The law would allow a state to require parents with children six years or older to work without assuring child care. No parent should be required to choose between work and providing supervision for her children. Fully utilize child care resources. Without drawing down the maximum child care funding, states cannot realize the goals of placing parents receiving assistance in jobs and helping working poor families stay employed and able to care for their children. Parenting Exercise the state option to exempt parents with infants under age one from work requirements, remove these parents from calculations of work participation rates, and ensure participation in parenting training.
Most states lack the capacity to provide quality child care to large numbers of infants.
Retain the guarantee that all eligible families are served. Each state decides eligibility for assistance under its block grant program. A state should not remove eligibility for any category of families that was eligible under the old AFDC program. Each state should commit to the principle that children will be protected from destitution. Do not impose a shorter lifetime limit on federal welfare assistance.