Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
24822639
label
[Federal Agency Child Care Programs and Policies to Highlight]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
24822639
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
[Federal Agency Child Care Programs and Policies to Highlight]
citationUrl
collections
Records of the First Lady's Office (Clinton Administration)
Nicole Rabner's Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
24822639
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
otherTitles
42-t-7763278-20121035S-028-017-2015
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
0cf33c82bb083552
ocrText
FEDERAL AGENCY
MAT
PROCRAMS -1 POLICIES TO
HIGH LIGHT ,
I
MAR-10-1997 18:55
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600
P.11
DATE:
MAR
I
0
1997
TO:
Melanne Verveer
Office of the First Lady
FROM:
Associate Joan Lombardi
SUBJECT:
CHILD CARE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
During the past four years, the Clinton Administration has
continually recognized the importance of child care in the lives
of working families. During the welfare debate, the
Administration scored important victories by increasing child
care funding and protecting basic health and safety standards. At
the same time, we were able to consolidate federal programs and
bring renewed attention to the child care issue.
Despite these accomplishments, significant challenges remain
if we are to improve and expand child care services for children
and families. Working families face incredible obstacles to
accessing and paying for quality services. Furthermore, children
are too often spending their time in environments that do not
promote school readiness and/or school success.
The start of a new term, and the recent attention to early
childhood education, provide important opportunities for moving
forward with a renewed child care agenda. In response to a
request from your office, this memo summarizes our
accomplishments, describes key issues facing working families and
outlines a range of options that could be considered to advance
the child care agenda. It is important to note that the ideas
presented are early thoughts that would need substantial
discussion within the Administration before action is taken.
A. Accomplishments
In the past few years we have had important accomplishments
in child care. Our primary focus has been to secure funds for
child care as part of welfare reform, to streamline and
coordinate child care assistance, to improve the quality of child
care services through technical assistance and a healthy child
care campaign and to implement the new child care amendments in
PRWORA. The following are some of the major accomplishments in
the first term:
TOTAL P.11
MAR-10-1997 18:50
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.03
o Direct funding for child care assistance has increased by
more than one billion dollars in the past four years. In
particular, the administration made important progress in
increasing critical resources for child care in the welfare bill.
Child Care funding has continued to increase over the past four
years. Some $600 million dollars was added to child care
assistance this year, the first installment of the $3.5 billion
in PRWORA.
These increases, however, must be seen in context. PRWORA
will put many more women, particularly women with very young
children, into the labor force. States are currently in the
process of making key decisions about how they will use the new
federal child care dollars. These decisions will affect three
important and interrelated areas of need: child care assistance
for families transitioning off welfare, child care subsidy for
low-income working families who have been receiving such support
in the past and low-income working families waiting for child
care assistance. This is an area HHS intends to carefully
monitor.
o The Child Care Bureau, a focal point for the child care
issue, was established for the first time. In 1995, Secretary
Shalala created the Child Care Bureau, to streamline the
operation of federal child care assistance and provide a focal
point for child care at the federal level. Coming seventy-five
years after the creation of the Women's Bureau, the establishment
of the Child Care Bureau has galvanized the issue and provided
pivotal leadership at a time of renewed interest in child care.
Although child care was found both on the welfare side of HHS and
within child welfare services, establishing a separate unit
within government, with a mission statement that specifically
included child development as well as workforce development for
all families, was an historic step forward. In 1996, with the
signing of PRWORA, the four federal child care program, which
were fragmented and confusing, were consolidated into a single
funding stream, the Child Care and Development Fund.
The bureau has had several other important accomplishments
including:
- The establishment of a National child Care Information
Center which links a range of resources together for policymakers
and the general public. More than 50,000 people used the web page
last year and thousands more called the hotline.
- Holding a series of national meetings for state child
care administrators on such topics as infant care, school age
care, care for children with disabilities, innovations in
consumer education and family centered care.
2
MAR-10-1997 18:51
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.04
- The launching of the Healthy Child Care Campaign in
conjunction with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau which links
child care and health services. The blueprint for action is being
used in more than 40 states and in many more communities.
