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

CRIME PREVENTION AND JUSTICE
Crime prevention provides a strategic rationale for supporting child care, with some states
adopting support for after–school programs as a crime–prevention approach. North
Carolina’s Support Our Students (SOS) provides one example. Another approach has
been developed by New York, working through its court system. Drop–in child care
centers have been established in its state courts, leveraging federal child care funds with
state judicial funds to sustain these services.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Local governments are responding by developing a range of financing strategies for child
care. New York City has a specialized youth department that oversees the allocation of
nearly $40 million in general fund revenue for the provision of community services —
including structured after–school programs — in more than 80 public schools. San
Francisco’s Compensation and Retention Encourage Stability (CARES) program
allocates more than $1 million of city funding to help child care professionals improve
their educational credentials and to promote the retention of skilled staff in centers and
family child care homes. Fairfax County, Virginia and New York City’s Board of Education
have focused on capital investment designed to increase the supply of child care and
after–school programs. Montgomery County, Maryland opted to respond to the shortage
of state subsidy money for child care by designing and administering an additional,
complementary approach.
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