PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Objective:
 Low
income families with children with
special needs face unique challenges in
balancing work and family responsibilities. Faced with the difficult
task of finding suitable, stable child care for their special needs child,
many parents
are nevertheless forced by economic necessity to join the labor force.
Despite the higher incidence of disabilities and chronic health problems
among low income children, to date, there has been surprisingly little
research done about the experiences of these families.
 The
Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy was funded by the Child Care
Bureau at the federal Department of Health and Human Services to learn more
about the experiences of this sub population of low income families and
develop policy recommendations to assist these families in gaining the
support they need. While our primary focus was on access to child care,
we also looked at the challenges of work and caring for a child with
special needs, and the issue of coordination of early intervention services
with the child care system.
I. Why are we doing this research?
Our goal in conducting this research was not to examine how well any individual or agency is serving this population but instead to identify ways in which the system as a whole can better integrate services and be responsive to the particular needs of these families. We believe it is essential that we get the perspective of the individuals who serve these families. Our interest is in making it easier for the staff at agencies serving this population to do their jobs and provide low income parents with the support they need to care for their child with special needs and balance work and family. What we learned will have implications for policy making at the federal, state and local levels. In developing our policy recommendations we looked at initiatives in other states and examined whether those models might offer guidance in serving this population of low income families and children.
II. Background on the project:
 Our
project began on October 1, 2001.
more... |
WHAT'S NEW?
* Our final report is now available for downloading in pdf format. (Click here)
* In 2004, we issued our preliminary report on our interviews with parents called Parents' Voices (Click here)
 | Welcome to our website! We officially
launched it on March 2, 2004! |
|
We have completed the
Child Care and Children with Special Needs project! We
released our final report in May, 2007. |
| Interested in looking at the instruments we used
to conduct our research? Check out the
Instruments and Tools page! |
OUR DEFINITION OF
SPECIAL NEEDS:
Our work is
focused on families of children with special needs. We define special
needs broadly, as meaning any disability, behavioral issue or chronic health
condition, from asthma and ADHD to autism and cerebral palsy, which might
affect accessibility to child care. |
