Part of a series from the Child Care Law Center, this issue of "Working for Change" discusses the need for quality, affordable child care as a support for working parents trying to break out of welfare dependency. This report details the current realities of poor parents who struggle to find and pay for child care while they work and those who would work if child care were available. In the United States, there are 6 million children under the age of 6 living in poverty. Looking at examples of programs and studies which address how child care can assist in ending long-term poverty by enabling parents to participate in education and training which will qualify them for stable employment, the report also discusses how quality child care enriches young children's development, which can reduce government expenses on health care, remedial education, and juvenile justice, and helps to prepare children for employment in adulthood, thereby avoiding generational cycles of poverty. This report also provides current statistics on poor and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) mothers and parents. The following charts and graphs are included: (1) "Why Do Mothers Need Child Care?"; (2) Consequences of Child Care Problems"; (3) "Mothers Out of the Labor Force Because of Child Care: (4) "AFDC Recidivism Due to Lack of Child Care"; (5) "Responses of JOBS participants when asked to choose the one type of assistance that would most help them out of poverty"; (6) "High/Scope Perry Preschool Study"; and (7) "How the U.S. Compares with Other Nations' Investments in Children and Families." The report concludes that, rather than developing short-term ways to cut welfare, government policy should invest in the children who now live in poverty in the United States. (Contains 54 references.) (Author/BC)