Improving policies and addressing regulatory barriers to grow and support Tennessee’s child care industry [electronic resource] / Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

Abstract: There are approximately half a million children under the age of six in Tennessee. For more than 300,000 of them, all parents or guardians in their family are in the labor force—either employed or looking for work. Access to safe, reliable, affordable child care is critical for working parents to seek opportunities to support their growing families. In general, the child care arrangements families choose fall into one of two categories: informal arrangements involving relatives or friends and formal arrangements at a state-licensed child care facility or state-certified school. Disruptions in child care—for whatever reason, whether because an informal arrangement has fallen through or because a more formal option isn’t available—lead to absences from work and can result in individuals leaving or losing their jobs; more than one in six unemployed Tennesseans say that caring for children is the reason they are not working. Moreover, companies looking to locate or expand in Tennessee cite the availability of child care as a deciding factor in whether to proceed with their plans. Lack of access to affordable, quality child care, therefore, isn’t just a problem for individual families; instead, it is a problem for communities and the state as a whole. Child care is essential for maintaining and growing Tennessee’s workforce and for economic development.