Feature Story

March 9, 2009

New Resource: Child Care and Economic Recovery

National Women's Law Center and the Center for Law and Social Policy:

To help state child care advocates with the implementation of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding, the National Women's Law Center and the Center for Law and Social Policy has just released a new resource: Making Use of Economic Recovery Funds: Child Care Policy Options for States.

With the extraordinary budget challenges that states are facing, new funds should be used both to maintain as well as to improve state child care policies. The report explores policy options that states can pursue to create new jobs by serving more families and improving the quality of care.

The report also discusses how to build the case for permanent funding by documenting how they used these funds effectively in ways that create new jobs, assist providers, and help low-income families stay in the workforce.

And in addition to the new report, a recent audio conference Child Care and Early Education: Opportunities to Serve More Low-Income, Working Families is available for download. On the call, we discussed the opportunity for states and local communities to serve more low-income working families and to make long-term investments in quality programs through new investments in the ARRA.