Facts In Action

To support low-income parents moving into the workforce, 1996 welfare reform legislation established the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). These federal funds are used by states to subsidize child care for low-income families, with four percent of the funding set aside to improve the quality and affordability of care. According to a report from the General Accounting Office (GAO), states have used this set-aside to pursue a variety of quality and availability initiatives.

The types of initiatives in which states invested fell into nine categories: caregiver compensation, on-site training, meeting state standards, safety equipment or improvement, incentives for accreditation or exceeding standards, caregiver education or training, resource and referral activities, enhanced inspections, and other quality-related activities.

State officials explained that what constitutes quality care, recent events in the state child care community, evaluations and other previous research influence which initiatives are chosen by legislators. However, few states have evaluated the effectiveness of their quality improvement initiatives. The report recommends an analysis of the impact of quality and availability initiatives on children's development.

Source:
Child Care: States Have Undertaken a Variety of Quality Improvement Initiatives, but More Evaluations of Effectiveness are Needed, M. S Shaul, United States General Accounting Office, GAO-02-897, September 2002.

For more information:
Contact: United States General Accounting Office, 441 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20548, call (202) 512-4800, or look online at www.gao.gov.

Facts in Action, January/February 2003