| Summary of Key Findings from Working Paper No. 11
Background
Improving access to affordable, high-quality
child care is an important component of efforts to support
employment among low-income families. This paper uses data
from random assignment studies of 21 welfare and work pilot
programs to investigate how a set of child care policies affected
low-income families’ use of paid care and subsidies and their
experience with employment-related child care problems. In
programs that provided it, increased access to care included
one or more of the following:
promotion and subsidization of formal care, case management
and support services, efficient reimbursement of out-of-pocket
expenditures, and continuity of care for families transitioning
on and off welfare. The effects of programs that increased
access to child care are evaluated against the backdrop of
child care subsidies provided through the AFDC system and
block grants for low-income families available at the time.
Key Findings
- Welfare and work programs generally
increased employment and use of paid child care regardless
of whether the programs included policies that increased
access to care.
- Compared to programs that did not enhance
access to child care, those that did increased use of child
care subsidies, reduced out-of-pocket costs, and reduced
reports of child care problems that interfered with employment.
Conclusions and Implications
Benefits to families from the expanded availability
of subsidized child care assistance and lower out-of-pocket
cost in welfare and work programs can increase disposable
family income, which has been shown to improve child well-being.
Reductions in child care problems that interfere with employment,
moreover, may promote job stability. |
