The below statement should be attributed to Carol Burnett, Executive Director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative: “The Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative (MLICCI) welcomes the recent announcement by the Mississippi Department of Human Services to utilize Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) direct funding to support the Child Care Payment Program (CCPP), a solution our organization has advocated for many years, and especially since the program pause in...

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department recently released the final rule in the federal Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), rolling back some changes made by the Biden Administration. One is of particular interest to Mississippi. It rolls back a requirement to pay centers for services to families based on child enrollment rather than days of child attendance. The final rule allows states to decide whether to pay based on enrollment. Mississippi began paying centers that participate in...

The stakes for working families in Mississippi could not be higher. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais has set the stage for a special redistricting session that will shape political representation across our state. While that may sound like a conversation about maps and legal arguments, make no mistake: this is about who has power and who doesn’t. That power determines whether Mississippi families can access something as basic and essential as child care. A System...