The National Women's Law Center Releases New Review of Child Care Assistance Policy

The National Women's Law Center recently released its 8th annual state-by-state review of child care assistance policies. The report, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2011: Reduced Support for Families in Challenging Times, discusses the influence of five factors that determine accessibility, affordability, and quality of assistance in each state and the District of Columbia. These factors include waiting lists for assistance, income eligibility, reimbursement rates for child care providers, eligibility for parents searching for a job, and copayments required from parents.

The report finds that under one or more child care assistance policies, families in 2011 are worse off in 37 states than they were in 2010. Furthermore the report reveals that families in 2011 are worse off than they were a decade ago. In contrast to the NWLC's findings from previous reports, families in only eleven states were better off under one or more child care policies than in 2010. Read the full report here.