TANF Child Care In 2007: New Data Released
Mar 27, 2009
Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds used for child care increased slightly in FY 2007, reversing a six-year trend of decline. Nationally, states directed approximately $3.2 billion in TANF funds to child care in 2007, approximately $64 million more than in the previous year, or a 2 percent increase, according to FY 2007 TANF Financial Data posted by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). ACF does not report on the number of children receiving TANF-funded child care assistance.
States choose whether to use TANF funds to provide child care assistance to families. States may spend TANF funds directly on child care, usually in the form of vouchers given to parents; they may also choose to transfer up to 30 percent of their annual TANF block grant to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) or to a combination of CCDBG and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).
According to the new data, TANF transfers to CCDBG increased to $2.0 billion in 2007, from $1.9 billion in 2006. States spent nearly $1.2 billion in TANF directly on child care assistance in 2007, a decline of about $74 million from 2006. Ten states transferred the maximum amount of 30 percent of TANF funds: Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island. Only Kentucky transferred all 30 percent of its funds to CCDBG alone. An additional 11 states transferred between 25 to 29 percent of TANF funds to a combination of CCDBG and SSBG.
States are required to meet a maintenance-of-effort (MOE) requirement in the TANF program. States spent $2.5 billion in state MOE funds on child care. This was an increase of $245 million compared to 2006. It may be that all, or a portion, of the increase in state MOE spending reflects accounting issues, rather than a real change in spending, however it is not possible to determine through available national data. A portion of TANF MOE funds spent on child care may also be directed toward states CCDBG MOE requirement.
The Administration for Children and Families has not yet released FY 2007 expenditure data for CCDBG, so it is not possible to determine total child care spending (CCDBG and TANF combined) for 2007. When that data is available, CLASP will produce additional analysis on national child care spending trends as in prior years, as well as updated state-by-state child care spending pages. CLASP will also be updating state-by-state tables analyzing TANF and MOE spending in the coming weeks.