Affordable quality childcare as a barrier for single parents

¶ … Child Care on Single Parents

Over the past several years, more single parents with children, mostly women, have joined the workforce (Ford, 1995). As a result, childcare has become an extremely important social policy issue. Many single parents, particularly those with low incomes, find it difficult to finance the cost of decent childcare.

In addition, poor quality of childcare has become an increasingly significant problem in the United States. Low wages for childcare workers result in high turnover and inexperienced childcare providers.

As more and more single parents have moved, by necessity or choice, from the home into the workforce, the need for affordable, quality childcare has become a crucial social issue. However, this need often goes unmet. As a result, there is an enormous impact and cost placed on single parents.

Recent research reveals that 71% of parents reprimanded for child neglect did not have enough money to pay a babysitter (CEED, 1992). In addition, only 11% of parents referred for child neglect have access to childcare services. One study reveals that 67% of single mothers say difficulties locating decent childcare interfered with their finding and keeping a job. Also, 76% of single mothers eventually gave up looking for work due to childcare difficulties.

Due to the pressures on single parents and the lack of affordable quality childcare, many single parents are forced to put their children in inadequate, or possibly dangerous, childcare settings. In addition, nearly seven million children are left unsupervised after school, contributing to increased rates of drug use and crime among the children in the U.S.

Goals and Objectives

Many single parents find that there are few available childcare facilities that allow them to meet their individual and family's needs (Ford, 1995, p. 213-218). In many cases, there are few available jobs that allow them to pay for good childcare When a person is alone and has children to support, part-time work at minimum wage does not provide enough income to pay for rent, groceries, children's clothing, and good childcare.

In many states, the average annual income for part-time work is about $16,000. However, even if a single parent with two children works full-time at minimum wage, she will spend 98% of her annual income on food and shelter alone. The lack of quality and affordable childcare makes single parents feel like they are prisoners of social assistance.

As single parents are raising more and more children, affordable, quality group and family childcare services are becoming less and less accessible to families (National Women's Law Center, 1999). Quality childcare is expensive and often beyond the financial resources of single parents, particularly those with low incomes.

While recent federal legislation has made efforts to increase the availability of affordable childcare, there remains a large gap in the availability of affordable childcare in the United States.

Because the impact of the quality and cost of childcare on single parents is increasingly become a social problem in the U.S., the goal of this paper is to address the problem at hand and brainstorm for ideas to relieve the pressure of single parents. This paper aims to identify the key aspects of this issue and pinpoint the two areas of childcare that need immediate attention -- quality and cost. This paper also aims to identify potential solutions to the problem.

Community Involvement

One of the first steps that must be taken to resolve this social issue is to increase community involvement. Stronger linkages of programs to community agencies and organizations could be highly effective in reducing the costs of childcare, while improving the quality. Government agencies alone cannot be expected to solve this major problem alone. Communities must increase the efforts and put pressure on both the government agencies and childcare facilities.

Another important aspect of community involvement is creating more family-friendly workplaces. To assist local school districts and community organizations in strengthening collaboration, federal, state and local government agencies and community groups must act together to promote cooperative services and to develop greater capacity to provide comprehensive childcare services for single parents.

Mobilizing the Media and Officials

Community involvement also involves getting reporters out in the communities to listen and report. If each community is able to attract the interest of reporters and get them to print stories on the problems involved with childcare, a wider network is opened and more opportunities for change are presented.

Federal, state and local government officials can help communities improve their childcare services and offer support to single parents with young children by initiating systematic efforts to support local change. These officials can help solve this social problem by removing obstacles created by inefficient funding patterns and restrictive regulations, and by mobilizing other sectors, including business and the media, to make the needs of single parents with young children a high priority.

Federal agencies can help by establishing opportunities to create a more efficient delivery system for childcare services. State agencies play an important role, as well, as they establish the framework for community action. In addition, state agencies provide support for affordable childcare and quality control. Finally, it is up to local agencies to size up the problem, mobilize communities, and get results.

Solutions and Policy Recommendations

There are a number of solutions that could benefit single parents who are hindered by a lack of quality, affordable childcare. Services such as part-time childcare, infant care, and after-school facilities are often unavailable in communities yet would provide tremendous benefits to single parents.

