Excerpt from the brief:
Parents need child care to get and keep a job and support their families and children need good-quality care to further their learning and development. Strong early care and education experiences are particularly important for low-income children, who are at greatest risk of starting school behind other children.1 Yet child care is costly&emdash; center-based care for one child can average $3,000 to $13,000 a year, depending on where the family lives and the age of the child.2 Help with these high child care costs is essential for low-income families trying to make ends meet and ensure their children are in good child care. Unfortunately, many low-income families are unable to receive the child care assistance they need.
This analysis of trends in four major aspects of state child care assistance policies provides a mixed picture. Some states showed improvements in certain areas between 2005 and 2006, but most states did not make up ground lost on many policies since 2001. In one important area&emdash;reimbursement rates for child care providers&emdash;states were significantly behind where they were in both 2005 and 2001.