Category: Featured

Child Care Aware of Washington is participating with Child Care Aware of America and the University of Chicago’s NORC research institute in building a new data resource that will provide in-depth child care data for the entire country. The new project, called the Child Care Data Center, will provide rich and interactive data about the state of child care in the U.S.

Two staff members from Child Care of Washington have joined the advisory panel for this new data center, and Washington is one of nine pilot states. The data center is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and should launch in March 2020. Once completed it will fill major gaps in what we know and quantify about child care across the country.

More information is available here.

Parents of young children across Washington struggle to find and afford high-quality, licensed child care. Some areas of the state have experienced significant reductions in licensed child care capacity, while other areas grapple with child care costs that consume large portions of the median income. All areas contend with child care costs that often exceed the cost of college tuition and a state subsidy system that reimburses providers at rates that don’t cover the costs of providing high-quality care, leaving many low-income parents with few, if any, options.

Of Washington’s 39 counties, Whitman, Okanogan and Whatcom counties have the most expensive child care for an infant and a preschooler in a child care center, relative to median household incomes.¹ This means that in those three counties the cost of child care for an infant and a preschooler in a child care center consumes between 39.5 – 51.9 percent of median incomes. The average cost of child care statewide for an infant and a preschooler in a center consumes 34 percent of the state median income.

Whatcom, Okanogan and Skagit counties have the most expensive child care for an infant and a preschooler in a licensed family child care home (FCC), relative to median household incomes. In those counties caring for both children consumes between 34.4 – 36.8 percent of median household incomes. Statewide the average cost of care for both children in a FCC program consumes 27 percent of the median income.

“At Child Care Aware of Washington we are working every day across the state to both increase access to child care and to help providers improve the quality of their care,” said Elizabeth Swanson, Interim Executive Director at Child Care Aware of Washington. “Clearly more investment is needed at the state and federal levels, and from the business community, all of whom directly benefit from the child care system every day when working parents show up for work on time and ready to be productive.”

The most affordable counties for child care in a center for an infant and a preschooler as a percentage of median household income are Kitsap, Mason and Island counties, where the cost of care for both children consumes between 30 – 30.7 percent of median incomes. For FCC programs, the least expensive counties are Clark, Kitsap and Thurston counties, where the costs of caring for both children consume between 23.6 and 25.3 percent of median household incomes.

Overall, the cost of child care compared to family income has risen during the past six years. Since 2011, median household income has increased 18 percent, while median child care rates have increased between 19-22 percent for center-based care and 14-22 percent for family child care.²

Several areas of the state have experienced declines in child care capacity, particularly in central WA and the Olympic Peninsula region. Jefferson County has seen a 28 percent decrease in capacity over the last six years, while Clallam County saw a 17 percent decrease. However, some counties are seeing recent increases in child care capacity, including King and Lewis Counties.

Despite the recent increase in capacity in some counties, there has been a general loss of family child care programs overall. This has reduced capacity for child care outside of normal weekday hours – care that is critical to several career fields including healthcare, public safety, travel, retail and hospitality. The percentage of overall capacity for evening, weekend and overnight care decreased from 13 percent in 2012 to only 10 percent in 2018.²

Meanwhile the reimbursement rates paid by the state to providers who accept children whose families use Working Connections Child Care subsidies have not kept pace. Despite recent investments provided by the government, the cost to provide quality child care continues to exceed the reimbursements providers receive for providing care for our most vulnerable children and families. For this reason, many providers accept only a few children at a time on subsidy, or none at all. This further restricts access to high-quality child care for low-income families. The legislature did increase these reimbursement rates for providers in the budget that passed April 28^th, but not enough to fully cover the cost of quality care.

Washington ranks on the top 10 list of states with least affordable child care for almost all types of child care for all children ages 0-5, and for the cost of caring for a school-age child during the summer.³

A ReadyNation report released in January calculates the cost of America’s child care crisis is $57 billion annually in lost revenue, earnings and productivity.⁴  U.S. businesses lose approximately $4.4 billion each year due to employees missing work because of insufficient reliable child care.³  With the unemployment rate at a historical low, employers are increasingly operating with fewer employees than they need. Increased access to high-quality, affordable child care would allow more parents to enter and remain in the workforce.

Solving Washington’s child care crisis requires increased public, business and philanthropic investment in child care and early learning programs. Child Care Aware of Washington advocates for increased investment, both public and private, and for increased access to high-quality care. We work with providers to improve child care quality and help providers save time and money on the business side of their programs with our online shared business services portal Washington Child Care Business Edge.

Child Care Aware of Washington tracks child care supply, demand and costs statewide and in every county. Our data reports are available here: https://childcareawarewa.org/advocacy/#layout-accordion-1.

