Expand Economic Opportunity and Reduce Child Poverty

Expand Child Care Assistance

Quality and affordable child care can be essential to the economic prospects for adult workers, and for their children.

• Child care is critical to parents maintaining employment. Reliable and stable child care helps parents retain steady employment and reduces workplace absenteeism. Working parents with affordable, dependable child care are less likely to face child care interruptions that can result in absences and other schedule disruptions in the workplace. Yet meeting the high costs of child care is difficult for low-income working families. See research on child care challenges.

• Quality early care and education is critical to future success of children. A strong body of research demonstrates that early development opportunities are critical to the future educational and economic prospects of children.

Therefore, investing in child care promotes economic opportunity for two generations simultaneously.

What Can Policymakers Do?

Because low-wage families face unique challenges in accessing quality child care that is affordable, states can take several actions to promote this work support more effectively.

• Expand child care eligibility up to 200 percent of the poverty level . Funding child care services at this level provides an essential work support for families working their way out of poverty.

• Invest in Head Start and Early Head Start . These programs produce strong results for children and are specifically targeted toward children in low-wage families.

• Use contracts to ensure quality and accessibility . Because low-wage families face unique child care challenges and needs, the use of contracts with child care providers can better serve these communities than the use of traditional child care vouchers.

• Align pre-kindergarten with other child care options more effectively . The opportunity to make state pre-kindergarten programs work for working families is often lost because the vast majority of state pre-kindergarten programs offer part-day services limited to the school year. States can enhance pre-k as a work support by better integrating pre-kindergarten services in community-based child care centers, family child care, Head Start and schools.