Quality of care is a major concern for single parents, who often cannot afford expensive childcare solutions. There are a number of programs that could assist in this area if social policies were implemented to make quality childcare a mandatory requirement in all states. New social policies could require that training must be a requirement for local childcare centers. In addition, childcare internships for students would allow more help at childcare facilities at no additional cost.

Universities and large corporations could provide a major relief for single parents by partnering with local childcare facilities to offer childcare services at a reduced cost to their students and employees. Perhaps, these organizations could even allocate space for a childcare center to cater to the part-time and after hours childcare needed by their students and employees.

The issues of availability, flexibility and cost are of utmost importance to single parents. While the government and community will not be able to solve all of their childcare needs, it is important that efforts be made to improve the cost and quality of childcare.

In the end, with efforts from the community and government, new and improved childcare options could be created for single parents, relieving them of many of the urgent financial and social burdens placed on them by the existing system.

Benefits to Special Population and People of Color

Since many single parents are minorities and people of color, the need for childcare is a growing concern. Many welfare recipients have traditionally been minorities, especially women and people of color.

Various new work requirements present a major problem for women who are expected to work and get off welfare while dealing with the responsibility of raising their children.

At the same time, adequate and affordable childcare for working mothers remains a major problem. Basically, while expectations regarding women's participation in the labor force have changed, expectations regarding women's primary responsibility for taking care of their children have not. Therefore, special benefits are required for single parents, especially minorities and people of color, to allow them a fair opportunity in childcare.

Special benefits for minorities and people of color should emphasize parental choice by letting parents choose the childcare that best meets their needs - whether with a relative, neighbor, child care center, religious program, or after school program. Providing certificates or vouchers in all states could do this.

A call for childcare is more than a call for minimum survival for women and their families in the struggle to balance paid and unpaid work. Public childcare policy has tended to center on allowing mothers, and particularly single mothers, to work in the low wage labor market. But it has neglected their childcare needs.

Implementation

According to a General Accounting Office study, affordable childcare is a decisive factor that encourages or discourages single mothers to seek and maintain employment (Ohl, 2002). Another study revealed that single parents who received childcare assistance were more successful in successfully completing educational or job training, obtaining jobs or experiencing other positive outcomes. This proves that childcare is a critical work support for all families and affordability is an especially important issue for single parents.

Federal subsidies currently help single parents access affordable child care as a work support. However, the affordable solutions often provide poor quality care. Due to the fact that the care children receive shapes the way they think and learn, it is important to call attention to the need for quality childcare that is affordable and available to single parents.

The following recommendations would undoubtedly working toward the goal of providing quality, affordable childcare (Ohl, 2002):

grants and loans to childcare providers for quality improvements, advanced training and technical assistance for childcare providers and staff, monitoring of compliance with regulatory quality requirements, strategies to improve retention and compensation of child care providers, and strategies to promote private and community efforts for improved childcare.

Evaluation

Over the past several years, many factors have contributed to the dramatic increases in the labor force participation of parents, which has posed many challenges and opportunities to providing quality and affordable childcare for single parents.

According to Ohl (2002), "11.9 million children younger than 5 in the United States - or about 6 in 10 - spend part of their waking hours in the care of people other than their parents: relatives, caregivers operating out of their homes, workers in child-care centers, Head Start staff members, and teachers in state-financed pre-kindergartens among them."

In a study by the National Conference of State Legislatures (1997) employers cited childcare as causing more problems in the workplace than any other family-related issue. Increases in absenteeism and tardiness due to problems with childcare were reported in nine out of ten companies. Eighty percent of the companies surveyed reported that workdays were cut short because of childcare problems.

Quality childcare, educational programs and after-school activities are extremely helpful to single parents and provide creative ways for them to shoulder the responsibility of raising children while working. For low-income single parents, safe and affordable childcare can often make the difference between getting out of poverty and falling further into it. Children with single parents in particular benefit from quality, affordable childcare experiences. Unfortunately, most single parents do not have access to it.

The paper provides an analysis of the existing problems surrounding childcare, as well as local, state and federal recommendations to expand child care for single parents and to improve quality, and implications of these changes.