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After Cuts, How Many Fewer Children Are Using Kentucky's Child Care Assistance Program?

Earlier this week, Kentucky children's advocates and others lobbied state legislators to halt drastic cuts to a program that provides financial aid to low-income working families to cover child care costs.Those cuts, announced earlier this year, changed theeligibility requirements for the Kentucky Child Care Assistance Program.They went into full effect on July 1. It's been two months. Here's how many kids have lost access to CCAP.

So that's 13 percent fewer children in CCAP for July and 16 percent fewer for August. The information was provided by the state Department for Community Based Services, which administers CCAP. Those are fiscal years, by the way—2014 means this year.Child advocates have said that September is a big month for CCAP, so we'll keep tabs on the numbers moving forward.You can find my previous stories about the CCAP cutshere.State officials and children's advocates agreed that many low-income families would lose access to day care—meaning parents would have to find alternatives or quit their jobs, and all the issues that those options raise. State officials have said the cuts were unavoidable because of budget constraints.Advocates areplanning to ask state legislators next yearto add funds and increase the number of families eligible for CCAP.Another note: Earlier this year, advocates told me that thecuts would cause child care centers to close because of a lack of business. The Herald-Leader reports that 87 have closed so far.

Joseph Lord is the online managing editor for WFPL.