This brief looks at the challenges and opportunities for young people ages 14 to 24 to access the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. It also covers ways these tax credits are intended to meet the needs of young people and how effectively they are met. The brief is drawn from a scan of the literature and discussions with safety net and youth policy experts and youth-serving practitioners. Discussion also notes the role that structural racism plays in the eligibility for and access to these tax credits.

The brief also presents a set of action steps for policy recommendations to strengthen the safety net through an intentional and comprehensive approach to supporting young people in meeting their basic needs. Discussion of the tax credits includes action steps for making the tax credit amounts more equitable across different age groups and student statuses. Tax credit discussion also includes action steps for filers who are or are not parents. In addition, the action steps consider reducing the complexity of documentation required to prove eligibility for credits and targeting tax credit outreach efforts and tax preparation assistance campaigns to young workers. These action steps on targeting could build on the IRS’s annual EITC awareness day effort.

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), a Federal block grant program, appropriates funds to states, tribes, and territories to subsidize child care costs for low-income working families. Each jurisdiction has its own set of eligibility requirements and policies for how funds are allotted. The CCDF Policies database illustrates in detailed tables the policy choices made by each state and territory in the context of federal program requirements. This report examines the policies and addresses: What are the eligibility requirements for families and children? What must families do to initially receive assistance and to continue receiving assistance? How much do families have to pay out of pocket for the child care they receive? What are the requirements for child care providers, and how much are they reimbursed for care?

While the report covers policies in effect as of October 1, 2019, it also examines how the policies have changed in the prior year and how selected policies have changed over the last five years prior to October 1, 2019. The report does not reflect more recent changes to policies, including policy changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Policy changes implemented after October 1, 2019 will be captured in future years’ reports.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the U.S. child care and early learning sector. In response, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 provides $10 billion in needed pandemic-related relief for the child care sector; this fact sheet shows an estimated breakdown by state of the Act’s additional child care relief funding. As providers have been faced with reduced enrollment and increasing costs to serve children safely, these pandemic relief funds can be used to lower family co-payments, pay salaries at child care facilities, and help providers in reopening following COVID-19 lockdowns.

Counties have expanded child care services and have offered child care providers local COVID-19 relief and support in sustaining child care after the pandemic. This National Association of Counties webinar on January 25, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET will discuss what counties can do to build the local supply of child care providers. The discussion will also include information on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s child care gap tool.

This brief summarizes potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to address barriers facing young parents and families, such as unemployment, disruption to education, financial instability, and lack of child care access, parenting experience, or family supports. Programs listed include, but are not limited to, TANF, SNAP, SSBG, Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program, Child Care Development Block Grant, WIOA, and the Family First Prevention Services Act Prevention Funds.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report synthesizes changes that states and territories made due to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program reauthorization, including health and safety improvements at child care facilities, consumer information availability, family-friendly subsidy administration, and support for early care and education providers. The report also presents a literature review of provider and family experiences with the child care market and subsidy system and findings from a child care stakeholders roundtable held in July 2019.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation will host a webinar to examine the findings from a series of surveys conducted from June to November 2020 which addressed the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on working parents, the childcare industry, and employers. This free virtual event will be held on December 9, 2020 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.

The economic shocks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic along with social distancing and stay-at-home orders have dramatically reshaped the approach social service programs are taking to support employment for low-income populations. The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) will sponsor a webinar on October 28, 2020 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET featuring leaders from three employment and training programs (Climb Wyoming, Rhode Island Works, and Community Action Organization of Scioto County). The speakers will describe their approaches to continuing training programs and other employment services during the pandemic. These programs participated in OPRE’s State TANF Case Studies project to explore different approaches to providing employment-related and supportive services to TANF recipients and other low-income populations. The panelists will discuss the operational implications of the pandemic for their programs; how participants of their services are balancing participation in employment services with competing life demands and suspension of supportive services, such as child care; and the implications of shifting labor market conditions.

The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) National Research Conference on Early Childhood 2020 (NRCEC 2020) will be held virtually from November 30 to December 3, 2020. This biennial event will cover research on child welfare, Early Head Start, Head Start, child care, home visiting, special education, pre-kindergarten, and early elementary and other early childhood programs. Updates on the conference agenda and registration will be posted as this information becomes available.

Funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, the Child & Family Data Archive has released the 2017 Child Care Licensing Study. The study covers collected information about child care licensing programs and policies as well as facility requirements, including facility monitoring, enforcement of licensing regulations, and licensing program staff. Data were collected from child care centers, group child care homes, and family child care homes for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Limited data were also collected for U.S. territories.