Subsidizing success with child care.

• Author: Groginsky, Scott
• Position: Includes related articles on proposed federal child care programs, reimbursement rates used by states to find child care services and state programs for stay-at-home parents

With the need for more and better child care becoming urgent, state lawmakers are deciding how to help.

It's one of the hardest decisions a parent must make: Who takes care of your child while you go to work? Regardless of your economic status, you must have good, reliable care. If you're trying to find a job and move out of welfare, lack of child care can be an insurmountable hurdle.

It's a hot topic these days, and it seems as if everybody has a plan. As state policymakers address the burgeoning demand, they face significant challenges:

* How much child care funding is needed?

* Who should be eligible for publicly funded care?

* How much should a parent contribute to the cost?

* How much should the state reimburse child care providers?

* How should child care be funded?

* How do you ensure good child care?

Federal, state and local policymakers from both major parties have offered proposals to provide more and better care for young children while their parents work. These ideas encompass a variety of services: out-of-home day care for preschoolers, after school initiatives and early education programs that help prepare children for school. State legislatures are at the forefront of these plans, with at least half the states looking at ways to help low-income parents.

"With more and more working parents and more two-worker families, child care is necessary," says California Senator Cathie Wright. As the country moves to get everyone employed, Wright says the focus has to be on quality child care. It's difficult to learn a new job or be a good worker if your mind is on your children while you are on the job, she says.

Pushing child care issues is the new welfare system that requires families on welfare to work. The 1996 federal reform law provided nearly $3 billion in child care funding to support state efforts for meeting the new work requirements and to help other low-income working families stay off welfare. There's no question that affordable, reliable child care is essential to a parent's ability to keep a job. And we now know that the brain develops language, thinking and social skills during the first three years of life and more rapidly than was previously believed. This new information underscores the importance of early childhood experiences. Nurturing, stimulating care from a consistent caregiver early in life supports readiness to learn and healthy emotional development.

As states complete the first full year of welfare reform, legislators are examining the effects of their child care policies. In "The Child Care Challenge: States Leading the Way," the American Public Welfare Association says 25 states plan to appropriate more money than is required for federal matching funds. States are spending more money than ever before to provide for the increasing demand for child care, the report says.

HOW MUCH FUNDING iS NEEDED?

"Some states have recognized the importance of [child care] funding," said Helen Blank of the Children's Defense Fund, "but there are other states with long waiting lists or that have no way to serve all low-income families who are eligible." Blank says putting funds into child care can only save money in the long run. "One-third of children whose mothers work are poor or would be if their mothers didn't work."

Illinois and California have dramatically increased funding to either eliminate or shorten waiting lists for subsidized child care.

Illinois legislators added $100 million in state money to the child care system - $30 million more than the governor proposed - in 1997. With these funds, the state will no longer have a waiting list for child care services.

"We prevailed on the issue," says Senator Dave Syverson, a lead sponsor. "In the long run, it saves a large amount of money because it advances true welfare reform. The state is better served because the funding will help move and keep thousands of people off welfare and working."

Praising the legislation that eliminates the state's waiting list of nearly 30,000 children, a Chicago Tribune article declared: "The legislature has laid the groundwork for a better future for tens of thousands of families by recognizing unequivocally the pivotal role child care plays in their lives. That's a bold move - and a promising one."

Other states, such as...