Social Policies. Occasional Paper.

As part of the "Assessing the New Federalism " project monitoring and assessing the devolution of social programs from the federal to the state and local levels, this study explored how much help employed families get with child care expenses and the types of help they receive. The analysis is based on data from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), a nationally representative survey focused on families with children. Among the key findings are that about 30 percent of all employed families with children under age 13 receive some type of non-tax child care help, with two sources of help predominating: free care from a relative and free or subsidized care from a government agency or private organization. Low-income families were more likely to receive child care help than were higher-income families, especially families below the poverty level and single-parent families. Between 1997 and 1999, the percentage of low-income families with no child care expenses increased because of relative help