Child care support still a high priority for Congress

On Thursday, June 9, a group child care professionals, parents, advocates, and Democratic senators and representatives spoke in support of Sens. Murray and Kaine’s proposal to provide additional federal funding to support families, child care providers, and staff, within a greater reconciliation package.

The plan would add an additional $12 billion each year for six years to the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program (CCDBG), tripling the current annual amount. Within that increase, it would establish a set aside of funds (about $3 billion each of the six years) specifically for staff pay and other infrastructure components. It would also provide an additional $50-$100 billion for a pilot opportunity for parents of children ages 0-5, allowing states to establish eligibility up to 250 percent of state median income and establishing a 7 percent cap on a family’s child care expenditures for their birth to five-year-old children. The program would be operated as a cost share with the federal government covering 90 percent of program expenditures. School-age programs are eligible for CCDBG funds and would therefore potentially benefit from the increased investment in the program if the legislation were to pass.

In a press statement on the rally, Sen. Kaine explained his commitment to the proposal this way: “There’s millions of people who want to be in the workforce but are on the sidelines instead because they can't find high-quality, affordable childcare. This is the time to make it happen. It’s responsible to do it for the kids, to do it for their parents and the parents' pocketbooks, to do it for our high-quality providers, but especially to do it so that our economy can grow and get the talented people back in the workforce.”

Additionally, Sen. Murray said, “Our plan will lower child care costs for families all across the country by thousands of dollars a year.” A summary of speakers’ comments and recording of the event can be found at the First Five Years Fund’s website.

Even before the pandemic, the federal child care funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant was unable to serve more than 15 percent of eligible families. The pandemic brought increased attention to the essential role played by the child care workforce in keeping other critical services operational. And as the nation moves into recovery, the child care sector has been increasingly noted for its key role in helping more parents, especially women, return to the full-time workforce.

There have been a number of child care proposals put forth in the last few years, with the goals of sustaining the child care sector. Popular elements of an improved child care policy on both sides of the aisle include expanding access to more families, making care more affordable, providing sustainable wages for staff, and building quality systems. Although the proposals themselves have been partisan in nature, it is encouraging to see broad coalescence around the need more federal support for child care.

The Afterschool Alliance put together a look from a school-age perspective at select components within a number of the major comprehensive child care proposals for put forth in the last few years in a table on our webpage.

Despite the focus of the afterschool field on school-age youth, we recognize that a rising tide lifts all boats and support increased funding for child care affordability, quality, and staff across all ages. However, there are some unique considerations for school-age programs that, whether in legislation or implementation, ought to be considered which include:

• Licensing policies appropriate for the age and setting of those served with consideration of programs occurring on school grounds
• Professional development systems which include positive youth development at least up to early adolescence
• Quality systems which include school-age standards and school-age specific observational tools
• Cost of quality studies inclusive of school-age programs
• Staff compensation and support for the unique needs of the school-age workforce (which can include part-time and seasonal, summer camp workers, college and high school students, and professionals with elementary education, recreation and youth development degrees)
• Administrative structures that look at and coordinate needs across the 0-13 continuum which may include – school-age staff at the agency, school-age programs at the decision-making table, consumer education and mapping inclusive of a broad selection of school-age programs, coordination with school-age entities such as the 21st Century Community Learning Centers or other education related entities, and involvement of statewide afterschool networks

For our afterschool field, we hope to see greater investment in child care overall, and must continue communicating that care doesn’t stop at kindergarten. Working parents need access to continued affordable, high quality programming as their children age. Afterschool and summer programs are not a nice-to-have but an integral piece in making a real impact on the future of child care.