Skip Navigation

Working Families

Access to affordable, reliable, and high-quality early learning and child care opportunities provides working families with better job stability and overall economic security.

Here are five things to know about child care and working families.

  1. Child care prices are untenable across all program types, age groups, and geographic locations. In 2021, the cost of infant care ranged from 24.6% to 75.1% of income for single-parent households.
  2. Child care helps parents return to or stay at work, which can generate an additional $94,000 in lifetime earnings for mothers.
  3. Almost half of parents are absent from work at least once every six months due to child care issues.
  4. 74% of mothers and 66% of fathers have left work early, arrived late, or been absent because child care fell through at the last minute.
  5. In a recent poll, 59% of part-time or non-working parents say they would go back to work full-time if their child had access to quality child care at a reasonable cost.

Learn more:

Resource

Learning from Experts: How EHS-CCPs Are Benefitting Children and Families in Grantee States

July 27, 2023

Last week, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), in partnership with the Children’s Equity Project and Start Early, wrapped up their 3 part webinar series on Early Head Start- Child Care …

Resource

What Can Advocates Learn From How New Mexico and Alabama Are Transforming Their Child Care Systems?

July 26, 2023

What states have been successful in transforming their early care and education (ECE) landscape and expanding high-quality child care options for young children? How are they doing it? And how …

Resource

GAO Report: Family Child Care Networks

July 25, 2023

Over 7 million children from birth through age 5 are cared for in a family child care (FCC) or home-based setting. Families may choose FCC for a number of reasons: …

News

Department of Education Calls for Applications for FY2023 CCAMPIS Awards

June 12, 2023

Last week, the Department of Education (ED) released a Federal Register Notice inviting applications for new awards for FY2023 for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. …

Resource

Report Highlights Precarious State Progress on Child Care Assistance Policies

June 12, 2023

Last week, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) released a report, “Precarious Progress: State Child Care Assistance Policies”, which examines the gaps and progress within state child care assistance policies …

Resource

Understanding Parents’ Complex Child Care Choices — or Lack Thereof

May 19, 2023

Parental choice is a fundamental value of our child care system. While all parents want their young children cared for in a safe and warm environment, they have varied needs …

Resource

New 50 State Analysis Shows Impact of Federal Child Care Program 

May 11, 2023

New analysis of all 50 states and the District of Columbia from First Five Years Fund (FFYF) shows that while the nation’s main federal child care program – the Child …

Resource

The First Five Things to Know: The Child Care and Development Block Grant

May 10, 2023

Millions of families need child care in order to work, but many simply can’t afford it. This leads to parents having to reduce the number of hours they work or …

Resource

Child Care and Development Block Grant: From Funding to Families

May 9, 2023

Child Care and Development Block Grant program funding goes to lead agencies in all 50 states, territories, and tribes to help low-income parents afford child care while they work or …

Resource

How CCDBG Benefits Families in Your State

May 9, 2023

The Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the primary federal grant program that provides child care assistance to low-income working families with children under age 13. The majority …

Resource

NIEER Report Shows Importance of Including Family Child Care Programs in Publicly-Funded Pre-K

April 25, 2023

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) recently released “Including Family Child Care (FCC) Programs in Publicly-Funded Pre-K: Conditions for Success”, a report demonstrating the benefits of including family …

News

Biden Doubles Down on Child Care Priorities Through Executive Order

April 24, 2023

Last week, President Biden took an important step in strengthening his commitment to fix our nation’s child care system. Through executive order (EO), Biden is directing nearly every Cabinet- level …

Stay Updated

Receive monthly updates on the latest news, policy, and actions to advance federal investment in children and their families.