The Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP) seeks common ground recommendations for the next phase of welfare reform. UREAP is described in the final pages of this Position Paper, including its goals, principles, and membership.

Congress and the states have acknowledged the critical support that quality child care plays in welfare reform. Parents must be certain their children are safe and secure if they are to participate effectively in the world of work. High quality child care settings are important to help children develop and learn. We support and encourage trends of increasing funding and strengthening quality standards.

Funding

• Continue funding the current Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) at $2 billion in discretionary funds and $2.7 billion in entitlement funding, plus annual increases as provided in PRWORA. 
• Maintain the Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) Block Grant at no less than current funding level of $16.8 billion, plus an annual inflationary adjustment.
• Preserve state authority to transfer up to 30 percent of the TANF Block Grant into CCDBG and to spend TANF funds directly on child care.
• Restore the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) to $2.38 billion.

Additionally, we recommend that Congress . . .

1. increase funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) for FY 2002 and augment funding each year through FY 2008.
2. provide full funding for Head Start, including expanded funding for Early Head Start to serve 25 percent of eligible children ages 0 to three.
3. maintain in the law the states' option to draw down CCDBG funds by a matching fund formula, wherein funds that are not fully matched by some states should continue to be available to other states that have drawn down all their current funds.
4. maintain the flexibility states currently have to obligate funds and liquidate them over time so that states can design child care plans that balance the expansion of services and new quality of care initiatives. Review deadlines for expending the discretionary, matching, and mandatory child care funds to determine if they can be improved upon.

Quality Issues

UREAP is convinced that there is a serious need for substantially enhanced measures to raise the quality of child care. There is grave concern that children are not adequately protected under the current law and conviction that concerted steps should be taken by Congress to direct the nation in this important regard. We urge Congress to listen carefully to the many reasons why child care quality must be improved in our nation and commit to deliberate action to effect that end. It would be important to build in mechanisms to monitor the effectiveness of whatever actions are taken in order that adequate data are available to enable this issue to be evaluated.

We recommend the following specific actions:

1. Support research that contributes to the understanding of measurable quality indicators that can be addressed at state and local levels.
2. Promote policies that encourage public and private sectors in building and sustaining an early care and education workforce that is well trained, well respected, and adequately compensated.
3. Expand the amount of money set aside in CCDBG for improving the quality of child care.
4. Provide incentives to encourage states to increase rates paid to child care providers.
5. Expand access by child care teachers to professional development programs.
6. Create a new program to increase compensation, improve facilities, and expand access to resource and referral programs.
7. Encourage states to take steps to ensure adequate health and safety measures are observed by child care providers receiving federal child care funds, for example by making two unannounced visits per year.
8. Encourage states to require that all child care providers receiving CCDBG funds to have child development training.
9. Provide incentive grants to improve the quality of child care. Increase funding for this purpose by $500 million for FY 2002 and as needed in future years.

Coordination, Eligibility, Supply, and Continuum of Care

1. Continue and encourage Head Start Awards that favor full-day, full-year services that blend funds.
2. Ensure that any efforts to coordinate CCDF-funded child care and other federal programs maintain and respect parental choice in the design of these coordinated projects.
3. Ensure that there is a continuum of care, including before- and after-school care.
4. Implement a mechanism to better coordinate Head Start with the broader world of child care so that it is relevant to working mothers and to welfare reform.
5. Eliminate unnecessary barriers to the use of child care subsidies for part-time care and for care by home-based providers, especially family or household members, e.g., policies concerning eligible providers, minimum wage payments to care in the family home, and copayment requirements. Ensure that the Fair Labor Standards Act is not applied against close relatives providing child care.
6. Eliminate the distinction between assistance and nonassistance child care and classify all expenditures for child care with TANF funds as nonassistance.
7. Encourage employer-sponsored child care through a tax credit.
8. Extend the allowance on CACFP so that for-profit child care centers having at least 25 percent of their enrolled children low-income can utilize this nutrition assistance program, even if those children are not receiving Title XX services. This could be accomplished by considering eligibility for free or reduced price school lunch or some means of self-declaration.
9. Replace the current federal income limit for receiving child care benefits of 85 percent of state median family income with a generalized requirement that states give priority to serving children based on financial need.
10. Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and make it refundable. Increase the current credit, for example, from a maximum of $720 for one child age 12 and younger to $1,200 for one child age 13 or younger, and from a maximum of $1,440 for two or more children to $2,400.

