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 CHILD CARE BULLETINIssue 17—September/October 1997 White House Conference on Child Care |
White House Conference on Child CareWe are very pleased to bring you this Special Issue of the Child Care Bulletin, in honor of the White House Conference on Child Care, held on October 23, 1997. The day-long conference, hosted by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, provided an unprecedented opportunity to focus national attention on issues critical to meeting the needs of children and families for high quality, affordable child care.
The conference featured a morning panel discussion, moderated by the President and Mrs. Clinton on The Challenge: Availability, Affordability, and Assuring Safety and Quality in Child Care. The afternoon panel, Learning From What Works, shared examples of best practices and was moderated by Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Gore. Thousands of participants joined with us across the country by sponsoring working meetings and conferences in their communities. Over 100 localities accessed the proceedings via satellite downlink.
Joan Lombardi, Associate Commissioner of the Child Care Bureau, described the Conference as "a special day for all of us, especially for working families who depend on child care everyday and for the providers who work to meet the needs of the children in their care." We have the chance to embrace the positive momentum that such an extraordinary event can generate and bring about real change. Child care is everybody's business. New efforts across all levels, and in partnership with the private sector, can assure that all children receive the care they need to grow and thrive.
We hope that you will continue in your efforts to ensure that each family who needs child care will have the information, resources and options that will enable them to succeed as parents and as workers: child care that they can count on, they can afford, and they can trust to keep their children safe, healthy, and happy.
Financial Aid AvailableSecretary Donna E. Shalala of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Richard W. Riley of the U. S. Department of Education recently issued a joint letter to inform current and potential child care providers of the availability of additional financial resources to help them pursue postsecondary education related to child care careers. Their letter emphasizes the availability of current sources of Federal financial aid for all eligible students and introduces new Federal tax credits for students or their families, that together can help make starting or continuing postsecondary education a reality.
The U. S. Department of Education supports a variety of student financial aid programs, including grants, loans, and subsidized work experiences. These Federal student aid programs can help pay for courses needed for child care providers to become licensed or to earn specialized child development credentials. Federal student financial aid may also be available to help pay for continuing education courses to improve skills or advance in the child care field.
Pell Grants are one type of Federal grant that can be tapped by potential and current child care providers. Eligibility for these grants is based on family income, and they are available to part time or full time undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor's degree. Federal Pell Grants do not have to be repaid. The amount of award available to each student is variable and depends on financial need, cost of attending school (including associated costs such as transportation and dependent care), and how long the eligible training program is. To apply for this Federal student financial aid, a standard application must be submitted (the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid -- FAFSA) which considers financial details such as student and family income and expenses, assets, and family size, in order for the amount of the award to be determined.
To receive any Federal student financial aid, an applicant must meet general eligibility requirements. Applicants must:
The same application procedures and eligibility criteria apply for consideration of other forms of Federal student financial aid, including student loans, which must be repaid after education is completed, and subsidized Federal work-study, which lets students work and earn money to help pay for school. Loans and work-study options are available for both undergraduate and graduate students and are available on the basis of financial need, but with higher family income eligibility guidelines.
Besides these forms of Federal student financial aid, new tax benefits for adults who want to return to school and for parents who are sending or planning to send their children to college will be available due to recent changes in the tax code. These tax credits effectively make the first two years of college universally available, and will give many working Americans the financial means to go back to school if they want to choose a new career or upgrade their skills. Two new tax credits to be aware of include the "HOPE Scholarship" Tax Credit and the "Lifetime Learning Tax Credit."
"HOPE Scholarship" Tax Credits will be available for payments made toward tuition and required fees after December 31, 1997, for enrollment after that date. Students will receive a 100% tax credit for the first $1,000 of tuition and required fees, and a 50% credit on the second $1,000 for the first two years of college attendance. These credits will be phased out for tax filers with higher incomes. The taxpayer can claim a credit for personal tuition expenses or for the expenses of a spouse or dependent children.
Lifetime Learning Tax Credits are targeted to adults who want to go back to school, change careers, or take a course or two to upgrade their skills, and to college juniors, seniors, graduate and professional degree students. A family will receive a 20% tax credit for the first $5,000 of tuition and required fees paid each year through 2001, and for the first $10,000 thereafter. Families may claim this credit for amounts paid on or after July 1, 1998 for college or vocational school enrollment beginning on or after that date. The maximum credit is determined on a taxpayer (family) basis, and is also phased out at higher income levels. Families will be able to claim the Lifetime Learning tax credit for some members of their family and the "HOPE Scholarship" tax credit for others who qualify in the same year.
