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An Opportunity to Turn the Tide on Child Care for African-American Families
Why the Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act (SB-548) Matters
The Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act (SB-548) is legislation that will help uplift 33,000
primarily women of color who work throughout California within the state
child care system as licensed Family Child Care Providers. These
women provide care and early education to some of California’s
Licensed Family Child
poorest children. Along with empowering Family Child Care Providers,
Care Providers
the legislation will improve the quality of care and education for
by the Numbers
children and toddlers, and expands access to parents that require
flexible, affordable child care to be able to go to work and move
33,000 licensed
themselves out of poverty.
providers in CA.
But Family Child Care Providers themselves are also struggling as
they provide care 7 days a week, and around the clock to meet the
needs of workers in today’s economy. Despite the flexibility and
importance of the services given by Family Child Care Providers, it is
not uncommon for a provider to go weeks or even months without
pay.
It is also not uncommon for a Family Child Care Provider to work over
50 hours a week and only make only $4.98 an hour—
significantly below the minimum wage¹, and without benefits.²
As long as California’s Family Child Care providers lack a seat at the
table with the State to advocate more effectively for themselves, the
parents and the children they serve, California will not be able to
ensure that all of California’s neediest families have access to a quality
child care system.
It is estimated that only 8% of infants and toddlers who qualify for
subsidized child care can access the system due to the cuts that
began during the beginning of the Great Recession.³ $1 billion has
been cut to California's child care subsidy system since 2008, and the
system only received a minor restoration in funding during the last
budget cycle.
The Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act (SB-548) is
comprehensive child care-related legislation that provides a
triple benefit to the state by:
(1) helping the poorest working parents lift their families out of poverty
(2) strengthening jobs in the child care and development sector
(3) helping support parents’ efforts to provide learning and development
opportunities at home
mostly women of color
50+ hrs is the
typical work week
commonly without pay for
weeks or even months
earn as little as
$4.98 an hour
for helping to raise
California’s workforce
1 step from
losing it all
no disability insurance
no social security benefits
0 voice to bring
improvements
for providers, and the
parents and the children
they serve
Selected Stats on African-Americans in California
Is the Future of African-American Families in California Half Full or Half Empty?
Now more than ever California African-American parents and Family Child Providers are struggling
to make ends meet. Twenty-five percent of African-Americans live below the federal
poverty level—the highest percentage of poverty in any demographic group.⁴
Worse yet, 32% of all African-American children under the age of 5 live below the federal
poverty line.⁵ With access to quality child care out of reach for so many African-American parents,
infants and children are growing up without the resources and tools to be successful as adults to
be able to escape the cycle of poverty.
When our children miss out on early education opportunities such as family child care and
preschool, they often start kindergarten as much as 18 months behind their peers, falling victim to
the achievement gap that most often leads to a lifetime of “catching up,” rather than a life full of
learning.
Parents living in poverty can’t get ahead without the access to quality, flexible and affordable child
care to be able to go to work to lift themselves out of their economic situation.
32% of all
African
American
children
under 5
live below
the
federal
poverty
line.
The stakes are higher than ever to help remove the barriers to success for
African-American families in California—the Golden State can’t shine if the
African-American community’s economic prospects are dim.
48%
of poor children are ready to learn at age 5, compared to seventy-five
percent of children from families with moderate and high incomes.⁶
An African-American boy born in 2001 has a 1 in
3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime.⁷
According to a 2011 study
commissioned by the State
of California, almost 2 in 10
children receiving child care
subsidies were AfricanAmerican.⁸
14.5%
of Licensed Family Child Care Providers in California are AfricanAmerican and over half of the Licensed Family Child Care Providers in
California are women of color.⁹
Bibliography
¹ Jean Layzer and Barbara Goodson, “Care in the Home: A Description of Family Child Care and the Experiences of the Families and
Children Who Use It,” ABT Associates for the US Department of Health and Human Services
² National Academy of Sciences, “The Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities,” 2012
³ RAND Corporation, “Labor and Population. The Use of Early Care and Education by California Families, 2012,” http://www.rand.org/pubs/
occasional_papers/OP356.html
⁴ 2010-2012 American Community Survey (3-yr est), Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months, Accessed at http://factfinder2.census.gov/
faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk for California, also for how the Census Bureau measures Poverty, see here:
https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/measure.html
⁵ 2010-2012 American Community Survey (3-yr est), Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months of Families by Family Type with Children under
18 (Black) B17010B
⁶ Julia B. Isaacs, “Starting School at a Disadvantage: The School Readiness of Poor Children,” Brookings Institution, 2012; http://
www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/3/19%20school%20disadvantage%20isaacs/
0319_school_disadvantage_isaacs.pdf
⁷ The Sentencing Project, “Report of the Sentencing Project to the UN Human Rights Committee Regarding Racial Disparities in the US
Criminal Justice System,” August 2013; http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_ICCPR%20Race%20and%20Justice%20Shadow
%20Report.pdf
⁸ California Subsidized Childcare Characteristic Study, July 2011
⁹ Marcy Whitebook, “Workforce Study: Licensed Family Child Care Providers,” Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and the
California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, 2006