Child Care and Early Education at CLASP

Head Start 2007 state data profiles now available

CLASP has released state profiles that show Head Start Program Information Report (PIR) data for 2007, which all programs are required to report to the federal government on an annual basis. Data on all 50 states, and the District of Columbia, include information on programs, participants, families, and staff for all Head Start programs in each state, including preschool, Early Head Start, American Indian and Alaskan Native Head Start, and Migrant or Seasonal Head Start. Profiles are also available for the six territories with Head Start and/or Early Head Start programs in 2007.

Economic need in immigrant families

A new research brief from Child Trends and the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis shows child poverty rates disproportionally higher among immigrant families. It is widely agreed that the official U.S. poverty measure is too low and an inaccurate reflection of economic hardship. The Economic Policy Institute has created estimates of the family budget needed across the country to  pay for housing, food, health care, and other basic expenses. Building on this basic budget poverty measure, researchers calculated poverty rates among children in immigrant families and children in U.S.-born citizen families across the states.

Using a budget poverty measure that includes the costs of child care and early education, they find that children in immigrant families have a national estimated budget poverty rate of 47 percent, compared to their official poverty rate of 21 percent. Children of U.S.-born citizens have a national estimated budget poverty rate of 28 percent, compared to their official poverty rate of 13 percent.

While poverty rates vary from state to state, children in immigrant families experience higher rates of poverty in all but nine states, with gaps in rates for immigrant and native families as large as 27 percent in Arizona and Minnesota and 25 percent in Texas.

A range of supports targeted to immigrant families, including access to child care and early education, could help alleviate this disparity in children experiencing poverty. This new data should encourage policymakers to think about using new Economic Recovery Act funds to further support for immigrant families in their states.

Program standards in state preschool initiatives

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) today released their annual yearbook: The State of Preschool 2008. When early care and education programs provide comprehensive services (like those that the Head Start and Early Head Start standards require), they support high-quality early care and education for both preschoolers and infants and toddlers.

NIEER provides information on program standards and other items like eligibility and resources for each preschool initiative in an online appendix. Standards and services available vary greatly by initiative. NIEER surveyed 50 preschool initiatives in 38 states (some states have multiple initiatives) on eight types of services and found that:

• 40 required parent involvement activities.
• 36 required transition to kindergarten activities.
• 31 required parent support or training.
• 30 required referral for social services.
• 30 required child health services.
• 21 required nutrition information.
• 16 required parent education or job training.
• 7 required parent health services.
• 8 no longer require one or more of the above services in 2008, compared to 2007
• 3 have added one or more of the above services in 2008, compared to 2007
• In some initiatives, specific services are determined locally.
• Some initiatives reported other support services, for example developmental, social/emotional, mental health, and ESL support.

Initiatives with program standards that address these eight comprehensive services operate in Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, supplemental state funding is awarded to federal Head Start grantees to serve more children. States can review and strengthen their program standards for early childhood initiatives, for example through the use of economic recovery funds.

TANF child care in 2007: New data released

Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds used for child care increased slightly in FY 2007, reversing a six-year trend of decline. Nationally, states directed approximately $3.2 billion in TANF funds to child care in 2007, approximately $64 million more than in the previous year, or a 2 percent increase, according to FY 2007 TANF Financial Data posted by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). ACF does not report on the number of children receiving TANF-funded child care assistance.

States choose whether to use TANF funds to provide child care assistance to families. States may spend TANF funds directly on child care, usually in the form of vouchers given to parents; they may also choose to transfer up to 30 percent of their annual TANF block grant to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) or to a combination of CCDBG and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).

According to the new data, TANF transfers to CCDBG increased to $2.0 billion in 2007, from $1.9 billion in 2006. States spent nearly $1.2 billion in TANF directly on child care assistance in 2007, a decline of about $74 million from 2006. Ten states transferred the maximum amount of 30 percent of TANF funds: Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island. Only Kentucky transferred all 30 percent of its funds to CCDBG alone. An additional 11 states transferred between 25 to 29 percent of TANF funds to a combination of CCDBG and SSBG.

