Child care subsidies were an essential element of welfare reform and have helped many parents re-enter the workforce. But the programs are frequently inflexible, not allowing for the many challenges these families regularly confront.

Parents who leave work for any reason will often immediately lose their child care support, making it far more difficult to return to work. And children who leave child care for any reason often lose their place in the programs, putting their parents in tough situations.

Panelists will discuss strategies to reform the child care subsidy system to better accommodate the realities faced by low-income working families.

Speakers:

• Gina Adams, senior research associate, Urban Institute's Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population
• Ajay Chaudry, former deputy commissioner for child care and Head Start in New York City's Administration for Children's Services and author of Putting Children First: How Low-Wage Mothers Manage Child Care
• Robert M. Goerge, research fellow, Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago
• Reeva Murphy, child care administrator, State of Rhode Island
• Moderator: Beth Frerking, veteran journalist and former executive director of the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families