Showing posts with label child care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label child care. Show all posts
Monday, July 18, 2011
Colorado news roundup: The importance of quality child care
Quality, affordable child care is often essential for parents to find and keep work. Read one perspective on it, plus find links to all the day's public-policy news, at the weekday Colorado news roundup.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Recovery Act money improves child-care assistance in Colorado
Colorado is among only a few states that have improved child-care assistance policies during the Great Recession, enabling more people to work and look for jobs, thanks to money that was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
A new report from the National Women's Law Center compares child care policies in all the states and finds most did not change their policies significantly from February 2009 to February 2010. Colorado, though, is one of nine states using Recovery Act (also known as ARRA) funds expand access to child care assistance for parents searching for a job, the report finds.
"Colorado is using ARRA funds to increase the amount of time parents can receive child care assistance while searching for a job from thirty days to 180 days (in a twelve-month period). The expanded policy went into effect as of April 2009. The state will revert to the previous p9olicy when ARRA expires," the report says.
Colorado received $24.3 million from the Recovery Act in fiscal year 2009 to improve child care quality and access, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Some other highlights from the National Women's Law Center report:
A new report from the National Women's Law Center compares child care policies in all the states and finds most did not change their policies significantly from February 2009 to February 2010. Colorado, though, is one of nine states using Recovery Act (also known as ARRA) funds expand access to child care assistance for parents searching for a job, the report finds.
"Colorado is using ARRA funds to increase the amount of time parents can receive child care assistance while searching for a job from thirty days to 180 days (in a twelve-month period). The expanded policy went into effect as of April 2009. The state will revert to the previous p9olicy when ARRA expires," the report says.
Colorado received $24.3 million from the Recovery Act in fiscal year 2009 to improve child care quality and access, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Some other highlights from the National Women's Law Center report:
- Eleven states, including Colorado, expected to have increases in their waiting lists for child care assistance. County-based waiting lists in Colorado in early 2010 included 1,455 children. There were no waiting lists in early 2009.
- Income eligibility for child-care assistance varies by county in Colorado. For a family of three, the annual income limit ranges from $23,803 to $54,108, or 130 percent to 296 percent of the federal poverty level.
- Colorado's monthly copayment for child-care assistance for a family of three earning 150 percent of the federal poverty level is $155, or 7 percent of family income. That's down from 11 percent of family income in 2009. The percentage of family income for copayments varies among the states from 3 percent to 18 percent.
- Thanks to an expansion under the Recovery Act, Colorado offers child-care assistance to qualifying families for longer than most other states. At 180 days, Colorado's limit is longer than neighborhing states such as Wyoming (60 days), Utah (100 hours), Arizona (60 days), New Mexico (30 days), Oklahoma (30 days) and Nebraska (two months).
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