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The government has compiled many studies on child care and its effects on families. In 1996, they passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate). In this Act, Congress made some very interesting findings. One finding was that the aid to families with dependant families increases significantly over 30 years. In 1965, only 3,300,000 children were receiving aid monthly, as opposed to 1992 when the amount of children multiplied almost threefold to 9,300,000. This increase is even in spite of the fact that the total number of children in the United States decreased during this time 5.5%. .
The Act also goes into great detail about the effect of single parent families, and of children born out of wedlock. Like mentioned before, women-headed households have the hardest time affording child care for their children. Only 9% of families with married parents fall below the national poverty level, while 46% of female-headed households are below that same level. Because of these findings plus numerous others, Congress decided that states are eligible to apply for block grants in order to be able to help families and parents who are in situations where they can't afford child care. This is when TANF became a program available to families. .
Because of the lack of affordability of child care, another problem is raised. Parents can't afford to pay child care, so the state or government pays for it. However, what the state and/or government is paying is low and this causes the child care center to be understaffed or to have unqualified staff, and to have poor or inadequate facilities. This leads to higher turnover rates of employees of child care facilities, and insufficient child care. This effects employers because most families are unable to find affordable childcare that they would be willing to send their children too; therefore, many (especially mothers) are more then twice as likely to quit their jobs (Framing Child Care as Economic Development).