To get more information, call the Federal Student Aid Information Center, 800-4-FED-AID (800-433-3243), Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, visit the Department of Education's web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/Students/, or review The 1997-98 Student Guide available at most public livraries and postsecondary schools. For additional information about the tax credits described here and other possible tax benefits to students enrolled in postsecondary education and their families, check the infromation on the following page of the Department of Education's web site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/PPI/hopehome.html.
President Proposes Child Care Provider Scholarship FundDuring the White House Conference on Child Care, President Clinton announced a National Child Care Provider Scholarship Fund as well as an outreach plan to let child care providers know that they may be eligible for Pell Grants. When enacted, these new measures will help improve the quality of our nation's child care by helping caregivers get training and raise their pay, thereby supporting efforts to recruit and retain them.
New National Child Care Provider Scholarship Fund: The National Child Care Provider Scholarship Fund will provide more than $300 million in scholarships over five years to up to 50,000 child care providers annually --helping the more than half a million children they care for.
Up to a $1,500 Scholarship and Higher Pay For Continued Service: The Fund will provide scholarships of up to $1,500 to current and future child care providers who agree to remain in the field for at least one year after receiving assistance. These providers will earn increased compensation or a bonus when they complete their course work, provided by some combination of the Fund and the provider's employer.
Public-Private Partnership: The Fund will receive at least $250 million in Federal funds over five years, with every four dollars of Federal funds matched with at least one dollar of private, local or State funds. States will have flexibility in designing their programs, and can provide scholarships for students working toward a state or national credential, certificate, or Associate, B.A., or B.S. degree. States cannot use the Fund to substitute for existing efforts. States also cannot provide scholarships to employees or child care providers that are not licensed or registered.
Modeled on Successful Programs: The Fund is modeled on the North Carolina T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Project, a bipartisan program that has been shown to work. Participants in T.E.A.C.H. complete an average of 18 credit hours per year and receive an average 10 % increase in their wages. They have less than a 10 % turnover rate, compared to the statewide rate of 42 %. The President's Child Care Provider Scholarship Fund is also modeled on the Defense Department's model of tying pay raises to increased training.
Builds on Pell Grants: While not limited to those eligible for Pell Grants, the scholarships build on Pell Grants for those eligible by covering any costs not covered by Pell, including tuition and fees, books, supplies, transportation, and child care expenses. For example, a typical caregiver in a child care center earns $12,000 a year. Attending a community college half time, with total costs of $3,000, this individual would be eligible for a $1,350 Pell Grant in 1997-98. The Fund will then provide additional monies. All applicants must first apply for Pell Grants before receiving a Child Care Provider Scholarship.
Actions To Help Child Care Workers Take Advantage of Pell Grants, the New Lifetime Learning Tax Credit and Other Financial Aid: Many child care providers are not aware of other financial aid that is available now. The Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services jointly sent a letter to child care providers in all 50 states, providing them with information on the aid already available to current and future child care providers, including Pell Grants, the new Lifetime Learning and "HOPE Scholarship" Tax Credits, and loans.
Service as a Strategy in After-School ProgramsAt the White House Conference on Child Care, President Clinton announced steps to use community service to strengthen after-school programs.
To enable more communities to use community service to enrich their after-school programs, the President announced actions by the Corporation for National Service's new To Learn and Grow Initiative, a public-private partnership dedicated to expanding access to and enhancing the quality of after-school programs through service. The initiative will:
Today, communities use both volunteers and those engaged in full-time service commitments such as AmeriCorps to extend the reach and improve the quality of many child care and after-school programs. These individuals work alongside child care providers, educators, and community-based professionals across the country. Two-thirds of national service programs supported by the Corporation for National Service, including AmeriCorps, address the needs of children and youth, many in child care and after-school programs. The To Learn and Grow Initiative will build on this experience to show programs across the country how to use volunteers and others engaged in service to provide better care to more children.
Young people can also benefit from serving others after school hours. For example, Big Brothers/Big Sisters made a commitment at the Presidents' Service Summit that its mentors would participate with young people in service projects. In addition, the Corporation's Learn and Serve program supports service-learning programs across the country, where young people serve and then reflect on that experience. The To Learn and Grow Initiative's manual and training activities will guide after-school programs in incorporating service into their activities.
