by Morgan Sweeney
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission published an October study that shows Virginia’s self-sufficiency programs largely aren’t producing the desired results and existing child care programs aren’t meeting the needs of many Virginians in more ways than one.
“Self-sufficiency,” as it pertains to the studied programs, is defined as achieving a standard of living for which basic living expenses are provided.
The study found of the 856,000 Virginia households that don’t meet this standard, only about 1% participate in the self-sufficiency programs administered by the state. Of those, most ultimately don’t achieve economic self-sufficiency.
In fiscal year 2022, “only 9,900 households participated in the primary program intended to move impoverished Virginians toward self-sufficiency, the Virginia Initiative for Education and Work,” whereas about 1,160 households participated in the state’s other program per month in 2022, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training, according to the report.
Results were assessed for approximately 265,000 participants in these programs and the regular SNAP from 2018-2022, and JLARC found that the programs didn’t noticeably impact employment rates and “while half experienced wage increases by 2022, the median wage for the group remained below the federal poverty threshold.”
Additionally, less than 2% of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and SNAP recipients per year from 2018-2022 took advantage of services offered by the state’s workforce development system.
JLARC also evaluated child care services across Virginia and found that child care was unaffordable according to the federal definition for about half the households in the state, there weren’t enough child care providers to meet demand and several issues with the state’s Child Care Subsidy Program make it less helpful than is needed.
The federal government defines child care as affordable at or below 7% of a family’s household income.
“The costs of infant and toddler care exceed 7 percent of household income for more than 80 percent of Virginia families, and the cost of preschool exceeds 7 percent of household income for 74 percent of Virginia families,” according to the report.
The commission also determined that at least 140,000 households requiring child care in Virginia don’t have access to it due to few child care providers.
Lastly, though Virginia expanded its Child Care Subsidy Program with federal COVID-relief funds, those funds will soon dry up – and even with them, it can’t offer subsidies to all the families that qualify. And even if the state could supply subsidies to all families that need them, less than half of child care providers participate in the subsidy program.
JLARC offered several legislative and executive action recommendations to help remedy some of the current shortcomings of the state self-sufficiency programs and the Child Care Subsidy Program.
The commission proposed that the legislature require coordination between social services offices and local workforce development boards; social services should be able to inform those on state assistance programs of employment resources and training that are available to them. It also prescribed the creation of several pilot programs to test and improve aspects of VIEW and other self-sufficiency programs and recommended including employment requirements for child care subsidy eligibility.
Its executive recommendations included developing “modern caseload targets” for these programs, establishing policies that aid the programs in allocating and spending all their program funds and developing a process to “reimburse Child Care Subsidy Program providers based on enrollment rather than attendance.”
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Morgan Sweeney is a staff writer covering Virginia and Maryland for The Center Square. Morgan was an active member of the journalism program as an undergraduate at Hillsdale College and previously freelanced for The Center Square.
