Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

8. Public Policies to Support Working Families
Pages 227-259

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 227...
... Part III Supports for Working Families Part III reviews the public supports currently available in the United States to families with working parents. Chapter 8 considers the public policies, including leave policies, tax policies, and education programs, available to working families and the implications of these policies for child and adolescent well-being.
From page 229...
... The material presented here and the committee's findings and conclusions are therefore focused on public policies. LEAVE POLICIES Leave policies give working parents the right to take time off from work without the risk of losing their jobs.
From page 230...
... and Access children year vary not $71,500 with $19.25 per from 8-1 Group six to sizes six Galinsky Status Earnings to age Status Income age indicates parents Mothers Fathers Part-time Full-time Single Married/partnered $7.70 $7.71 $19.25 <$28,000 $28,000 $71,600 * Sample N/A TABLE Employee All under Gender Work Marital Hourly Family under SOURCE:
From page 231...
... Family Leave Family leave includes several types of leave that families use to care for children and adolescents, including most commonly maternity leave but also paternity leave, leave to care for a sick child or adolescent, or leave to arrange care for a child. In the area of family leave, as with other types of leave, the United States historically has not had many public policies; rather, leave policies have mainly been left to the discretion of employers.
From page 232...
... Part-time employees, medium-sized and large establishments Maternity leave coverage: Percentage with unpaid leave 19 36 42 54 Percentage with paid leave 01 01 00 00 Total percentage with any leave 20 37 42 54 Paternity leave coverage: Percentage with unpaid leave 14 32 42 54 Percentage with paid leave 00 01 00 00 Total percentage with any leave 14 33 42 54 C Full-time employees, small establishments Maternity leave coverage: Percentage with unpaid leave 17 18 47 48 Percentage with paid leave 02 02 02 02 Percentage with any leave 19 20 49 50 Paternity leave coverage: Percentage with unpaid leave 08 08 47 48 Percentage with paid leave 00 01 02 02 Percentage with any leave 08 09 49 50 SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics Employee Benefits Surveys (now called the National Compensation Surveys)
From page 233...
... Part-time employees Maternity leave coverage: Percentage with unpaid leave 28 32 62 56 Percentage with paid leave 01 01 01 01 Total percentage with any leave 29 33 63 57 Paternity leave coverage: Percentage with unpaid leave 18 24 62 56 Percentage with paid leave 01 01 01 01 Total percentage with any leave 19 25 63 57 SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics Employee Benefits Surveys (now called the National Compensation Surveys) , various years, available from http://www.bls.gov/ebs/.
From page 234...
... * ++ Less than high school 63.8 44.2 36.2 High school graduate 72.1 57.1 27.9 Some college 79.4 62.2 20.6 College graduate 77.1 65.3 22.9 Graduate school 88.0 73.8 12.0 Annual family income++ Less than $20,000 71.8 38.6 28.2 $20,000 to less than $30,000 78.8 64.5 21.2 $30,000 to less than $50,000 77.9 63.9 22.1 $50,000 to less than $75,000 79.7 70.2 20.3 $75,000 to less than $100,000 81.1 70.9 18.9 $100,000 or more 81.4 74.0 18.6
From page 235...
... . Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicate that maternity leave coverage and usage vary somewhat by demographic characteristics of the family (Berger and Waldfogel, in press)
From page 236...
... the in Total 2.8 12.0* 7.2 18.5 36.0 36.0 18.0 27.7 36.0 39.2 11.0 in months 3 12 Policies is to 3 is child leave Leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave leave until child leave leave leave leave leave leave until leave parental family maternity parental maternity parental maternity maternity parental parental maternity maternity maternity maternity parental Leave parental childrearing parental leave parental childbirth-related of of weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks months weeks weeks weeks year years years years months months Type 12 17 35 18 13 28 1 18 26 Childrearing 52 2 18 16 2 16 Parental 14 3 5 6 period its (2001b)
From page 237...
... As of 1999, 47 percent of employees in the private sector did not have paid sick leave, and the rate of noncoverage was strongly associated with job characteristics, with 62 percent of blue-collar and service employees and 41 percent of clerical and sales employees lacking paid sick leave in contrast with only 19 percent of professional, technical, and related employees (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001)
From page 238...
... As indicated in Chapter 3, the 1Until the early 1990s, the federal government spent more on child care tax credits than on Head Start. Here we focus on the federal CDCTC and DCAP programs.
From page 239...
... Examples of qualified child care and dependent care expenses include payments to child care centers, work-related babysitting, domestic help, and nannies. Even grandparents, uncles, aunts, and adult children qualify as child care providers if they are not also dependents of the tax filer.
From page 240...
... Child Tax Credit The child tax credit (CTC) was until recently a nonrefundable tax credit available to families with children.
From page 241...
... In the following sections, we consider the major education programs that provide support for preschool or after-school care for working families, including full-day public kindergarten programs, Head Start, Title I preschool funding, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Full-Day Public Kindergarten Public kindergarten provides significant child care services for working families (85 percent of kindergarten is public)
From page 242...