Successful programs where service strengthens after-school programs today include Jumpstart AmeriCorps, where AmeriCorps members get needy children and their families ready for school; Columbia University's Community Impact program, where AmeriCorps members provide educational enrichment, mentoring and tutoring for youth from K-3rd grade in collaboration with the YMCA; the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program in St. Paul, Minnesota, which pairs seniors and middle school students in after-school programs with 900 children in K-3rd grade; and the Sheridan Family Resources Center in Colorado, where AmeriCorps members tutor at-risk youth, run after-school and summer camp programs, and help youths and senior citizens obtain access to health services offered by school-based and community clinics.
President Clinton Sends National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact to CongressOn October 23, 1997, the President transmitted the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact to Congress. The compact will facilitate effective background checks on child care providers by eliminating state law barriers to the sharing of criminal history information for purposes other than ongoing criminal investigations. The vast majority of child care providers are caring people who have dedicated their lives to teaching and nurturing children. But one tragedy in child care is too many, and background checks are one important way to ensure that the people watching our children are fit for this responsibility.
Many states currently have laws prohibiting release of criminal history records for purposes other than ongoing criminal investigations -- such as in connection with background checks for employment or licensing. This means that a child care agency wishing to do a nationwide check to determine whether a potential child care worker has a criminal history will not be able to gain direct access to all states' records but instead must go to the FBI for information. FBI records, however, are not nearly as complete as states' own records because state reporting of criminal dispositions to the FBI is wholly voluntary. In addition, FBI checks can take weeks or months to complete because of the total volume of FBI records and the FBI's nationwide criminal responsibilities.
Under the compact, each ratifying state would agree to release its own criminal history information to other ratifying states for any purpose authorized by the receiving state's law. This means an agency wanting to do a nationwide check for a purpose authorized by state law need not rely on incomplete FBI records, but may gain access directly to other states' complete criminal records. The only role played by the FBI would be to give the requesting agency a list of the states in which the individual has a criminal record (information which the FBI would have in complete form), so that the agency can access those states' record directly. In this way, the compact will vastly increase the effectiveness and efficiency of nationwide criminal background checks.
A background check is only a first step in assuring that our children are cared for safely. Many people who are unsuited to be child care providers are never arrested or convicted of a crime; most child abuse cases, for example, are not prosecuted in criminal court. A recent study by the American Bar Association's Center for Children and the Law found that personal interviews and reference checks are essential tools in checking the credentials of caregivers.
Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham ClintonI'd like to take a minute for all of us to think about what's happening in America this morning, and about what happens every morning. Parents are making the preparations to get to work, and those preparations include for most working families putting their children in the care of others. And most, even before they're out the door, are worrying about the logistics of the care that their children will receive. Some are even worrying about the safety or quality of that care.
There are many who are wondering whether they would get better quality care if they could pay more. Others are struggling to determine how they'll be able to afford next month's payment. And there are many who are in the work force who worry every day about how they'll care for their child and hold down the job that they need. Many parents will go to work, but have trouble focusing on work because they are worried about the sniffle that their daughter had or wondering how their son is faring.
And before we finish today, many more working parents will keep looking anxiously at the clock and will murmur into telephones the instructions that their children need after school, because their concerns don't end at the end of the day for their children's school time, because parents won't get home, so that they have to worry about what happens to keep their child safe and well occupied during those hours, as well.
These are just some of the questions that America's parents are asking themselves this morning and every morning that they prepare to go to work. Some parents ask themselves these questions in the afternoon, as they prepare to go to a swing shift, or at midnight as they start to work in one of the other jobs that are essential to keeping our economy strong.
Earlier this month I went to the University of Maryland to visit its center for young children, and as soon as I walked in the door I knew immediately it was the kind of place any of us would feel comfortable sending our children. I was, frankly, tempted to sign up myself. The walls were painted bright colors. There was lots of natural light. The workers there were creative, energetic and focused. Inside there were toys and crafts material. Outside there was a playground. And the children looked happy and occupied and full of energy.
Now, later I left the center to make a speech, and after the speech I opened the floor to questions. And the very first question was one that I thought summed up the dilemma that we face today. It came from a divorced mother who works full-time as a secretary at the university. To send her 4-year-old son to the center I had visited, she told me, would cost $6,000 a year, a quarter of her income, and she just couldn't do it. She had to do some real juggling to get the situation that she told me about. She was able to send her son to another less expensive center because she qualified for a scholarship, and she moved back in with her parents. Otherwise, she said, I would have to quit my job and go on welfare, and then I would have to worry about who would watch my child as I looked for a job.
