Children and Families

Who are America’s Poor Children? The Official Story

This fact sheet, from the National Center for Children in Poverty, details some of the characteristics of children who are considered poor by the official standard – including their race/ethnicity, parental nativity, and the hardships they face.

Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care

The foundation of CLASP's Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care Project is a Policy Framework comprised of four key principles describing what babies and toddlers in child care need and 15 recommendations for states to move forward. CLASP developed this Policy Framework with ZERO TO THREE in the first year of the project, based on interviews with over one hundred leaders around the country.

Child Care Assistance in 2006: Insufficient Investments

This report, from the Center for Law and Social Policy, finds that spending on child care assistance increased slightly in 2006. Thirty-two states increased spending, while 19 states made cuts to their child care programs. Meanwhile, federal funding for child care has remained nearly flat for six years. Analysis of expenditure data from the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant show that states will need more help just to maintain current service levels.

State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed

NWLC’s annual nationwide report and analysis of state child care assistance policies reveals that low-income families continue to struggle to access high-quality child care, despite some modest improvements made by states. The analysis compares child care assistance policies in 2007 to 2006 and 2001 in four key policy areas: reimbursement rates for providers, income eligibility, waiting lists for assistance and copayment requirements.  States have made some progress since 2006 in the areas of income eligibility and waiting lists, the report found, but less progress was made in copayments, and almost no progress was made in reimbursement rates.  Most states also continue to be behind where they were in 2001.