States are required to meet a maintenance-of-effort (MOE) requirement in the TANF program. States spent $2.5 billion in state MOE funds on child care. This was an increase of $245 million compared to 2006. It may be that all, or a portion, of the increase in state MOE spending reflects accounting issues, rather than a real change in spending, however it is not possible to determine through available national data. A portion of TANF MOE funds spent on child care may also be directed toward states’ CCDBG MOE requirement.

The Administration for Children and Families has not yet released FY 2007 expenditure data for CCDBG, so it is not possible to determine total child care spending (CCDBG and TANF combined) for 2007. When that data is available, CLASP will produce additional analysis on national child care spending trends as in prior years, as well as updated state-by-state child care spending pages. CLASP will also be updating state-by-state tables analyzing TANF and MOE spending in the coming weeks.

Improving quality of care through child care licensing standards

States have multiple policy levers that they can use to improve the quality of child care for children. One critical lever is child care licensing standards. The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) recently released its annual update on child care center licensing. The report, We CAN Do Better: 2009 Update, finds that while states have made progress in strengthening some areas of licensing standards for child care centers, such as health and safety standards, there is still significant room for improvement. The report scores and ranks all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense (DoD) on child care center regulation and oversight using ten regulation and five oversight benchmarks. States scored an average of 83 out of 150 points in the report. The DoD ranked the highest with a grade of “B.” No state scored an “A.” 
 
Also in recent release is The 2007 Child Care Licensing Study, a joint study by the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) and the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC). The study is a follow-up to their 2005 joint report on child care regulations and policies for child care centers and family child care homes. The report covers four areas:

• National overview of state licensing programs and policies
• Child care center licensing regulations
• Small family child care home licensing regulations
• Large/group family child care home licensing regulations

The study provides detailed counts of state licensing policies and regulations and tracks state revisions to their child care regulations from 1985-2007. Using the NARA/NCCIC study, states can see how their policies and regulations compare to other states. As a supplement, NARA has published additional 50-state comparative data tables and state-by-state profiles of key licensing policies and facility requirements on its website.
 
Both the NACCRRA and NARA/NCCIC reports are useful resources that states can use to identify ways to strengthen their licensing rules and policies to improve the quality of child care for all families.

Infant and toddler resources for state policymakers

The first three years of children's lives are critical for laying the foundations for healthy development. Yet, the needs of infants and toddlers are not always forefront in discussions of early childhood policies. A new online searchable database from ZERO TO THREE, Baby Matters: A Gateway to State Policies and Initiatives, provides information for policymakers and other stakeholders to consider policies that successfully address the needs of young children. The database contains information on state policies and initiatives that impact infants, toddlers, and their families.  The policies and initiatives in Baby Matters are searchable by state, keyword, and content area. Each entry contains key information on the policy or initiative, as well as links to additional related resources. The database provides helpful guidance on strategies that promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers and advancing an overall state policy agenda for very young children and their families. Many of the policies included in Baby Matters complement recommendations in the Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care Policy Framework that CLASP developed jointly with ZERO TO THREE.

Final recovery package is good news for children

In addition to significant investments in education, workforce development, safety net programs and other important areas, the final American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes substantial funding to support young children.

The final agreement that came out of conference between the House and Senate includes: 

• $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant(CCDBG). These are federal funds that do not require a state match. The conference adopted the Senate language, which targets $255 million of these funds for quality improvement, of which $93.6 million are targeted for activities to improve the quality of care for infants and toddlers. In addition the CCDBG requirement to spend a minimum of 4 percent of funds on quality improvement activities also applies. (See a state-by-state breakdown of the new funds.)
• $2.1 billion for Head Start, to be split as $1 billion for Head Start and $1.1 billion for Early Head Start. 
• $500 million for the IDEA infant and toddler program (Part C)
• $400 million for the IDEA preschool program (Part B)
• $13 billion for Title I of No Child Left Behind for disadvantaged students, of which spending on early childhood programs for children from birth through the age of school entry is a permitted use of funds. The Senate language that would have required local educational agencies to spend 15 percent of their funds on early childhood programs was not adopted.