She and so many women like her are the reason we are here today, and parents like Paula Broglio, who is here with us in the East Room, represent the millions of parents who worry about this important issue. Thirteen million American children spend all or some of their day being cared for by someone other than their parent. Yet, a recent national study found that child care at most centers in our country is, "poor to mediocre, with almost half of the infants and toddlers in rooms having less than minimal quality."
The study also concluded that fully 40 percent of the rooms serving infants in centers provided care that was of such poor quality as to jeopardize children's health, safety or development. A recent University of Colorado at Denver survey of child care in four states found only one in seven child care centers to be of good quality.
And quality care, as Paula and so many others know, when it is available is often financially out of reach. According to the 1995 census, families earning under $1,200 a month or less than $15,000 a year pay an average of 25 percent of their income for child care. Middle class families are hit hard as well. These families, earning up to $36,000 a year pay 12 percent of their income for child care.
The urgency of this conference today to focus on child care is heightened by the new scientific information we have about the emotional and intellectual development of young children. As we learned at the White House Conference on Early Childhood Development in April, what happens to a child in the earliest years affects how well he or she learns for a lifetime. With 45 percent of our children under the age of one in day care regularly, the issue of quality has tremendous bearing not just on individual lives, but on the future of our nation.
What's more, we now know from other studies that good care, whether given at home or in a day care setting, is good care. Done right, day care can be beneficial for children, and it is, therefore, worth our investment.
There's another reason that compels us to act, and that is demand. Demand for quality child care is growing, hastened on by our new economy, which has meant in the last 40 years dramatic changes in the American work force and in the American family's life. We know, for example, that half of all mothers with children under one year of age are working outside the home, and not only are more parents working, they are working longer hours. Also, with welfare reform we know that many more children will be needing quality child care.
So this conference is meant to start a conversation. It is only one day, but we hope it is a day that will renew our efforts to improve child care in America. We also hope it will involve our entire national community, because every aspect of our life together must be involved in looking for solutions. The federal government has a role to play, but so do state governments, business and labor, the nonprofit and religious communities, school systems, individual citizens, and especially parents.
We also know there are models of excellent child care around the country and we will hear about some of them -- like the military's day care system or the Smart Start Program in North Carolina. These initiatives provide examples of best practices and can energize and inspire us to do more.
We also know how important it is to ensure choice for parents in their selection of child care. One size fits all child care does not fit America's families. We don't work the same hours, we don't have the same economic or other kinds of pressures that we're dealing with, so we have to provide more options and we have to empower parents with good information to enable them to become good consumers. We also have to find ways that would make it easier and more affordable for parents who want to stay home with their children for some period of time to be able to afford to do so.
So I hope we approach this conversation with a certain fearlessness, with the same kind of energy that I see on the face of a three or four-year-old who's going about some task that he knows will occupy himself. We need to have the same kind of fearless approach, asking the hard questions and then listening to the answers.
There will be a lot of questions raised today -- questions about how to ensure the safety of every child in child care; how to do a better job of training and paying care-givers; how to encourage more employers to provide child care benefits of some variety to employees; how to make successful after-school programs more widely available; how to meet the needs of children with disabilities; how to better support parents who choose, often at significant cost, to stay home with their children; how to ensure that quality and affordability do not come at the expense of one another; and how to learn from the good models that we have in every community and state of our country; and, also, how do we leave ideology at the door and honestly address the real needs of America's families.
These are tough questions, and there are many more that we will be considering today. But we consider these questions at an opportune time. And we hope that this conference will spur the conversations around kitchen tables and water coolers and standing in supermarket aisles or at soccer games, or while going to or from work in the carpool -- whatever it takes to engage more Americans in this discussion, to make it clear that we want American parents to succeed at the most important task they have, caring for the next generation, and to be good workers who contribute to the economy and the quality of life that we enjoy in our country.
Remarks by President Bill Clinton"No parent should ever have to choose between work and family; between earning a decent wage and caring for a child."
This is a happy day at the White House, first for all the people in the administration and all those who have worked with them for months and months and months to help this day come to pass; and second, and even more important, from my point of view, this is a happy day because I have been listening to the First Lady talk about this for more than 25 years now and it may be that I will finally be able to participate in at least a small fraction of what I have been told for a long time I should be doing. And I say that in good humor, but also with great seriousness.
