skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

National Report Critical of KY Child Care Assistance Policies

play audio
Play

Tuesday, October 18, 2011   

FRANKFORT, Ky. - For a decade, Kentucky has slid backward in assisting lower-income families with child care, according to a new report by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC). The head of Kentucky's leading child-advocacy group says it's a signal that state policymakers should rethink their investments to improve child care access and quality for poor families.

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, says the current child care assistance rules hold some kids back from crucial early learning opportunities and create a vicious cycle for families trying to find or keep jobs.

"The real message from this report is that many of our most vulnerable children, those children who most need quality child care, are the exact young folks who are not getting it."

Brooks suggests a lower income threshold for families to sign up for assistance, as well as offering assistance to parents who are job-hunting, and making the state Child and Dependent Care tax credit refundable, so that working families with the highest child care costs relative to their income can receive the full value of the credit.

Brooks says another solution is to provide higher reimbursement rates for child care providers, similar to what's being done in the Medicaid program.

"Medical providers have to get a certain level of reimbursement for it to make it worth their while to serve low-income patients. That is the exact kind of equation that needs to be applied to child care."

Brooks says Kentucky parents searching for jobs are not currently eligible for child care assistance, which makes it harder for them to find work and keeps them on the unemployment rolls.

"We know that, especially for folks who are hourly workers - many of them part-time, many of them making minimum wage - the equation around child care is so important for them to be able to go to work, to be able to work more hours, to be able to keep that job."

The National Women's Law Center report examines policies that determine the affordability, accessibility and quality of child care assistance in each state.

The full NWLC report can be found at www.kyyouth.org




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021