Child Care and After-Care
Our children need high quality care and early learning opportunities when their parents are at work. And we all benefit - children, families, and communities - when children are well cared-for.
What do we have now, and why is it inadequate?
Right now, there is nowhere near enough quality, affordable child care and after-school care to meet the need. Lack of child care options and assistance impacts everyone, but it disproportionately impacts low-income workers and workers of color.1
The cost of child care is staggering: full-time infant childcare in Oregon would consume nearly 57% of the pre-tax annual income of a minimum wage worker in our state.2 Quality is another huge factor, as only 12-14% of children are in care that enhances growth and development.3 Quality care, if available, is even more expensive than average care. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to find reliable, affordable childcare that can accommodate for irregular work hours, inconsistent or unpredictable work schedules and little to no on-the-job flexibility.
It is easy to see how low income workers, who are disproportionately working non-standard hours and who have less money to spend on child care, get squeezed out of the child care market. Concerns about the quality and affordability of childcare drive many mothers out of the labor force entirely, since their wages often do not adequately cover the costs without significantly compromising the quality of their child's care.
After-school care is also in short supply. While school is typically in session 6 hours a day for 32 weeks a year, the typical workday is at least 8 hours a day for at least 50 weeks a year. Despite this gap between the school and work schedules, after-school care is expensive and hard to find. Nationally, there are twice as many people needing after-school care as there are slots.4 In some urban areas, the demand is four times the supply.5 As a result, more than 60 percent of children (ages 5-14) with full-time working parents currently care for themselves after school6 and parents face enormous stress that disrupts productivity at work.
What we need and why we need it
We need to re-weave the web of care around our children. To some extent, extended family members can fill the need. But we have a staggering gap between the need for quality, affordable care and the availability.
We need:
- Vastly increased funding for child care and after-school care
- Increased regulation to go along with that funding
- Higher salaries and increased professionalization for child care workers
- Longer school days and/or longer school years
- Flexible workplaces that allow parents to adjust their schedules to better match school schedules and school-children's needs
- Bold new approaches to matching school and work schedules - i.e. increasing hours and/or days at school at the same time as decreasing the work week in the same community
Quality, affordable child care and after-school care would go a long way toward stabilizing income for families and improving quality of care for children. Quality and affordable care:
- Prevents job loss and keeps people working7
- Improves long-term educational outcomes8
- Improves long-term behavioral outcomes9
- Reduces poverty and crime10
- Increases long-term economic security11
- Stimulates job growth more than other kinds of public investment12
- Improves workplace productivity13
To learn more:
- The Children's Institute (link: http://www.childinst.org/)
- Stand for Children (link: http://www.stand.org/or)
- National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (link: http://www.naccrra.org/)
- Oregon Child Care Resource and Referral Network (link: http://www.oregonchildcare.org/)
- http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/policy_makers5.pdf
- http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/afterschoolcare.pdf
- http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/
- The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are in Jeopardy - and What Can Be Done About It by Judy Heymann
- The War Against Parents by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel West
- Multnomah County Health Department, "Social Determinants of Health in Multnomah County 2009,"
http://www.mchealth.org/hra/reports/SDOH_Economy_report_2009.pdf - NACCRRA and Oregon Child Care Resource and Referral Network, " 2009 Child Care in the State of Oregon,"
http://www.naccrra.org/randd/data/docs/OR.pdf. - Ellen Galinsky, transcript of interview on "Bringing Up Baby" Newshour (PBS) Oct 23, 1997.
- Jody Heymann, The widening gap: Why America's working families are in jeopardy--and what can be done about it, (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
- Ibid.
- Sloan Work and Family Research Network "Opportunities for Policy Leadership on Afterschool Care,",
http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/policy_makers5.pdf - Multnomah County Health Department, "Social Determinants of Health in Multnomah County 2009,"
http://www.mchealth.org/hra/reports/SDOH_Economy_report_2009.pdf - Sylvia Ann Hewlett, & Cornel West, The War Against Parents, (New York: Mariner Books, 1998).
- Rob Stein, Washington Post, "Study Finds the Effects of Low-quality Child Care Last Into Adolescence," May 14, 2010.
- Children's Institute, "Early Childhood Development: Investing in Oregon's Economic Future,"
http://www.childinst.org/ci-publications/2-general/50-issue-brief-1. - Ibid.
- Linking Economic Development and Childcare webinar:
http//economicdevelopmentandchiuldcare.org/documents/presentations/webinar_2009_12_09.pdf - "Opportunities for Policy Leadership on Afterschool Care," Sloan Work and Family Research Network,
http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/policy_makers5.pdf