Research and Data Collection

1. Ensure that TANF funds used for child care are fully subject to CCDF data collection requirements.
2. Review CCDBG data collection requirements with a focus on simplifying and improving the policy relevance, comprehensiveness, reliability, and timeliness of data collected. Specifically, data is needed to understand patterns of child care usage and to identify gaps in coverage, as well as income and demographics of recipients, the nature and hours of care, hours of work, and parental copayments.

Utah has a long history of considering how to help welfare families become self-reliant. The Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP) is a broad-based effort to educate state and national decision-makers and the public about needed refinements to the current welfare system, to muster congressional support for common ground solutions that will help stabilize vulnerable families, and to enhance efforts to address poverty in our state and nation.

UREAP has as its vision of the next phase of welfare reform strengthening our nation by building families' and individuals' economic and social well-being. We seek to be involved in realizing this vision as Congress considers the 2002 Reauthorization of major pieces of the 1996 welfare law, as well as related measures in the intervening months and beyond. 

UREAP will support and encourage provisions which:

1. set a clear and consistent goal to reduce poverty.
2. meet temporary and emergency needs.
3. facilitate job advancement and increased earnings through training or skill-development for those who can move toward self-reliance.
4. sustain basic needs and dignity for those families and individuals who are not able to achieve self-reliance.
5. afford families and individuals with the opportunities and resources they need to address their barriers to achieving economic independence before they leave the welfare system.
6. support the efforts of families and individuals to move forward.
7. make work pay.
8. provide necessary supports to families and individuals as they transition from welfare to work.
9. emphasize the care and well-being of children, as they are the majority of welfare recipients.
10. include appropriate flexibility and encouragement to allow states, localities, and Indian Tribes to run programs that are responsive to special populations and circumstances.
11. provide increased or at least present levels of funding to support necessary programs and services to effect positive outcomes for families and individuals.
12. finance welfare reform without resulting in harm to other vulnerable groups.

Active Re-Entry, Price, (Southeastern Utah)
Box Elder Family Support Center, Brigham City, (Box Elder County)
Bringing Hope to Single Moms Foundation, Logan, (Cache and Box Elder Counties)
Community Action Services, Provo, (Utah, Wasatch, and Summit Counties)
Disabled Rights Action Coalition (DRAC), Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Family Support and Children's Justice Center of Carbon and Emery Counties, Price
International Rescue Committee, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
JEDI for Women, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Mental Health Association in Utah, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
New Hope Refugee and Multicultural Center, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake City)
Options for Independence, Logan, (Northern Utah)
Peace and Justice Commission, Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
People Helping People, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Salt Lake Community Action Program (SLCAP), Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake and Tooele Counties)
Tri-County Independent Living Center, Ogden, (Weber, Davis, and Morgan Counties)
United Way Executive Directors Association (UWEDA), Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Utah Children, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Utah Community Action Program Association (UCAPA), (statewide)
Utah Issues, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Utahns Against Hunger, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Valley Mental Health, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake and Tooele Counties)
Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies, Fruitland
Your Community Connection, Ogden, (Weber County)

Membership as of March 4, 2002

The URL for this position paper is www.slcap.org/UREAP/UREAPChildCarePosPr.html. For more information on the Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP), please go to www.slcap.org/UREAP/ureap.htm or contact Shirley Weathers and Bill Walsh, Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies, P. O. Box 270090, Fruitland, UT 84027-0090, (435) 548-2630, FAX (435) 548-2438, email wrw@ubtanet.com.