This is an anniversary of sorts for me. It was six years ago today as a newly announced candidate for President that I went back to my alma mater at Georgetown and began a series of three speeches outlining what I thought America ought to look like in the 21st century and what I thought we would have to do to create a country in which everyone had an opportunity, everyone was expected to be a responsible citizen, and where we came together across all the lines that divide us into one community.
There are many things that are necessary for that to be done, but clearly two of them are, first, people in this country have to be able to succeed at work and at home in raising their children. And if we put people in the position of essentially having to choose one over the other, our country is going to be profoundly weakened. Obviously, if people are worried sick about their children, and they fail at work, it's not just individual firms; it's the economic fabric and strength of the country that is weakened. Far more important, if people fail at home, they have failed in our most important job, and our most solemn responsibility.
Second, we'll never be the kind of country we ought to be unless we believe that every child counts and that every child ought to have a chance to make the most of his or her God-given abilities.
That's why we're here today -- to examine where we are and what we still have to do. And what we still have to do is quite a lot, to make sure we live by what we believe when we say that all parents should be able to succeed at home and at work and that every child counts. No parent should ever have to choose between work and family; between earning a decent wage and caring for a child. Especially in this day and age when most parents work, nothing is more important than finding child care that is affordable, accessible, and safe. It is America's next great frontier, in strengthening our families and our future.
As the Catholic Conference has noted, no government can love a child and no policy can substitute for a family's care. But there is much that we can do to help parents do their duty to their children. From my days as governor of Arkansas to my service as President, strengthening families has been a central goal of what I have worked on. I'm very proud that the first bill I had the opportunity to sign into law as President was the Family and Medical Leave Act, so that no parent has to choose between caring for a child or keeping a job when a family member is ill.
The expanded earned income tax credit helps to ensure that parents who work don't have to raise their children in poverty. No one who is out there working full-time with children should have to worry about that. Expanded Head Start programs are serving more families than ever before. We've collected record sums of child support enforcement. The historic balanced budget I signed this summer provides a $500-per-child tax credit and helps parents to pay for their children's college education through IRAs, expanded loans and Pell Grants, the HOPE Scholarship and other tax credits.
The Congress has before it now a program of Secretary Riley's called 21st Century Community Schools in which we ask for funds to help our states keep our schools open after classroom hours for children who have no place else to go and need that environment. We've also made some progress on child care. Since 1993, child care assistance has increased by 70 percent to help families pay for nearly a million children. Last year in the welfare reform debate, we fought and won the battle to expand child care assistance by $4 billion over the next six years, giving states an unprecedented opportunity to lead, to innovate in efforts to make child care more affordable.
But we have to do more. With more families required to rely on two incomes to make ends meet, with more single-parent families than ever, more young children are left in the care of others even in their earliest years. And as the First Lady said, we learned at our Conference on Early Childhood and the Brain, that's when children develop or fail to develop capacities that will shape the entire rest of their lives. It's also true that more and more schoolchildren are returning to empty homes after school.
The first thing we have to do is to make it possible for parents to spend time with their children whenever possible. That's why I hope the Congress will vote to expand the Family and Medical Leave law so that parents at least can take some time off for their children's medical appointments, teacher conferences and other basic duties. And I support flex-time laws that will allow workers to choose between receiving overtime in pay or in time off with their families.
But during those times when children can't be with their parents, they must get care that keeps them safe and that helps them to learn and grow. As we all know, too often that isn't the case. Too often, child care is unaffordable, inaccessible and, sometimes, even unsafe. The cost, as Hillary said, strains millions of family budgets. And government assistance meets just about a quarter of the need. Even for those who can afford it, sometimes good care is hard to find. Waiting lists sometimes take months or years to move, forcing many parents to cobble together unstable arrangements.
The shortage of care puts older children at risk, as well. Five million of them between the ages of five and 14 are left to fend for themselves after school. And as they get older, that increases the chances that they'll be exposed to drugs, tobacco and crime.
Finally, studies have shown that too many child care facilities are literally unsafe. The tragedies that have befallen families who depended on child care continue to make headlines all across our nation. This conference is an important step forward in addressing all these issues. What we learn today should spur us on to find ways to help parents, all parents, afford safe, affordable, high quality child care, whether it's at home, a child care center or a neighbor's house.
In the coming months, our administration will develop a plan to be unveiled at the next State of the Union address, to improve access and affordability, and to help to ensure the safety of child care in America. In the meantime, I want to announce four specific things we can do right now.
