Financing Child Care in the United States - Ewing Marion Kauffman ...

FINANCING CHILD CARE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR PHILANTHROPY
and program design in such areas as parental
co–payments, provider payment methods, and income
eligibility guidelines. Other issues require ongoing work.
Locally, the City of Philadelphia set up a Task Force on
Child Care that led to the establishment of a City Office
of Child Care and the creation of a City of Philadelphia
Health and Safety Program, designed to assist providers
meet state and local licensing and best–practice
standards.
HOW FUNDS DISTRIBUTED
Child Care Matters is led by a partnership of five nonprofit
organizations: Delaware Valley Association for the
Education of Young Children, Delaware Valley Child Care
Council, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth,
Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative and United
Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania is the
administrative entity for Child Care Matters, entering into
contracts with each of the partner agencies. Delaware
Valley Association for the Education of Young Children
and the Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative are
responsible for implementing the quality of care
continuum that Child Care Matters uses. They employ
field staff to work directly with programs. Child Care
Matters approves and pays for all disbursements for
equipment and facilities improvements. Public policy and
advocacy is led by Philadelphia Citizens for Children and
Youth; business engagement by United Way of
Southeastern Pennsylvania; and communications by the
Delaware Valley Child Care Council. When possible, Child
Care Matters has sought to take advantage of existing
publicly funded organizations. Thus, the private subsidy
program that operated during the first several years of
Child Care Matters was administered through a contract
with the local agencies that run the state's subsidy
program for child care. As the founding funder for the
T.E.A.C.H. program in Pennsylvania, Child Care Matters
organized a selection process with a number of other
concerned organizations, including the Pennsylvania
Department of Public Welfare, to identify a statewide
licensee for the project.
POPULATION SERVED
Through its broad–based regional service component,
Child Care Matters benefits children and families, and the
child care teachers, child care centers and homes that
serve them, without regard to income. Its work in the City
of Philadelphia focuses on the needs of low– and
moderate–income working families and the programs and
staff that serve them.
STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS
• The William Penn Foundation sought out the five
nonprofit partners for a year–long child care planning
process and encouraged the five organizations to
create a multifaceted plan for addressing problems.
Representing the notion of non–traditional allies and
partners, the five agencies of Child Care Matters
include three nonprofit agencies whose sole focus is
child care and two nonprofit partners who have
additional areas of expertise.
• The partnership of the five organizations that make up
Child Care Matters is seen a critical to the success and
impact of the work. The five agencies must agree on
the overall objectives. The collaboration itself has been
a challenge and has required ongoing assessment and
clarification of roles of the partner agencies. The
partner organizations believe that the joint objectives
add value, and have resulted in more substantial gains
than had been realized before the creation of the Child
Care Matters partnership. This view is shared by
individuals who are not partners, but who are
knowledgeable about child care policy and practice.
• Child Care Matters has sought to demonstrate the
effectiveness of proven strategies for serving low–
income children and their families and for improving
quality. This research–based approach led the
partnership to bring T.E.A.C.H. to Pennsylvania and to
use accreditation as the program standard. These
models were applied locally and promoted as part of
the public policy work. The strategy has resulted in
Pennsylvania government funding T.E.A.C.H., and
earmarking existing quality funds to support
accreditation. Legislation has been introduced to
provide ongoing support for accreditation.
• During the planning period for Child Care Matters, the
partners assessed the existing political environment to
help determine the scope of the public policy agenda.
Child Care Matters recognized the socially conservative
nature of Pennsylvania, which achieves public policy
change incrementally. In 1997 came the
implementation of welfare reform and the focus on
jobs for working parents, particularly mothers. This
provided a framework that resonated with state
decision–makers, helping to create a climate in which
the child care budget has grown about 15 percent
each year, in contrast to most of the state’s budget,
which has grown by only 2 to 3 percent. At the same
time, the focus on the state’s subsidized child care
program resulted in significant time being spent on
addressing design and implementation issues, with a
greater degree of state government interest in subsidy
than quality.
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