Family Child Care: Innovative Programs Promote Quality

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed several public and private initiatives to enhance the quality of family child care. GAO noted that: (1) there are 195 initiatives nationwide seeking to improve family child care; (2) most family child care programs are funded through a variety of public and private sources and many rely on funding from multiple sources; (3) many organizations sponsor activities to enhance support networks, health and education initiatives, and the quality of child care; (4) family child care program directors believe that they have made a significant difference in the quality of child care given; (5) in 1993, the federal government allocated between $156 million and $264 million for family child care quality improvement initiatives; and (6) the use of family child care will likely increase if current welfare reform initiatives are implemented.