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| Alabama | Maryland | Tennessee |
| Arkansas | Mississippi | Texas |
| District of Columbia | Missouri | Virginia |
| Georgia | North Carolina | West Virginia |
| Kentucky | Oklahoma | |
| Louisiana | South Carolina |
Southern Regional Initiative on Child Care. Southern Regional Action Plan to Improve the Quality of Early Care and Education. Survey Results on the Status of State Implementation Efforts. Columbia, SC: Southern Institute on Children and Families, April 2005.
2001-2004 State Implementation Summary Chart (pdf)
Individual state responses appear below. (pdf)
| Alabama | Kentucky | Oklahoma |
| Arkansas | Louisiana | South Carolina |
| Delaware | Maryland | Texas |
| District of Columbia | Mississippi | Virginia |
| Florida | Missouri | West Virginia |
| Georgia | North Carolina |
Moving Forward: Southern States Take Action to Improve Access to Quality, Affordable Child Care, This report is the 2002 Year End Report for the Southern Regional Initiative on Child Care funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, May, 2003. (pdf)
Early Childhood Education:A Call to Action from the Business Community, May 7, 2003. (pdf)
Southern Regional Action Plan to Improve the Quality of Early Care and Education, October, 2002. (pdf)
Building Momentum — Taking
Action: Southern States Collaborate on Child Care Financial Aid
and Quality Initiatives, Southern Regional Initiative
on Child Care, Southern Institute on Children and Families, February
2002. (pdf) Appendix A. Appendix
B. Appendix C. (pdf)
There is no doubt that the availability of affordable child care is a key workforce
issue. With millions of parents working at the lower end of the wage scale,
and with many leaving the welfare rolls, assistance in paying for child care
is perhaps the most critical work-support measure in which the federal government,
states and the private sector can invest. Yet, there is inadequate attention
given to the huge gap between the price of child care and the ability of families
to pay for it.
Child care, on average, is the third largest expense for all families with
preschool-age children, after housing and food. And the expense of child care
disproportionately impacts low-income and single-parent families, some of whom
can spend as much as 50 percent (or more) of their income to purchase full-time,
center-based child care.
In addition to building workforce capacity, financial assistance in paying
for child care supports the efforts of states to improve the readiness of young
children to succeed in school. New brain research has demonstrated that the
first three years of life are critical in children's intellectual development.
However, because so few families receive help paying for child care, and financial
support is rarely made available to child care programs, many low-income families
depend on low-quality or informal care arrangements, particularly relatives,
or are forced to leave their children in unsafe conditions. When these arrangements
break down, as they often do, employee dependability is affected.
Public and private child care subsidies can help low-income families pay for
child care. Yet nationwide, only about 10 percent of families who qualify for
child care assistance based on income actually receive it. The reason is inadequate
funding for child care at the federal, state, public and private levels.
Assisting low-income families with the high cost of child care is not welfare;
it is a realistic approach to support the efforts of parents to work, and it
is a major tool in helping families avoid welfare.
