Affordable Child Care Challenges and Solutions for Low-Income Parents Pursing Training and Employment: Lessons from the Strengthening Working Families Initiative Brief

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Release Date: April 01, 2022

Affordable Child Care Challenges and Solutions for Low-Income Parents Pursing Training and Employment: Lessons from the Strengthening Working Families Initiative Brief

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Employment and Training

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About the Brief

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The brief describes the challenges associated with helping low-income parents with children under the age of 13 pursuing training and employment to access affordable child care. It also proposes solutions that programs may undertake to increase their effectiveness in assisting parents with accessing and paying for appropriate child care. Further, it identifies barriers that remain to be addressed at the systems level.

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Key Takeaways

  • Childcare needs are closely tied to family circumstances, such as the parent’s employment schedule and the age(s) or special needs of the child(ren). Program staff assessed these circumstances during the application and enrollment processes to connect participants with services.
  • Programs viewed support in navigating the complex childcare system as an essential service. Staff identified lack of information about childcare options as a major career barrier to parents. Programs’ child care navigators helped parent participants search for high-quality childcare as well as identified subsidies for which they were eligible and high-quality providers.
  • Program staff worked with childcare providers to better accommodate parents. Successes included co-locating childcare with training programs; improving the alignment between childcare services and parents’ needs; supporting providers in meeting licensing and other requirements to lower barriers to accepting childcare subsidies; and streamlining participants’ access to childcare.

Citation

Marrow, J., Lewis, M, Gasper, J. (2022). Westat. Affordable Child Care Challenges and Solutions for Low-Income Parents Pursuing Training and Employment: Lessons from the Strengthening Working Families Initiative. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.