Facts In Action. Associated Early Care & Education.In Brief. Rural Families Rely Primarily on Kith and Kin Care

Finding available, high-quality child care is a particular problem for many welfare recipients living in rural areas. Because rural areas have smaller and less concentrated populations than urban areas, child care availability is limited, and parents have fewer choices when looking for care. In addition, rural families often must travel longer distances to work necessitating longer hours in care for their children (which results in greater child care expenses), and they are more likely to work during non-traditional hours when child care is not usually offered.

According to a report from the Rural Welfare to Work Strategies Initiative, approximately 75% of rural children receive care through kith and kin arrangements. This unusually high percentage simply may be due to the lack of availability of other types of child care arrangements. However kith and kin care may be more attractive to these families for a variety of reasons, such as: costs tend to be lower than for center-based care; caregivers may accept flexible payment plans; and parents may feel more comfortable leaving their children with other family members or friends who they know well.

The report states that while kith and kin care may be the only viable option for rural families, kith and kin care settings are often unlicensed and unregulated and may lack quality control, health and safety standards, and stability. In addition, because many kith and kin caregivers have no formal training in providing care or early childhood education, the quality of these arrangements is unknown and highly variable.

The report recommends several strategies to help improve the quality of kith and kin care. For example, local agencies could offer caregiver training in areas such as health and safety, curriculum development, child abuse prevention, and child growth and development. Such trainings could be provided on-site, through educational videos, or through satellite programming. In addition, the report suggests that states provide incentives for caregivers to seek out training, such as providing higher reimbursements rates to caregivers who participate.

Source:
Child Care for Welfare Participants in Rural Areas, L.J. Colker and S. Dewees, Rural Welfare to Work Strategies Initiative, Macro International Inc., November 2000.

For more information:
contact Macro International Inc., 11785 Beltsville Drive, Calverton, MD, 20705-3119, email hoch@macroint.com, or look on-line at www.macroint.com/publications/Child%20Care.pdf. Editor's Note: this url is no longer active.