... . However, state investments in prekindergarten vary considerably from state to state and there is a variation in the range in these services in terms of such things as who they serve, teacher training, class size, and curriculum In 1999, threequarters of state funding of prekindergarten was concentrated in just 10 states, while 11 states spent no money on public prekindergarten or state Head Start (Schulman et al., 1999)
From page 243...
... This is a higher percentage of eligible children served than in the past, reflecting both program expansions and also reductions in the numbers of poor children eligible for the program. Starting in 1995, an Early Head Start initiative has served children under age 3.
From page 244...
... 3The Department of Health and Human Services is also conducting a large-scale observational study of Head Start, involving a nationally stratified random sample of 3,200 children and families in 40 Head Start programs. This study has found that Head Start narrows the gap between disadvantaged students and other children in key components of school readiness, with the largest gains for the children who had the lowest cognitive skills to start with (U.S.
From page 245...
... The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 was enacted to remedy this by requiring that all students with disabilities receive free and appropriate public education. As the importance of early education for children's outcomes has become clearer, Congress has expanded the Act's mission to more fully serve younger groups of children with disabilities.
From page 246...
... . The CCLC programs also provide youth development activities, drug and violence prevention programs, technology education, art, music and recreation, counseling, and other services.
From page 247...
... These include the Child Care Development Fund, the Social Services Block Grant, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families child care funding and transfers, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, the Summer Food Program, and state child care programs. Most of these funding streams go to the states, where they are combined with state funds and then distributed, mostly through vouchers (with the exception of nutrition programs, which provide support to providers)
From page 248...
... The discretionary fund, essentially the old Child Care Development Block Grant, is 100 percent federal with no state match required. Congress sets aside a portion of discretionary funds for specific uses: quality improvements ($171.5.6 million in 2003)
From page 249...
... There are various reasons why such a small share of eligible families is receiving child care subsidies through the CCDF. Lack of funding for eligible families is a fundamental issue.
From page 250...
... States must conduct a market rate survey not more than two years prior to the effective date of the state plan and must establish payment rates for providers. DHHS guidance instructs states that a market rate set at the 75th percentile of the price distribution for care in that state will be considered adequate to meet the equal access requirement; however, many states do not meet that level.
From page 251...
... Although the CCDF does not specify or control the quality of care that children receive, three of its provisions can affect the quality of services purchased with CCDF funds: health and safety protections, the quality set-aside, and the payment rates.
From page 252...
... While many of the state initiatives are targeting reforms that have been found in other research to be associated with better child outcomes, the GAO study concluded that few of the state studies had sufficient evidence to draw conclusions about child outcomes. Therefore, the study recommended that DHHS include selected state quality improvement initiatives as part of a larger impact evaluation of state child care subsidy approaches (U.S.
From page 253...
... States have discretion in how they use these funds within a broad set of guidelines, and many states have used a substantial portion to fund child care for lowincome families. In 1999, the total SSBG block grant was about $3 billion, of which at least $400 million (13 percent)
From page 254...
... . Of the average daily 2.3 million children served meals in FY 1995, two-fifths were in family home day care, and the remainder were enrolled in Head Start or day care centers.
From page 255...
... . STATE CHILD CARE REGULATIONS AND MONITORING Another important aspect of child care policy involves child care regulatory and monitoring activity by the states.
From page 256...
... found that regulations regarding staff training and staff-child ratios affect process quality in child care settings and ultimately child outcomes. However, there is also evidence that, in many settings, child care regulations are not binding (Blau, 2001)
From page 257...
... These challenges are particularly acute in the areas of family leave and child care. In the area of family leave, because small firms are generally exempted from leave legislation and because the laws typically provide only unpaid leave, the United States has a system in which some new mothers lack the right to a job-protected maternity leave, and many face the loss of a substantial portion of their income if they take a leave.
From page 258...
... Many European countries, in contrast, guarantee a public or publicly subsidized child care place for any child whose parent wishes one from the age of 3, and several countries are now lowering the age at which child care is guaranteed to 1 or 2. Table 8-6 presents rates of enrollment in publicly supported child care in various countries.
From page 259...
... Our review of the evidence on the role of public policies suggests two other priorities in the area of child care policy. One is the importance of guaranteeing funding for subsidies for low-income families with employed parents.


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.