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Meeting the child care needs of homeless families: How do states stack up?

Description:
Without access to child care, homeless families struggle to secure housing. Having a safe and stable child care arrangement allows homeless parents to look for and maintain work and participate in the job training, education, and other programs essential to resolving their homelessness. Yet, homeless families face many barriers to accessing child care; homeless mothers are actually less likely to receive child care subsidies than poor housed mothers. With the annual cost of center-based care for a four-year-old averaging $7,817, nearly half the federal poverty line for a family of three, the high cost of care presents one obstacle. Finding a child care provider who can accommodate homeless families' often irregular, unpredictable, and inflexible schedules can also be challenging. In addition, restrictive documentation and eligibility requirements can prevent homeless families from qualifying for--or even seeking--subsidized care. The main federal source of child care assistance for low-income families is the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). States administer this block grant using their own eligibility guidelines, which can include policies to improve homeless families' access to care. Every two years, states submit plans to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services describing how they will manage their child care subsidy programs over the subsequent two-year period. The Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness (ICPH) analyzed each state's CCDF plan for federal Fiscal Years 2014-15 and found that the majority of states do not have policies in place that ease and encourage homeless families' use of child care subsidies: Only six states include homeless families in the definition of those with protective-services needs, enabling them to qualify for care without meeting traditional eligibility requirements. Only nine states include homeless children as a priority population. At least 24 states require families applying for child care to provide birth certificates or other documentation that can be challenging for families experiencing homelessness to locate. All but six states provide child care to at least some parents while they search for work, but only seven states do so while parents look for housing. Thirty states waive copayment fees for homeless families or families with no countable income. Only 11 states have higher reimbursement rates for providers offering child care during nontraditional hours, such as nights and weekends. Twenty-seven states will provide subsidized care for 12 months before reevaluating a family's eligibility, offering families continuity of care, and 14 states extend eligibility while children are in Head Start. Overall, only 18 plans mention homeless families or services specific to them. No state listed programs serving homeless children as having been consulted in the drafting of the CCDF plan. (author abstract)
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