The House and Senate are expected to pass the bill in the next few days. Policymakers and advocates will want to begin work immediately to plan to get these funds out the door quickly in ways that best meet the needs of families who have been hurt by the economic crisis.

For additional details on early childhood funding in the bill, see this table from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAYEC).

CLASP estimates state allocations for $2 billion in child care funding

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have released their respective plans for an economic recovery plan. Both pieces of legislation include $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program. These funds would be appropriated as Discretionary funding, and therefore do not require a state match. The total amount of economic recovery funds that each state would receive based on either bill is identical; however, the two pieces of legislation appropriate the payments to states differently.

CLASP has estimated the state allocations for $2 billion in CCDBG funding for each bill: 

• In the House version, states would receive an initial payment upon passage of a final bill (which we assume would be during Fiscal Year 2009). The proposal specifies that $1 billion will be made available as of October 1, 2009.
  
  
• In the Senate version, $2 billion in funding will be available through September 30, 2010. We assume that portions of these funds may be allocated to states over two years by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Senate reserves $255 million for quality initiatives, including $94 million to improve the quality of infant/toddler care. These funds would be included as set-asides in the $2 billion allocated to states.

According to narrative summaries from the House and Senate Committees, the $2 billion in child care funding will provide assistance for an additional 300,000 children. CLASP's state by state data show the number of children that could be served in each state with these funds. Under CCDBG, states may choose how they spend these funds, and may use them in ways that result in more, or less, slots than we have estimated.

The House and Senate also include substantial increases in other early childhood programs:

• Both the House and Senate include a total of $2.1 billion for Head Start, split as $1 billion for Head Start and $1.1 billion for Early Head Start. 
• The House plan includes $600 million for the IDEA infant and toddler program (Part C), while the Senate plan provides $500 million for Part C and increased funding to support the IDEA preschool program.
• Both plans include $13 billion in Title I funding. The Senate would require local education agencies to spend at least 15 percent of Title I funds to support programs on children prior to the age of school entry.
• The Senate included $2.25 billion for a Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which can be used for construction and rehabilitation of early childhood programs.

New Child Care and Head Start estimates from CLASP and NWLC

Advocates are seeking a $3 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and a $3 billion increase for Head Start in the economic recovery package.  These funds would help families go to work, promote stable and supportive early learning environments for young children, and create many new jobs.  The additional funding for child care will allow states to provide child care assistance for approximately 480,000 children in low-income working families who have been hit hard by the economic crisis, and create paid work for an estimated 190,000 caregivers.  The additional funding for Head Start and Early Head Start will allow over 162,000 more children to participate in the program and create over 80,000 jobs.  

New state-by-state estimates from CLASP and the National Women's Law Center show the estimated impact these new funds would have on children and families in each state for child care and Head Start.

New state-by-state policy data

CLASP has released new state-by-state data pages analyzing child care spending from the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds used for child care in federal fiscal year 2006 and in previous years, as well as CCDBG participation by state for 2007. This analysis is based on the most recently available data from the Administration for Children and Families.

In addition to new child care profiles, we have revised our state-by-state data pages making them more interactive and user-friendly. You can search for data profiles by topic or by state. Please check out our Child Care and Early Education Data Map for state profiles on:

• Child Care Assistance
• Community-based Pre-kindergarten
• Head Start Program Data
• Infant/toddler Initiatives
• State Early Head Start Initiatives

Data collection and analysis is a critical component of understanding whether early childhood systems are effectively meeting the needs of young children and their families.  We encourage policymakers and advocates to use these profiles to understand child care and early education funding, participation, and policy initiatives in their states and to inform their work and advocacy efforts.