The Impact of Child Care on Low-Income Texas Families: A Research Review

Child care provisions in the federal welfare reform bill provide state policy makers new flexibility in allocating funds for child care among Texas’ low-income families. However, the increasing labor force participation of Texas mothers, the growth of the Hispanic population, and high poverty rates among Texas children all point to a need for further state investment in child care. This report, prepared for the 75th Texas Legislature, is a review of the existing research on the importance of child care programs to low-income families. Researcher found that Texas will face tremendous pressure to meet a growing demand for child care services well into the next century, much of this coming from an increasing number of low-income working families. Unless policy makers understand the importance of high quality child care for all children — including children in low income working families who parents cannot afford the full cost of such care— many children in Texas will not receive the type of care needed to enable their parents to maintain productive employment and to enhance their chances of success in school.Texas Workforce CommissionRay Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource