Up to $2,100 from the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.

And many states offer their own versions of these credits as well! Read more »

It requires commitment and leadership to get things done in Washington, particularly now when there is so much gridlock.

That's why we took heart when we saw House Minority Leader and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaking out about the importance of child care and promising to put it on the top of the national agenda. Will you join us in thanking her for her leadership?

In today's Washington Post, Leader Pelosi is quoted saying, "One of the great pieces of unfinished business is high-quality child care; I wonder why we just can't do that." And that's not all! She went on to say that child care is the "missing link" to boost the economy by "unleashing women"! Read more »