Child Care Aware of Washington is a non-profit, 501 (c) (3) organization dedicated to connecting families to local, high-quality, licensed child care and early learning programs, and to supporting providers who deliver high-quality care. As a statewide network of six regional agencies, we work side-by-side with child care providers, offering professional development services and higher education scholarships to help providers integrate research-based, best practices into their programs. We are committed to ensuring that each and every child in Washington, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, culture, primary language or economic status, has access to the quality care and early learning they need to succeed in school and life. For more information, please visit our website at http://wa.childcareaware.org and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Child-Care-Aware-of-Washington-149636987661/ and on Twitter @childcarewa.

To view the notes, a statewide map and the full table of county comparisons, click here.

Child care and early learning advocates and stakeholders saw modest gains this past legislative session that ended April 28. Lawmakers passed and funded several small steps forward that provide some stability for the child care market, but there is more to do to solve the child care crisis.

The new budget provides funding for:

• Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) rates to be increased to the 55^th percentile for Early Achievers Level 3 participants
• Investment of $6 million into additional supports and professional development for Early Achievers programs
• 1,100 new ECEAP (state-funded preschool) slots
• An expansion of Family, Friend and Neighbor play and learn groups

• The Early Achievers enhancements (HB 1391) and WA CAN Act (HB 1344) bills

• The addition of 1,200 home visiting slots to increase access to high-quality early learning for families

• $28.5 million to match private and other public funding to buy, build or modernize facilities to add capacity for early learning programs, including ECEAP and programs participating in Early Achievers

While Child Care Aware of Washington applauds these gains and thanks the legislature for this progress, we did not see significant progress in raising the wages of child care professionals nor in the homeless grace period extension, which would have provided up to 12 months of free licensed child care for young children experiencing homelessness. We will focus on these important goals this interim as we prepare for the next legislative session.

Thank you to all of our partners and to all of the providers and parents who advocated for expanded access to high-quality child care and early learning programs. Your voices made a positive difference for children and families this session.

Today we welcome Elizabeth Swanson as our Interim Executive Director. She brings nearly 30 years of nonprofit experience to Child Care Aware of Washington, and will serve during the transition as the organization identifies a new Chief Executive Director following the retirement of former CEO Robin Lester.

Liz has served major universities, public and private schools, social service agencies, community organizations and more. She also is an active volunteer and has served in organizations including the Rotary Club of Bellevue, Eastside Baby Corner and the Moyer Foundation. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and is a graduate of Leadership Eastside. Liz currently is a senior associate with the Valtas Group.

Together with the Board of Trustees and staff leadership, Liz will lead Child Care Aware of Washington for the next several months as the group conducts the search for the new CEO. Please join us in welcoming Liz aboard!

Robin served as the organization’s leader since August 2015 and brought a strong management and legal background to CCA of WA’s mission and work, always focused on positive change for families. Encouraging innovation, Robin advanced the organization’s strategic planning capacity, realized tremendous growth in our services to child care providers and in our family services programs, established Shared Business Services to assist child care providers, and established privately funded projects for Washington’s young children and their families in communities throughout the state. She contributed to the early learning system advocating for improvements and funding for child care programs and by influencing statewide policy on task forces and committees.

“It has been my privilege and great honor to serve as CEO for the last three-plus years. We currently have a dedicated, hard-working and talented leadership team and staff diligently working to ensure that families, children and providers receive quality resources and continual quality improvement for early learning care. I know that as I enter retirement Child Care Aware of Washington will continue to be Washington’s most trusted child care resource and I look forward to seeing the great advancements for children, both in kindergarten readiness and in every day quality early learning experiences.”

Child Care Aware of Washington joins our national children and family advocacy colleagues in denouncing the current federal administration’s proposal to expand the definition of “public charge,” putting the health and safety of millions of children and families at risk. We stand with all parents who seek to provide for their families and lead the way to a brighter future for their children.

Expanding the list of who can be denied citizenship and/or legal residency based upon whether a person accesses, or even may access, government assistance programs, will dramatically increase the number of children and families experiencing hunger, poor health and homelessness. It will also increase the number of very young children who have no access to licensed, quality child care, putting them at risk of receiving poor quality care during this important period of rapid brain development.

Decades of research have proven that young children who experience the trauma of homelessness, hunger, extreme poverty and poor child care face a lifetime of developmental delays that lead to poor outcomes, including reduced graduation rates and employment opportunities, and increased rates of teen pregnancy, addiction and crime.

America’s crucial social “safety net” of Medicaid, housing assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as access to quality, licensed child care, provide vulnerable families with the bare minimum necessities they need to become and remain productive citizens and strong members of our communities. All of America’s children deserve the very best start in life.

Once again, Child Care Aware of Washington calls for a return to human decency in our immigration policies and for a renewed focus on the importance and dignity of every child and family.

October 2018

Child Care Aware of Washington joins our national children and family advocacy colleagues in censuring the current immigration policies causing lifelong trauma to children and families. Read MoreChild Care Aware of Washington’s Statement Against Current Immigration Policy

Washington ranks 3rd in the nation for least affordable child care for an infant in a family child care program, and 7th least affordable for care of an infant in a child care center. Read MoreWashington Ranks on Top 10 List of Least Affordable States for Child Care