Child Care and Early Education at CLASP

Starting Early, Starting Right Act Introduced

On May 5, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) took an important step forward for low-income families by introducing the Starting Early, Starting Right Act. With the addition of $10 billion in new funds each year, the legislation will make a significant investment in the child care subsidy program in order to increase access for low-income families, raise reimbursement rates for providers, and improve the quality of care through training, monitoring, and new initiatives.

While the Child Care and Development Block Grant was scheduled to be reauthorized in 2000, it has remained low on the priority list for Congress and the President.  Funding for child care assistance has been near frozen for six years, yet as the economy worsens, more families need help paying for the child care they need to go to work.  Across the country, more than 360,000 children are on waiting lists for help.  Many more thousands of children and families need help but do not even bother applying for assistance.

As child care resources have grown scarcer, many families struggle to find providers who will care for their children.  Most states pay low rates to providers, forcing them to put off needed improvements, preventing salary increases, and making it difficult for low-income families to find high-quality caregivers in their communities.

Congress has been silent for too long regarding child care; Senator Casey’s proposal should get his colleagues talking.  The low-income working families of America are waiting.

Child Care Bureau releases new child care subsidy data

This month, the Child Care Bureau released Report to Congress for FY 2004 and 2005. The report provides the latest information about Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) expenditures and participation in those years as well as additional information about training and technical assistance, and child care-related research. The report contains administrative data that has not previously been released in other data tables. Highlights of the data include the following:

• Child care spending is historically high but has declined in recent years. Child care spending from all sources (including CCDBG, TANF, and SSBG-related funds) totaled $12.1 billion in 2004 and fell to $11.96 billion in 2005. According to the previous Report to Congress, spending reached a high of $12.2 billion in FY 2003. The decline between 2004 and 2005 was the result of decreased TANF-funds used for child care.
• A total of 2.35 million children received child care assistance through all funding sources in 2004 and 2005. Approximately 1.75 million children were served in CCDBG in an average month in 2005. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that an additional 600,000 children were served through TANF and SSBG-related funds.
• The number of children receiving child care from all sources is declining over time. The number of children served has fallen from a high of 2.45 million children served in 2000. In 2002 and 2003, approximately 2.44 million and 2.36 million children respectively received child care assistance in an average month.
• CCDBG serves very low-income families. In 2005, the median monthly income of families receiving CCDBG-funded assistance was $1,283 or $15,396 when annualized. This is slightly higher than in previous years. Nearly half (49%) of all families receiving CCDBG-funded assistance had incomes below the federal poverty level (which was $16,090 for a family of three in 2005). Thirteen percent had incomes above 150 percent of poverty, or $24,135 in 2005.
• States serve families well below the maximum eligibility level set by federal law. Nearly all (45) states set eligibility for CCDBG-funded assistance below 85 percent of State Median Income (SMI), the maximum level established by federal law. Eligibility levels in states range from 28 to 85 percent of SMI. On average, states report income eligibility to equal 59 percent of SMI, which is lower than the 62 percent of SMI reported in FY 2002-2003.

In addition to expenditure and participation data, the Report to Congress includes an overview of research activities supported by the Child Care Bureau in 2004 and 2005 and emerging findings from on-going research related to the effect of child care subsidies on positive employment outcomes, patterns of child care use, characteristics of families who receive subsidies, and characteristics of the child care workforce.

This report adds to a body of research showing that as federal funds for child care assistance have stagnated, states have reduced the number of children served, cut spending, reduced income eligibility levels, and made additional policy changes that inhibit low-income working families from getting the help they need to go to work to support their children.

States increase child care and early education appropriations

State appropriations for child care and early education programs increased over $1 billion from FY 2007 to 2008, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ first-ever survey of state child care and early education state appropriations. The survey asked state fiscal staff to report state appropriations in the areas of child care, pre-kindergarten, parent education/home visiting, and other early learning strategies.  The survey found increases in all four areas:

• Child care appropriations increased by over $672 million ($400 million of which was reported in California) with a total of 47 states reporting increased funding. NCSL notes that the increases in child care appropriations in actuality may not have outpaced the funding challenges that have daunted states for years. 
• Pre-kindergarten appropriations increased by nearly $510 million with a total of 30 reporting increased funding.
• Parent education appropriations increased by over $20 million with a total of 17 states reporting increased funding.
• Appropriations for other early learning, including Head Start/Early Head Start, infant and toddler initiatives, and early childhood mental health programs, increased by $26 million with a total of 19 states reporting increased funding.

