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Background Issues

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• Child Care & Development Block Grant (Basic Background & Related Material)
• Child Care & Development Block Grant Accountability (200 KB)
• Child Care Provider Background Checks
• Training the Child Care Workforce
• Affordability & the Price of Child Care (627 KB)
• Inspections: Oversight & Accountability
• Quality Child Care Matters!
• Infants & Toddlers Need Quality Child Care
• CCR&R and State Early Learning Initiatives
• Working Mothers Need Child Care (Census Data)
• Child Care Workforce in America
• After-School Care
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF & Related Material)
• Who's Minding the Kids? (Census Data)
• Child & Adult Care Food Program
• English language Learners (GAO Study)
• Head Start
• Higher Education
• Taxes: Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC)
• Disaster Policy, Planning, and Recovery
• H1N1 Swine Flu Related Information

Child Care & Development Block Grant - Basic Background & Related Material

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) allocates funds to states for child care. States have a great deal of flexibility in using these funds.Read here for information about the block grant, funding, waiting lists, and related subidy information.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) - Basic Background & Related Material

TheTemporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programallocates funds to states for families who need monthly cash assistance based on their low incomes or who are at risk of welfare receipt in an effort to help them remain self-sufficient. States have a great deal of flexibility in using these funds, including transferring up to 30 percent to CCDBG and/or spending TANF funds directly on child care.Read here for information about the block grant, funding, and related subidy information.

Child and Adult Care Food Program

The Child and Adult Care Food Program is scheduled to be reauthorized in 2009. The program provides nutritious meals to over hundreds of thousands of child care programs nationwide. NACCRRA is working with other national organizations to improve the program.

Child Care Provider Background Checks

Parents need to know that there children are safe in child care, however, only 3 states currently conduct full background checks on providers working in child care centers.

Training the Child Care Workforce

The level of education and training attained by a child care provider is one of the strongest predictors for the provider's ability to offer high quality care, but many states do not require child care providers to complete training in early childhood education before beginning work.

• Training the Child Care Workforce – Brief Background Paper
• Background on the Child Care Workforce
• Supporting the Child Care Workforce: Education & Compensation Initiatives

High Quality Child Care Matters

Studies have repeatedly shown that good quality care – care that provides a loving, safe, and age-appropriate environment – helps children enter school ready to succeed.

Infants & Toddlers Need Quality Care

The first three years of life are a critical time for brain development. Infant care is often difficult to find and yet it is of critical importance to the healthy development of our nation’s most vulnerable.

Child Care Resource & Referral And State Early Learning Initiatives

With more mothers in the workforce than ever before, an increased emphasis on school readiness, and mandates for academic achievement, the quality of care young children receive is increasingly more important.

Head Start

The Head Start program provides comprehensive services to low income children prior to the age of mandatory school attendance in order to facilitate their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development.

Higher Education Act

The Higher Education Act provides a broad array of federal student aid programs that assist students and their families with paying for or financing the costs of obtaining postsecondary education, as well as programs that provide aid to Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs).

Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC)

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC) is available for married couples when one spouse works full-time and the other works at least part-time or goes to school. The credit may also be taken by single parents, and by divorced or separated parents who work and have custody of children.

Working Mothers Need Child Care

Over the last 30 years, labor force participation by women with children has increased substantially. Families depend upon the income mothers make.

Child Care Workforce In America

Every day, 2.3 million child care providers nurture and educate our nation’s youngest children. Research suggests that the skill level of a child care provider is critical to good quality care.

After-School Care

For many families, there is a gap between the time that children get home from school and parents get home from work. After-school programs offer a safe and enriching alternative to leaving children home alone.

Who's Minding the Kids?

The Census Bureau released a report in February of 2008 about the child care arrangements of children from birth through middle school with working mothers.

GAO Study: Families with limited English Proficiency Lack Access to Child Care Subsidies and Human Services

In September 2006, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that examined the participation of children from families with limited English proficiency in child care programs funded by the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Head Start. Through a series of 12 focus groups with Vietnamese-speaking parents and Spanish-speaking parents (both those who receive assistance and those who do not), the GAO found that families with limited English proficiency face unique barriers to accessing and using child care assistance.