An Opportunity to Turn the Tide on Child Care for Latino 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
Licensed Family Child
California’s poorest children. Along with empowering Family Child
Care Providers
Care Providers, the legislation will improve the quality of care and
by the Numbers
education for children and toddlers, and expands access to parents
that require flexible, affordable child care to be able to go to work
33,000 licensed
and move 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 Latinos in California
Is the Future of Latino Families in California Half Full or Half Empty?
Now more than ever California Latino parents and Family Child Providers are struggling to make
ends meet. Over half of people living below the federal poverty line in California are
Latino.⁴ Even worse, Latino children constitute 70% of the children living in
poverty.⁵
With access to quality child care out of reach for so many Latino 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.
70% of CA.
children in
poverty are
Latino.
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.
Projections by the California Department of Finance indicate that over the next two decades, a lower percentage of
the working-age population will be White and a larger percentage will be Latino and Asian.⁶ Moreover, California will
remain one of the younger states in the United States due to the flow of immigration.
The stakes are higher than ever to help remove the barriers to success for Latino families in
California—the Golden State can’t shine if Latinos’ economic prospects are dim.
57%
of the Latino families with
children living in poverty are
single parent households.⁷
45%
of the Latino families
living in poverty are
headed by women.⁸
Nationally it is estimated that 8 in 10
subsidized families served by Family
Child Care Providers are singleheaded households.⁹ According to a 2011 study
commissioned by the State of
California, 6 in 10 children receiving
child care subsidies were Latino.¹⁰
One in 3 Licensed Family Child Care Providers in
California is Latina, and over half of the Licensed Family
Child Care Providers in California are women of color.¹¹
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 past 12 mos by sex by age (Hispanic/Latino) Table B17001I
⁶ State of California, Department of Finance, Report P-2: State and County Population Projections by Race/Ethnicity and 5-Year Age
Groups, 2010-2060. Sacramento, California, December 2014.
⁷ 2010-2012 American Community Survey (3-yr est), Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months of Families by Family Type with Children under
18 (Hispanic/Latino) B17010I
⁸ 2010-2012 American Community Survey (3-yr est), Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months of Families by Family Type with Children under
18 (Hispanic/Latino) B17010I
⁹ 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
¹⁰ California Subsidized Childcare Characteristic Study, July 2011
¹¹ 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