Eight states—Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Washington—reported increased funding in all four areas.

While state pre-kindergarten programs have been increasingly popular in recent years, growing in popularity, size and funding, this survey shows that states are funding a wide range of early education programs vital for young children from birth to school entry and their families. In particular, increasing state appropriations for child care is ever important with stagnant federal funding in recent years.  CLASP's analysis shows that state child care spending (including federal and state funds) decreased in 2004 and in 2005, the most recent years data are available.  States can't do it alone; and federal funding should also demonstrate a recognition of the vital importance of early childhood programs that help families work and help children prepare for school and life.

New language access resource for states

All agencies that receive federal funds are required to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964  to take reasonable steps to provide limited English proficient (LEP) individuals with meaningful access to their programs, activities, and services. This includes most agencies that administer child care and early education programs, including school districts, state government agencies, and Head Start programs. Yet, inadequate language access remains a significant barrier to accessing programs for many families with young children.

Ensuring language access may include the use of competent interpreters, hiring of bilingual staff, translation of materials, and the use of telephone language line services. Agencies may conduct assessments to review their language access policies and to create plans for improving service delivery to LEP individuals.

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has created a language access portal, which is a digital library of hundreds of resources for state and local social service agencies. The portal includes federal and state laws and guidelines, service models, and related research on language access and LEP populations. It also includes information on policies such as bilingual pay differentials, contracting for translation services, and best practices for interpreters. Finally, the portal includes a searchable database of state and local documents that can be used to find examples of translated materials and applications, policy guidance, and other resources. The database is searchable by state, service area, and languages.

Who's minding the kids?

The U.S. Census Bureau released detailed data tables on the child care participation of children under age 15 with working mothers. Data from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) panel, show that in the spring of 2005, 72 percent of children under age 5 had a primary non-parental care arrangement. Relative care was the primary child care arrangement for 27 percent of young children. A quarter of all young children attended a center-based child care program, including a preschool or Head Start program, as their primary care arrangement. Eleven percent of children of working mothers had no regular child care arrangement. The data are broken down by age, income, race, and other variables. Key data points include:

• Young children in poor and low-income households are more likely to be in relative care.
• Young children whose mothers worked traditional daytime hours were more than twice as likely to be in family child care or center-based care compared to young children whose mothers worked non-daytime hours.
• The use of center-based child care is highest in the South where 30 percent of young children with working mothers attend centers.
• One-third (33 percent) of infants under a year old are in relative care compared to 28 percent of 1-2 year olds and 25 percent of 3-4 year olds.
• Over half (51 percent) of families with young children make child care payments. Poor families on average pay 29 percent of their household income on child care compared to 15 percent for low-income families (100-199 percent of poverty) and 6 percent for upper-income families.
• Half (50 percent) of children age 5 to 14 had no regular care arrangement outside of school or self-care.

Strong child care systems help working families and the economy

The Mississippi Economic Policy Center (MEPC) has released a new report titled Broadening the Base: Strengthening Mississippi's Working Families, Businesses and Economy through Strong Child Care Systems. MEPC highlights the importance of child care to the state's economy and to working families, yet investments in child care are insufficent. In Mississippi:

• The cost of infant child care for 9 months is more than a year of tuition at a state four-year college.
• More than 80,000 eligible children under age 13 receive no child care assistance.
• Child care providers who accept subsidized certificates receive 68% of the market rate for infant care - the most expensive care to provide.

As parents fight to keep their subsidies and providers struggle with low payment rates, MEPC makes several recommendations for strengthening child care to provide this critical work support to low-income working families.  Mississippi could increase its Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) dollars spent on child care; help child care workers increase their skills through the Workforce Investment Act; reward increases in skills, education, and quality through their Quality Step System; and increase the reimbursement rate, use Community Development Block Grant funds to help support investments in child care and make investments in child care facilities that serve low-income families.

