(1) The purpose of this part is to assure that children requiring day care be provided such food, shelter, security and safety, guidance and direction, nurture and comfort, and learning experiences commensurate to their ages and capabilities so as to safeguard the growth and development of such children, thereby facilitating their proper physical and emotional maturation.
(2) (a) The legislature finds that the number of children living in homes where both parents work or in homes with a single parent who works has increased dramatically over the last decade.
(b) The legislature finds that the availability of quality child care is critical to the self-sufficiency and independence of Montana families, including the growing number of mothers who have young children and who work out of economic necessity.
(c) The legislature further finds that the number of quality child-care arrangements falls far short of the number required for children in need of child-care services.
(d) It is the intent of the legislature that the state promote day care for the purposes of:
(i) improving the quality of, and coordination among, child-care programs and providing additional resources for child-care services;
(ii) promoting the availability and diversity of quality child-care services for all children and families that need such services;
(iii) providing assistance to families whose financial resources are not sufficient to enable them to pay the full costs of necessary child-care services;
(iv) ensuring that parents are not forced by lack of available programs or financial resources to place a child in an unsafe or unhealthy child-care facility; and
(v) assisting people in finding and maintaining employment by lessening the stress related to the lack of adequate child care.