News

The facts are clear. We all know that child care is a basic for families that helps children develop the skills they need to succeed in school and in life and gives parents the support and peace of mind they need to be productive at work. But when it comes to child care assistance, states still need to do more.

The National Women's Law Center's new nationwide report reveals that states continue to fall short of providing low-income parents the support they need to obtain good-quality child care, despite modest gains in some areas.

This edition of our annual analysis, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2008: Too Little Progress for Children and Families, compares child care assistance policies in 2008 to 2007 and 2001 in four policy areas: income eligibility, waiting lists for assistance, copayment requirements, and reimbursement rates for providers. Some states have made progress since 2007, but most states continue to be behind where they were in 2001.

Key findings include:

·  In 2008, only 10 states set their maximum reimbursement rates at the federally recommended 75th percentile of market rates. In 2001, 22 states did so.

·  Between 2007 and 2008, two-thirds of the states increased their income eligibility limits to keep pace with or surpass inflation. But between 2001 and 2008, only about half the states increased their income eligibility limits sufficiently.

·  In 2008, two-thirds of the states avoided placing families on waiting lists for child care assistance. This was an improvement over 2001, but was unchanged from 2007.

·  Between 2007 to 2008, copayments for families with incomes at 100 percent of the poverty level remained the same or decreased as a percentage of income in all but a handful of states.  However, in more than half of the states, copayments for families at this income level were higher as a percentage of income in 2008 than in 2001.

To see how Oklahoma measures up, read the full report.