Technical assistance is provided through a cooperative agreement
with The American Academy of Pediatrics.
- Creating linkages between child care and other national
initiatives including Empowerment Zones, National Service and
Head Start. The Child Care Bureau also convenes a Federal Child
Care Partners groups on a quarterly basis.
- The establishment of the Child Care Research Partnership
Consortium which brings together state administrative data with
university partners. In addition, the Bureau worked closely with
the National Academy of Sciences which held a series of workshops
that resulted in two key publications on child care for low
income families.
- Helped increase public awareness by working with the
Womens' Bureau Working Women's Count effort to hold three public
events on child care across the country.
o The child care provisions of welfare reform were
implemented. During the initial months of the second term, the
Child Care Bureau has focused on implementation of the Child Care
Amendments in the welfare reform legislation. This has included
four main activities: making sure states received their new funds
in a timely manner, establishing enhanced data collection
systems, outlining a research agenda focused on child care for
low-income families and designing a more expanded technical
assistance system.
The technical assistance effort will include seven coordinated
initiatives:
- The expansion of the National Child Care Information System
- The expansion of the Healthy Child Care Campaign
- The establishment of a Public/Private partnership technical
assistance effort
- The establishment of a special technical assistance effort
to promote inclusion of children with special needs.
- The establishment of a special technical assistance effort
for states to improve data collection and systems
development
- The continuation of national and regional leadership
meetings on emerging child care issues
3
MAR-10-1997 18:51
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.05
- The establishment of a National Tribal Child Care
Information Center
B. Child Care in the U.S. at the Turn of the Century: Key Issues
child Care is at a crossroads. Over the next century, the
child care system will either flourish and grow, providing
supportive environments for children and families, or it will be
stretched and pulled, placing children in poor quality
environments and increasing the stress on families. There are
almost 10 million children under the age of 5 who are in need of
child care and 21 million school age children. In order to ensure
that families can be both productive workers and good parents, I
believe at least three interrelated issues must be addressed in
some way: public awareness, quality and affordability.
Public awareness. Although child care has moved from a
back page story to front page news, there continues to be a gap
between the overall public perception of the issue and the need
for services. There is something puzzling about the child care
issue. While it is on everyone's mind, there is limited public
will to take bold steps to address it. We know that in every
corner of the country, parents are "leaning across the fence" and
talking about child care, struggling with child care and worrying
about child care. Nothing is more poignant than the conversations
of parents in August, faced with a few more weeks of vacation,
while camps close down and the school house door remains locked
for the summer. While child care emerged as a central issue in
the "working Women Count Survey", and is one of the top issues
raised at our "At The Table" meetings held across the United
States last year, unlike education, child care remains a private
issue and has not made it to the top of the public's agenda.
Quality. Research has documented the importance of quality
early childhood programs to school readiness. Not only are the
first years of life critically important to school success, but
more recent research has indicated that quality school age child
care programs, particularly for children at-risk of school
failure, can have a positive effect on academic achievement.
Despite the link between quality care and a good
education, a number of stories have emerged over the past decade
that raise serious concern about the quality of care. Child care
quality is an issue that cuts across socio-economic lines. From
the "National Child Care Staffing" study released in 1989 to the
more recent "Cost and Quality Study", we know that concerns about
quality have become commonplace. Yet there are limited resources
to help build infrastructure, training and other service
improvements. Although the administration was successful in
maintaining a set aside for quality, only 4 percent of federal
child care dollars are currently targeted for quality activities.
4
MAR-10-1997 18:52
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.06
Affordability. While the average family pays about 7
percent of its income for child care, we know that child care
consumes about a quarter of the income of low-income families who
pay for care. At the same time, waiting lists for child care
assistance for low-income families continue to grow.
Federal child care assistance includes $2.9 billion in
direct subsidies. While we know that this federal assistance
alone is not enough to serve every needy family, estimating exact
need is difficult and depends on how states define eligibility.