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First, I'm asking Congress to establish a new scholarship fund for child care providers. Too many caregivers don't have the training they need to provide the best possible care. Those who do have training are rarely compensated with higher wages. The scholarship program I propose will help students earn their degrees as long as they remain in the child care field for at least a year, and it will ensure that caregivers who complete their training will receive a bonus or a raise.
Second, we have to weed out the people who have no business taking care of our children in the first place. I am transmitting to Congress the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, which will make background checks on child care providers easier and more effective by eliminating state barriers to sharing criminal histories for this specific purpose. I urge Congress to pass and states to ratify this legislation.
Third, I've asked Secretary Rubin to oversee a working group on child care, composed primarily of business leaders working with labor and community representatives to find ways more businesses can provide child care or help their employees afford high quality child care. And again, I thank John Sweeney for his important support of this initiative. In some ways the most gripping part of that film we saw was the father talking about how he was just consumed with worry at work. No parent should ever have to go through that.
Finally, we must use community service to strengthen and expand access to after-school programs. Today, the Corporation for National Service through its To Learn and Grow Initiative will pledge to help after-school programs all across our country to use volunteers to provide better care to children. It is releasing a how-to manual for groups who want to incorporate community service into after-school programs. And I think that, Secretary Riley, if we can win in our little budget battle here on the 21st century community schools, then together, we can do some real good out there on this issue.
My friends, for centuries, over two now, the American Dream has represented a compact that those who work hard and play by the rules should be able to build better lives for themselves and for their children. In this time, and even more into the future, child care that is too expensive, unsafe or unavailable will be a very stubborn obstacle to realizing that dream. So let us commit ourselves to clearing the obstacle, to helping parents fulfill their most sacred duty, to keeping the American Dream alive for them and most important, for their children.
Remarks by Secretary Donna E. Shalala, DHHSWhether I'm talking to parents struggling to make ends meet or women trying to balance work and family, there are two words that always come up: child care. Parents usually talk in whispers: Most would rather tell their bosses they have a flat tire than admit they have a child care problem. Now, thanks to the President and Mrs. Clinton, we've brought the issue of child care into the spotlight and turned the private conversations families have into a national discussion we all must have.
This is not the first time in our history that we've faced this challenge. When Rosie the Riveter entered the work force during World War II, her family needed child care. So President Roosevelt and Congress acted to provide it.
Today, as Secretary Rubin pointed out, millions of daughters and granddaughters of the World War II generation are in the work force -- not to win a war, but to win financial security for their families and independence for themselves. So once again, families need child care. And, once again, the national government must be a partner with states, communities, businesses and families to meet our nation's growing child care needs. Why? Because investing in child care and after school programs is one of the best investments we can make in our economic future.
As a big Cleveland Indians fan, I've obviously been thinking a lot about the World Series. And when I think about where we stand in understanding and addressing the child care issues facing our nation, I see us in the 7th inning stretch -- knowing that we're doing better, but not as well as we should. Knowing that the picture of child care is uneven -- some communities are doing well and others are not stepping up to the plate. And knowing that the most important part of the game is yet to come.
Because of the leadership of the President and First Lady, the early innings have brought real progress. We're spending more. This year we invested $3 billion in the Child Care Development Block Grant -- an increase of almost 70 percent since 1993. This grant, combined with state funds, is helping to care for 1 million children from welfare families and the working poor. Since President Clinton took office, our investment in Head Start has almost doubled to $4 billion -- and now serves nearly 800,000 children a year. And our Dependent Care Tax Credit -- valued at $2.5 billion -- will help 5 million families pay for child care this year.
We're learning more. Research funded by our National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found a direct link between high quality child care and a child's subsequent cognitive and language development. And we're reaching out more. We started a National Child Care Information Center to share information with states and communities. We're fostering public-private partnerships. We're providing states with technical assistance and models that work to help them address quality and other important issues. And we're linking child care and health care agencies to improve safety and give children the health care services they need.
But as the President made clear this morning we must do more -- and we need to do better. Because today only about one million children receive federal child care assistance even though 10 million are eligible. And because the 7th inning stretch is a time not only to stand up, but also to look out -- to engage in a real national dialogue about where we are, and what each of us must do to take us where we need to go.
Let me give you a snapshot of where the gaps are on three issues: Availability, affordability, and quality. For parents, these areas really boil down into three basic questions about child care: Can I get it? Can I afford it? And can I trust it?
