How TANF-Sponsored Childcare Should Work

Lack of childcare is a major employment barrier for many workers and prospective hires, and child care services provided via programs like TANF are occasionally exhausted in extensive job searches because the time clock on TANF-sponsored child care continues to tick whether or not the services are being utilized once an applicant is approved; accordingly, by the time the applicant is employed and really in need of childcare, it is very limited or unavailable, a practice that should change. The time clock on TANF-sponsored childcare should stop when it is not being used (and those who have lost time in TANF-sponsored childcare programs when they were not utilizing it should receive credit for those periods of non-use) so that they can utilize the provisions when they need it most—when they are actually working—not when they are job searching...

Tanf-sponsored childcare should not be utilized for job searches—The Department of Human Services and/or partnering employment readiness agencies should have on-site childcare centers where clients can carry their children while they are participating in job counseling and conducting guided job searches, and TANF recipients could be delegated, on a rotational basis, to volunteer in the facilities...

The only exception to this should be if there is not enough space at a particular DHS facility and/or partnering employment readiness agency. Very likely, space can be cleared in existent facilities to create space for childcare centers, however.

If childcare centers cannot be incorporated into existent facilities, it would certainly be worth every cent to have the provisions built in, considering that it would save the government millions of dollars, and avail clients availability of childcare when they need it most and where it should really count...