Child Care Assistance: A Vital Support for Working Families

This issue brief from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) focuses on the importance of child care assistance for both parents and their children. Quality child care enables parents to go to work or school while their children receive early childhood education needed for healthy development. Child care assistance helps families with very low incomes remain stable in the workforce. However, currently, five out of six children eligible to receive child care assistance are not getting help because of long waiting lists, overly restrictive income eligibility requirements, and low reimbursement rates to child care providers. This brief describes the benefits of increasing investment in child care.