For example if we define need by the eligibility criteria in the
federal law- families below 85 percent of median income with
children ages birth to 13, almost 8 million children from working
families would be eligible for federal assistance that now serves
an estimated one and a quarter million children. Being more
conservative, if we define eligibility as 150 percent of poverty,
we estimate that we still would meet only a quarter of the need.
Furthermore, although the Dependent Care Tax Credit provides more
than $2 billion dollars of tax relief for child care expenses,
since it is not refundable, the vast majority of low-income
working families do not have access to such assistance.
C. Options for a Child Care Agenda in the Second Term
There are four key themes that could characterize the
Administration's efforts in child care for the next four years:
Increasing child care support for working families
Improving the quality of care to promote healthy
child development
Reaching out to the private sector
Building public awareness
1. Increasing child care support for working families
Most of our focus during the first term was on child care as
a welfare issue. Although we have always promoted the concept
that states should invest their CCDF funds on both welfare
families and low-income families at risk for welfare dependency,
the future focus could more clearly cast child care as broader
working family issue. Initiatives could include:
o Expansion of the Child Care Tax Credit- During the 1998
budget process, discussions were held within the Administration
regarding the expansion of the Child Care Tax credit. It is
estimated that expanding the credit by making it refundable could
5
MAR-10-1997 18:52
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.07
reach some 2 million families. Although it was not included in
the 98 budget package, such an initiative could be revisited in
the 99 budget process. In estimating the need for such tax
relief, particular attention should be paid to low-income working
families who may not benefit from the direct assistance program.
0 Expansion of the Child Care and Development Fund- The
Administration requested a $144 million increase in child care
assistance in the 1998 budget. Of this increase, $100 million is
part of the capped entitlement included in the welfare law. $44
million would bring us to our full authorization of discretionary
funds. The states' ability to use their full allotments this year
will certainly affect our ability to ask for additional funding
in the next year. While all states requested the new funding, the
lag time caused by welfare planning and state legislative
decisions may slow spending in this first year. We are working
with states to encourage full utilization of 97 dollars. Requests
for increases could be included in the 99 budget.
2. Promoting child development by improving child care quality.
Focusing on quality provides us an opportunity to address an
issue of concern to all families. This is particularly important
as younger and younger children are in care during the critical
first three years of life. Just as Early Head Start has been the
"signature initiative" of the Clinton Administration, promoting
the link between "care and education" could be the hallmark of
the second term activities in child care. The range of activities
could include:
o Promoting an initiative across HHS and DOD to support the
quality of child care. The Department of Defense provides model
child care services to the military community. Unlike the
civilian community, DOD programs include standards and funding
for training and accreditation. Last year, the Senate included
language that encourages DOD to work with HHS to improve the
quality of care for children in the civilian community. Funds
could be set aside in the DOD budget to launch innovations across
the states, particularly for infant and toddler care.
0 Expanding and more actively promoting the Healthy Child
Care Campaign. Healthy child care efforts have now been funded in
most states. MCH is in the final stages of funding the rest of
the states, of launching a new effort to train health
professionals to work in child care and issuing a new streamlined
set of child care standards that all states and communities
should adopt. Any one of these, or the set together, offer new
opportunities to provide visibility to the campaign. In addition,
the volunteer summit in Philadelphia provides an immediate
opportunity for high level officials to call upon every doctor
6
MAR-10-1997 18:53
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.08
and nurse in the country to "adopt a child care program". We may
be able to interest the American Academy of Pediatrics and the
Pediatric Nurses group to join us in such as effort.
0 Expanding Head start services to eligible children in
child care. The Department, working through the Head Start Bureau
in conjunction with the Child Care Bureau, is about to launch a
major expansion of Head Start to serve 50,000 more children in a
way that meets the needs of working families. By building on
models emerging throughout the country, this year the Head Start
expansion will promote collaboration with child care programs.
This initiative will not only serve more children, but will bring
Head Start comprehensive services to children in child care.
Visits by administration officials to such programs will help
raise visibility, and would be most useful after grants are
awarded this fall.
