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Kentucky Ranks Near Bottom in Child Care Assistance for Low Income Families

Pieter Bos
/
common.wikimedia.org

A report just released by the National Women's Law Center ranks Kentucky near the bottom nationally for providing child care assistance to low income families. Child care subsidies were restored earlier this year through action of the general assembly.  Even so, Kentucky Youth Advocates Director Terry Brooks said the Commonwealth still lags behind many other states.

"Even with the restoration of the child care assistance program, the c-caps supports for low income working families, Kentucky still winds up in the bottom ten in how we support families," Brooks said.

Brooks says the governor and lawmakers should be commended for restoring the grants.  However Brooks says reimbursement rates for child care providers haven't increased since 2005.

"It's increasingly difficult for child care providers to make it financially and you know child care is a small business.  There's nothing wrong with saying that," Brooks said.

In addition to higher reimbursements, Brooks believes state support for individual families need to rise.  Brooks says he hopes to see the level of support go from 150 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent in the 2016 general assembly session.

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
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