SIOUX FALL, S.D. (KELO AM) - A new report from the Center for American Progress looks at how difficult it can be for low-income families to navigate an underfunded child-care support system.
The study, "Jumping Through Hoops and Set Up to Fail," is authored by Judith Warner who says as child-care costs keep rising, quality pre-K and after-school programs are out of reach for many working families.
She says parents have to file a degree of paperwork that goes far beyond permission forms. She says if things go wrong, your child loses a stable, good place in child care that brings them so many advantages.
Warner says parents who qualify for assistance with child-care expenses often aren't given a lot of help to navigate the system.
She says you become dependent on people who may or may not lose your paperwork and who may not want to help you. She says it sets children up for lives of difficulty when we don't make their most basic needs from the start.
The Center proposes a child care tax credit worth up to $14,000 a child, based on family income. The money would be paid directly to a provider chosen by the parents.
(Thanks Greater Dakota News Network)