HRC & Choices in Child Care

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Friday August 24, 2007 · 8:56 AM PDT

2007/08/24 · 08:56

Hillary Clinton plans pilot program for choices in child care.

Here’s a nice program Hillary is sponsoring to expand choices in child care to new low-income families. According to Hillary, "One of the big challenges families face is juggling work and child care. Too many parents don’t qualify for leave after the birth of a child and we face a severe shortage of quality, affordable child care providers who care for newborn infants for parents who are eligible to receive child care assistance. Our hardest working families should not have to sacrifice quality for affordability when it comes to child care. We should give parents the option to use their child care benefits to take paid leave."

In 2006, Hillary Clinton and her counterpart in the House, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), proposed the "Choices in Child Care Act of 2006". The Act would fund pilot programs in 5 to 7 states to allow eligible low-income parents to receive a subsidy to care for their infants in their own homes in lieu of a child care subsidy.

Key provisions in the Act include:
Eligibility: Low income families, with children under 12 months (24 if states allow) and a recent work history. States could include two parent families, though they could not limit participation two parent families. I like this because too often safety net programs like these penalize two parent households.

Financing: A new appropriation $75 million per year to Child Care and Development Block Grant for the pilot programs. Families would receive a subsidy equal to or less than 100% of the State’s maximum rate for a licensed family child care provider for full-time infant care, not to be considered income.

Program and Administration: Secretary of Health and Human Services will provide grants to participating states. Participating states will not reduce other programs, and will design plans to address infant care in their states. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will evaluate the progam after 4 years of it’s passage.

You can read Hilary’s statement here:
http://www.justhillary.com/...

You can look at the key provisions here:
http://www.cepr.net/...

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