First, can I get child care? We don't have a big centralized child care system. We have a diverse system that includes everything from company sponsored day care centers to family day care to informal arrangements with friends and relatives. Yet, too many parents don't have access to even one of these options. As the General Accounting Office report made clear, parents are running up against major shortages of care -- especially for infants, for children with disabilities, for school age children , and for families working nontraditional hours.
Over half of our schools do not offer after-school services to children -- and those same children -- especially in low-income communities -- often cannot find after-school care in their neighborhoods either. It's especially tough for middle school and junior high kids. As they move through adolescence, they desperately need imaginative programs and caring adults after school -- but too few of them are getting it.
Even when child care is available, it is often inaccessible, because there is no transportation from home, work, or the place of care. But assume that parents can find and get child care: It still has to be affordable or it doesn't do them much good.
Which brings me to the second question every parent is asking about child care: Can I afford it? As Mrs. Clinton has pointed out, families earning less than $1200 a month pay about a quarter of their income for child care. The federal government is trying to ease this burden. And we've done a pretty good job of helping people move from welfare to work by expanding child care. For example, most federal assistance goes to families at or near the poverty line. For a family of four, that would be income of just over $16,000.
But this problem extends far beyond poor families. It is a challenge that faces all working families. It's great that many states are trying to make child care more affordable by linking eligibility to income instead of welfare status. But we need to be careful. Because even as many states increase eligibility, they are also increasing the amount they expect parents to pay.
And even when parents can get -- and afford -- child care. They still need to ask themselves: "Can I trust it?" That is the third and last piece of the child care problem I want to highlight: quality and safety.
No matter where you live or what kind of care you choose, parents should always have confidence that their children are getting the best. We have many extraordinary child care settings that we should be proud of. They're in the military, in businesses, in schools and in communities. Yet, many child care arrangements have serious shortcomings. Part of the problem is low reimbursement rates from many states.
Another part is inadequate licensing. All states have some form of child care licensing. But many children -- even infants -- are in care that is exempt from it. To make matters worse, in some states our Department found numerous instances where child care facilities did not comply with the states' health and safety standards. And unlike the military, where child care centers are inspected many times each year, in the civilian sector, too many child care programs don't receive even a single inspection during the year.
Perhaps the biggest threats to quality are poor training and low wages for child care workers. Most child care staff only earn around $12,000 a year with few, if any, benefits. These low wages cause a third of child care workers to leave their jobs every year, which can be damaging to young children who need stable care.
In addition, last year, more than half the states required little or no training for child care staff before they started work. We're trying to close that gap. Under our new Child Care Development Fund, all states using federal funds are required to provide basic health and safety training. To prevent SIDS deaths in child care settings, our department is educating child care workers about the importance of putting infants to sleep on their backs -- and the importance of telling their parents to do the same. And we believe that all child care centers receiving federal funds should have to make sure that the children they serve are immunized.
As I said, I consider this conference to be our 7th inning stretch. But reaching the end of the game will be the tough part. It means making sure that all parents have the information and the personal assistance they need to make one of the toughest decisions of their lives. It means making sure that states don't have to make impossible trade-offs when choosing which children are eligible, how much parents pay, and how much child care providers are reimbursed.
And, it means making sure that parents don't ever have to make impossible trade-offs either -- trade-offs between keeping their jobs and keeping their children safe.
As the other panelists will make clear, that's only going to happen if all of us continue to share information and invest resources -- from the federal government, to the states, to the private sector, to communities and parents. And that's only going to happen if we judge ourselves not on what we say today, but on what all of us do tomorrow.
Thank you.
Child Care for Young Children: Quality"Recent brain research suggests that warm, responsive child care is not only comforting for an infant; it is critical to healthy development."
- Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development
Families and Work Institute (1997)
Higher quality child care for very young children (Birth to 3) was consistently related to high levels of cognitive and language development. "Mother-Child Interaction and Cognitive Outcomes Associated with Early Child Care," NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1997)
Studies have raised concerns about the quality of care:
A four-state study of quality in child care centers found only one in seven (14%) were rated as good quality. Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers, (Executive Summary) University of Colorado at Denver (1995)
Thirteen percent of regulated and 50 percent of nonregulated family child care providers offer care that is inadequate. The Study of Children in Family Child Care and Relative Care, Families and Work Institute (1994)
"The quality of services provided by most centers was rated as barely adequate." The National Child Care Staffing Study (Executive Summary), National Center for the Early Childhood Workforce (1989)
"[M]any children living in poverty receive child care that, at best, does not support their optimal development and, at worst, may compromise their health and safety." New Findings on Children, Families, and Economic Self-Sufficiency, National Research Council, Institute of Medicine (1995)
"Children who receive warm and sensitive caregiving are more likely to trust caregivers, to enter school ready and eager to learn, and to get along well with other children. . . To ensure that child care settings nurture children, protect their health and safety, and prepare them for later school success, better qualified staff are essential." Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children, Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children (1994)
"[S]maller group sizes, higher teacher/child ratios and higher staff wages result in quality child care. Outcomes for children are also better when they attend programs that include a curriculum geared to young children, well prepared staff and where parents are involved in programming." Early Childhood Care and Education: An Investment That Works, National Conference of State Legislatures (1997)
Any child care setting will benefit from a health consultant. . . to advise on potential infectious diseases, explain symptoms and treatments to families, plan health alert procedures when infectious disease occurs, and assist with public health reporting requirements. Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Groups, Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families (1995)
States with stronger licensing requirements had a greater number of good-quality centers according to recent research. Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers, University of Colorado at Denver (1995)
Voluntary conformity to higher standards through professional center accreditation or through meeting another set of quality standards also increased the likelihood of higher classroom quality. Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers, University of Colorado at Denver (1995)
For additional information, contact the National Child Care Information Center at (800) 616-2242 or visit the Web site at http://nccic.org/
Out-of-School TimeAccording to the Bureau of the Census, in 1997 there were 38.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 years living in the U.S. There are approximately 24 million school-age children with parents in the workforce or pursuing education (based on 1993 SIPP data from the Bureau of the Census).
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Relative: 25% Center: 14% Family Day Care: 7% In-home: 3% Other: 7% None: 44% |
The most frequently mentioned barrier to participation is the parents' inability to pay the tuition and fees charged by programs. Other barriers include availability, quality of activities, inadequate facilities, transportation, high staff turnover, hours of the program and lack of resources.
Components of Successful Before- and After-School Programs include: linkages between after-school and regular school programs, children's participation in age appropriate learning activities, hiring of qualified staff, low student-staff ratio, involvement of parents, program evaluation and coordination with the schools and other community organizations.
For information on what states and communities are doing to meet the need for school-age care, contact the National Institute on Out of School Time (formerly the School-Age Child Care Project), Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College at (617) 283-2547 or visit the World Wide Web site at: http://www.wellesley.edu/WCW/CRW/SAC/. For additional information on extended learning in after-school programs in schools, contact the U.S. Department of Education. Please call (800) USA-LEARN or visit the World Wide Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/PFIE/.
Child Care for Young Children: Demographics |
Percent of preschoolers of working mothers in selected arrangements.
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Source: Casper, L.M. Who's Minding Our Preschoolers? U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P-70, no. 53, Washington, DC 1996.
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Percent of preschoolers of working mothers in selected arrangements. Centers Family Day Care Care by fathers |
Source: Casper, L.M. Who's Minding Our Preschoolers? U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P-70, no. 53, Washington, DC 1996.
This profile of child care demographics has been excerpted from information provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the **U.S. Bureau of the Census.
For additional information, contact the National Child Care Information Center at (800) 616-2242.
Economics of Child Care |
Families with monthly income of Families with monthly income of Families with monthly income of Families with monthly income of |
Source: Casper, L.M. What Does It Cost to Mind Our Preschoolers? U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P-70, no. 52, Washington, DC, 1995.
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Families with monthly income of Families with monthly income of Families with monthly income of Families with monthly income of |
Source: Casper, L.M. What Does It Cost to Mind Our Preschoolers? U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P-70, no. 52, Washington, DC, 1995.
Information in this fact sheet is excerpted from Sandra L. Hofferth, "Child Care in the United States," The Future of Children, vol. 6, no. 2 Summer/Fall 1996, with additional information from: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education; *U.S. Bureau of Census; **Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor.
For additional information, contact the National Child Care Information Center at (800) 616-2242 or visit the Web site at http://nccic.org/
| The document is for informational purposes only. No official endorsement of any practice, publication, program, or individual by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Administration for Children and Families, the Child Care Bureau, or the National Child Care Information Center is intended or is to be inferred. For additional information on this or related topics, please contact the National Child Care Information Center at (800) 616-2242 or info@nccic.org. |
