ABSTRACT

Huston juxtaposes and then integrates two research traditions to present composite picture of the childcare experiences of low-income families: experimental evaluations of welfare reform programs, and longitudinal descriptive research focusing on childcare and its implications for children's development. The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the funding stream that focuses on provision of childcare as a support to employment, and state childcare administrators quite clearly view support for employment as their primary goal. Administrators express concern over the difficult choices they need to make in terms of establishing income eligibility thresholds for subsidies, co-payment levels, and subsidy payment levels, and how these influence proportion of eligible families who will receive subsidies. Additional CCDF funds are earmarked for improvement of access to and quality of infant and toddler care, for resource and referral services, and for school-age childcare, as well as for further quality-related activities.