Low-income families should not lose child-care subsidies while on parental leave

Child-care policy needs to be designed to ensure children have stable access to high-quality care. (Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages), CC BY-NC

High-quality early childhood education and care services provide children with warm and nurturing interactions and ample opportunities for children to play, foster their intellectual and emotional growth and develop important social skills.

The constraints faced by disadvantaged families may reduce parents’ abilities to provide similar opportunities for growth at home, so it is not surprising that early childhood education and care has been shown to have the most positive impact for at-risk families.