0 Expanding and improving school age care through Department
of Education initiatives. A major part of any school reform
agenda should include expansion and improvement of school age
care, particularly in low-income communities. The vast majority
of the 50,000 formal school age programs in the country are not
found in low-income communities. Furthermore, more than 5 million
children spend their time after school in self-care, watching
hours of television in the afternoon. HHS is holding 10 regional
meetings on school age care over the next 6 months, inviting
school officials, child care administrators and community based
leaders. More than 2000 people will be invited to participate. In
addition, The President's budget includes $50 million for After
School Learning Centers. The administration could target these
funds for programs in low-income communities and make such
funding a top priority. In addition, the administration could
review other ways to include extended learning or school age care
in other Department of Education initiatives, particularly the
"facilities initiative", research and America Reads. For example
the Child Care Bureau has been working with The Corporation for
National Service to ensure that Americorp members are focusing on
literacy issues in school age care.
0 Targeting job training funds to the child care workforce.
The most important aspect of quality is the relationship of the
child and the family with the provider. New efforts could be made
to target job training funds to child care, and to provide
increased visibility to child care workforce issues.
3. Promoting Public/Private Partnerships
It is clear that government alone cannot provide all the
funding for child care assistance. The administration's efforts
could include technical assistance, promoting promising
initiatives and supporting new tax incentives.
7
MAR-10-1997 18:54
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600 P.09
o Increasing Technical Assistance. The Child Care Bureau is
launching a new technical assistance effort to promote state
initiatives that reach out to the private sector. The RFP should
go out by the end of March with the project funded in early fall.
Once funded, the administration could make the announcement of
this new project a top priority. In addition, new child care
regulations may include provisions to encourage private sector
dollars as match.
0 Promoting promising initiatives. High level officials
could make visiting and talking about examples of private sector
support for child care a priority. This could include a range of
events from visits to state legislatures working on this issue to
small companies that make a commitment to child care.
o Increasing tax incentives. Finally, the administration
could support emerging Congressional proposals to provide tax
relief for businesses that invest in child care. The Treasury
Department, in conjunction with HHS, could review emerging
proposals and consider the inclusion of new provisions in the
budget.
4. Building Public Awareness of Child Care
The administration could consider strategies that provide
parents with opportunities to speak out about child care,
establish a strong child care research agenda and put in place an
expert committee to recommend bold new steps to create a 21st
Century Child Care system. Possible activities to be considered
include:
o Holding town hall meetings with parents. A series of
"town hall or village green" meetings could be planned for
parents to talk about their child care issues and how to improve
services. Leaders from the community, including the private
sector and local government, could be invited to attend and
encouraged to launch new initiatives. Stories and recommendations
could feed into a report to the President or a National Task
Force.
o Designing a coordinated research agenda. HHS is in the
process of developing a research agenda that will include child
care issues in the welfare research projects and will focus
"first time" attention on what we are "buying" with the $20
billion investment in subsidies over the next 6 years. Efforts
are also underway to integrate child care in ongoing research on
child development and to make linkages with large national
surveys. The administration could make a request to all federal
agencies with relevant research capability to include a focus on
child care over the next few years. In addition, since there are
no specific funds targeted to child care research at the federal
8
MAR-10-1997 18:55
ACF/ACYF/DCC
202 690 5600
P.10
or state level, a special request should be made for child care
research dollars, perhaps even to establish a National Center on
Child care Statistics modeled after the National Center for
Education Statistics.
O Convening a National Task Force on the Future of Child
Care The last major national report on child care was released by
the National Academy of Science in 1990- Who Cares for America's
Children? Child Care Policy for the 1990s. Many of the
recommendations in this report are yet to be addressed. Just as
we did for Head Start in 1994, we must develop a bipartisan
blueprint for a 21st century child care system that provides
recommendations for federal, state and local government, the
private sector and communities and parents. The administration
could convene a group of child care experts from across the
country to consider these and other proposals to move child care
beyond the crossroads.
9