The MEPC report makes clear that Mississippi has many opportunities to leverage funds to invest in child care and help support low-income working families.  Now the state has to find the will to fulfill this potential.

Summary of TANF final rules

Earlier this month, the final rules implementing changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, were published in the Federal Register. These new rules will be effective October 1, 2008. CLASP has written a document summarizing the final rules and changes to the TANF program. The summary details changes in the areas of:

• Counting education and training toward participation rates, including rules around counting post-secondary education, basic education, and ESL classes;
• Serving individuals with disabilities and other barriers to participation, including the definition of a work-eligible individual; and
• Job search and job readiness, including counting of weeks towards statutory limits and other counting issues.

The final rules also detail allowable expenditures and other spending issues.

Utah increases quality infant and toddler child care

Using funds from the quality set-aside within the federal child care subsidy (CCDBG) program, Utah’s Office of Child Care (OCC) within the Department of Workforce Services is offering an Infant/Toddler Start-Up and Expansion Grant for Center-based Infant/Toddler Child Care Services. Centers may apply for grants up to $9,999 to create new quality infant/toddler rooms and to support staff development. OCC developed this grant project after its annual child care needs assessment identified infant/toddler child care as a critical, unmet need throughout Utah. Grantees must meet criteria on staff training and classroom environment, be evaluated using the ITERS-R rating system, and participate in Utah's ongoing quality improvement program for infant/toddler classes (the Baby Steps project). With this grant, Utah is demonstrating the importance of establishing state policies to both increase the availability of infant/toddler care and ensure that it meets high quality criteria at the same time.

State reported activities to support immigrant and LEP families in child care programs

For CLASP’s new policy brief, CCDBG State Plan Reported Activities to Support Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Immigrant Communities, CLASP reviewed FY 2006-2007 Child Care and Development (CCDBG) state plans for references to initiatives that could support immigrant families and/or providers, LEP families and/or providers, and English Language Learners (ELLs).  The state plans set out the policies and initiatives the state expects to implement over a two-year period using the direct service and quality set-aside funds in the Child Care and Development Block Grant.

Some examples of state-reported activities include:

• Utah assembled an early learning guidelines’ development team that represented diverse cultural groups. The team included Centro de la Familia, a nonprofit organization that works to meet the needs of the Latino population in the state;
• Arizona’s and South Dakota’s guidelines contain specific information or strategies addressing their use with ELLs.
• North Carolina’s Division of Child Development web site is available in Spanish
  New York’s application for child care assistance is available in six languages—Haitian-Creole, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and English.

CLASP found that state reported activities to support diverse families and providers were often vague.  Few states reported a comprehensive approach by planning for multiple strategies.   

To better serve the child care and early education needs of LEP and immigrant families, CLASP recommends that states  develop comprehensive strategies that are clear in their intent to meet the needs of LEP and immigrant families and providers and specific in their plans for implementation.  Some examples of recommended policies include:

• provide materials on child care services to language minority communities, including information about eligibility for child care subsidies;
• ensure that child care subsidy intake procedures and materials are linguistically appropriate, culturally sensitive, and accessible for those living in immigrant communities; and
• use contracts and grants to expand access to high quality child care programs for children in immigrant families, and support partnerships with immigrant serving organizations to provide information and direct services.

President’s budget: Young children don’t count

February 4 began a new budget process, the last of President Bush’s presidency. Every Administration uses the budget to send a signal about its priorities for the coming year.  In this period of economic downturn, when our most vulnerable children and families need access to comprehensive supports, the message of this budget is simple and stark: children in low-income working families don’t matter.  The President proposes flat funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant that will cause 200,000 children to lose access to child care assistance by 2009.  This loss is in addition to thousands of children who may already have lost services due to years of flat funding.

The Administration also acknowledges that fewer children will be served in Head Start under their proposal.  While the budget provides for a small increase, the amount is barely enough to cover inflation, let alone the costs needed to implement changes in the program required by the recent Head Start reauthorization, including provisions to expand access to Head Start, strengthen and expand Early Head Start, and important quality improvements.

For an analysis of the President’s budget proposal’s impact on child care and early education programs, see President’s Budget Disregards Sound Investments for Young Children.