Through the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), states administer child care subsidy programs to support low-income parents’ employment and expand children’s access to high-quality child care. Many Hispanic children stand to benefit from this key public investment, given that most live with an employed parent and more than half live in low-income households. This brief examines how CCDF policies are interpreted and implemented on the ground by local caseworkers and administrators who work directly with families seeking subsidies. Using an online survey to assess the administrative burden for Hispanic applicants, researchers found that all local subsidy staff identified employment as an approved activity; most (80% or more) considered education, job training, and activities related to the TANF program to be approved; and fewer (60% to 70%) considered job searching and activities related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to be approved.

When it comes to cash transfer programs like welfare for single parents and especially mothers, most of the evaluation and economic modeling efforts have focused on how those programs impact the amount of paid work single parents do. However, there has been less attention to the value of parental time and how that matters for children’s development. This podcast from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison features Joseph Mullins, an economist at the University of Minnesota, who developed an economic model for U.S. cash transfer programs that attempts to place an accurate value on parents’ time when assessing cash transfer programs.

For much of 2022, the U.S. has enjoyed an unusually strong labor market. Unemployment is historically low, and job creation is well above the level needed to keep pace with population growth. By some measures, such as wage growth, the labor market is especially solid for many lower-wage workers. However, this does not mean that all workers are participating in the labor market at the rates they had prior to the pandemic. This blogpost summarizes research indicating less-educated couples became more likely during the COVID-19 pandemic to include only one labor force participant. The findings indicate that parents of young children report that caregiving is increasingly the reason given for their labor force nonparticipation.

Access to high-quality, accessible, and affordable early care and education is essential to the economic wellbeing of families and child care providers, who are fundamental for robust and resilient state and national economies. This blogpost notes that the lack of child care funding has led to significant tradeoffs resulting in inequitable policies and limited access for families who need it the most. Families with low incomes spend a higher percent of their income on care than high-income families. Unable to devote this share of resources, families with low incomes often face hard choices such as using lower-quality, less safe care; having to neglect other expenses like food; or even exiting the workforce completely. Investments that support a high-quality, accessible child care and early education system will pay long-term dividends for the economy.

Parents who work outside the home have always faced challenges finding high-quality, affordable child care that meets their needs. But the COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating consequences for the child care industry and parents’ attachment to the labor force. WorkRise, a research-to-action network on jobs, workers, and mobility hosted by the Urban Institute, held a webinar on July 12, 2022, which covered the following questions: What are the long-term implications of child care challenges for workers, families, and the economy? How have these challenges exacerbated labor market inequalities and barriers to upward mobility? What solutions are needed for families and the economy to thrive, and what role should public policy, employer practices, and advocacy play in providing them?

Supporting healthy development begins in early childhood. To support their children and optimize family well-being, parents need access to high-quality early care and education (ECE) services, as well as support for broader family needs, such as nutrition, home visiting, parenting skills, or employment. ACF sponsored the Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) study to deepen understanding of programs, groups, agencies, or organizations that coordinate ECE with other health and human services (referred to in this report as coordinated services approaches). This report describes the study’s qualitative data collection, presents models of coordinated services at the state and local level, and reports findings about state and local coordinated services approaches.

Partnerships between Early Head Start (EHS) programs and child care (CC) providers aim to increase access to high-quality, comprehensive services that meet the needs of infants and toddlers from families with low incomes. This brief uses data from The Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2018 (Baby FACES) to provide a snapshot of quality in partner classrooms—that is, classrooms in child care partner centers that included at least one child enrolled in EHS. These child care partner centers had formal partnerships with EHS programs. This includes, but is not limited to, partnerships supported by EHS-CC Partnership grants.

This commentary provides insight on the way some states have addressed the need to retain childcare workers in the middle of widespread staffing shortages by supplementing their wages. However, research shows that ensuring all eligible childcare workers receive these wage supplements is a difficult task, as incomplete take-up is a constant issue across public benefit programs. The author outlines several key strategies state and local governments can use to ensure that eligible childcare workers leverage available benefits.

Both the early childhood and child welfare systems are investing in promising new ways to support families with young children, particularly as they strive to recover from COVID-19 challenges and to become more equitable. These investments are creating new opportunities for child welfare and early childhood systems to align services and collaborate across both systems to better support children. This brief provides a rationale for better coordination between the two systems, followed by recommendations for alignment and examples of strong alignment in the field. Recommendations are structured around three main areas of opportunity for coordination: preventing child abuse and neglect, supporting children and families with open child welfare cases, and creating stronger functionality and supports in both systems.

To serve jobseekers effectively, employment and training programs may need to incorporate essential supportive services. These three Workforce System Strategies resources – Local Workforce Development Boards and Child Care, Evaluation of SNAP Employment and Training Pilots, and Implementing Healthcare Career Pathway Training Programs in Rural Settings – document supportive services such as childcare, training materials, transportation assistance, rental assistance, and work clothing to increase jobseeker abilities to access, prepare for, and obtain employment.