Child care policy: A need for greater advocacy

While some scholars have recognized the importance of child care to families in the United States (Kamerman, 2001; Waldfogel, 1998), child care has not been viewed as a core social policy concern in the United States. In this article, we provide an overview of child care needs in the U.S. followed by an analysis of three major federal programs that shape U.S. child care policy. The first, the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), provides financial child care supplements to low-income parents to enable them to engage in paid labor. The second policy, The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), is technically a universally applicable policy enabling people to care for a family member in need, including all parents who choose to spend a few weeks of unpaid leave with a newborn child. The third is the U.S. tax policy, including child care exemptions, deductions and credits. We suggest that, though all of these policies exist to help families care for children, they fail the children and families that they are purportedly designed to help. We then discuss the crucial role that professionals who work with families and children can play in shaping U.S. child care policies.Child care Public policy Human service professionals Public benefits Tax policy Welfare

Voices of child care providers: an exploratory study on the impact of policy changes

Abstract In debates about child care and early education, the voices of providers are often missing. In this article, we report findings from a study exploring child care provider perspectives on how regulation and policy changes impact their ability to provide care. Data were collected from interviews and focus groups with home-based providers and center-based administrators (N = 55) in rural, urban and suburban New York counties. Four overarching themes emerged: undervaluation of child care providers, challenges faced by providers and the parents of the children they serve, regulatory disconnect, and discretionary implementation of laws and regulations. These findings suggest that without input from providers in the creation of legislation and regulations, policies may have unforeseen, inefficient, or even harmful results, such as an inability to match providers with open slots to families whose children are eligible for and in need of care. Based on these findings, we recommend developing mechanisms to enable and encourage participation of providers in the policymaking process, assisting providers in complying with regulations and providing quality care, and standardizing regulation enforcement and oversight to better align with the needs of families and the day-to-day realities of providing quality care

Interdisciplinary Children’s Behavioral Health Workforce Development for Social Work and Nursing

This paper will begin with a review of child health inequities globally, in the United States and in the State of New York. It will then describe a model training program that was designed to educate social workers and nurse practitioners to create a workforce able to address child behavioral health inequities in the United States (US), specifically New York State. Behavioral health care refers to prevention, care and treatment for mental health and substance abuse conditions as well as physical conditions caused by stress and life crises. This project uses an interdisciplinary training program for nurse practitioner and Master of Social Work students to address workforce shortages in underserved communities in New York State. It will present process evaluation findings to highlight the program’s initial success and will conclude with a discussion of the data that are still needed and the challenges of obtaining this data