WASHINGTON, DC — Child Care Aware® of America today released its annual Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2017 report, which found that child care is unaffordable in all 50 states.

Child Care Aware® of America, the nation’s leading advocate for quality, affordable child care, found that child care fees for two children in 2016 exceeded mortgage payments in 35 states and the District of Columbia; while average annual cost for an infant in center-based care was higher than a year at a four-year public college in 28 states and the District of Columbia.  

Earlier today, the House Ways and Means Committee approved H.R. 1, the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017" on a party-line vote. While proposals to expand and enhance the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) were not included in the amended version, the proposal to eliminate Dependent Care Flexible Savings Accounts was overturned. The House is scheduled to vote on H.R. 1 sometime next week.

Yesterday, House Republican leadership introduced the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017."  This anticipated legislation is designed to reform the tax code for the first time since the 1980s, including changes to deductions and tax credits.

Child Care Aware® of America supports initiatives by Congress that would strengthen access to affordable child care for all. Unfortunately, the House-passed “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (H.R. 1) fails to address the child care needs of working families by not providing sufficient tax relief and prioritizing expansion of critical tax credits, including the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC).

Child Care Aware^® of America is excited to announce the expansion of our child care deserts work with the release of the first two in a series of customized state-based interactive story maps, called Mapping the Gap^TM, that explores the gaps between child care supply and demand. CCAoA coined the term “child care desert” last fall when we released our initial report exploring states and communities exploring issues of child care supply and demand. We refer to areas or communities with limited or no access to quality child care as child care deserts.

WASHINGTON, DC — Child Care Aware® of America today released the first in its series of data-rich story maps of state child care gaps. The first interactive maps showed that one in four children in Alaska’s working families and two in five children in Massachusetts’s working families lack access to licensed child care.