WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) was joined by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) today in introducing two landmark child care bills. The bills would reverse chronic underfunding of child care, increase the availability of high-quality child care and provide federal support for the construction and improvement of child care facilities.
“The Obama Administration and Congress did the right thing this year by reestablishing a priority for child care and the needs of children in the recovery bill and the budget,” said Senator Casey. “We must sustain this commitment and increase it. These bills would provide a long overdue yet necessary commitment to child care access and quality while also helping to provide facilities that are conducive to productive learning.”
“Although the costs of child care and the number of families in need of assistance have greatly increased, federal funding for child care remained flat from 2002 until this year,” Senator Lincoln said. “As a result, Arkansas was forced to tighten our program’s eligibility, and last July, approximately 1,300 Arkansas children, or roughly 600 families, were dropped from the program. We must do right by our working parents and give them the peace of mind that their children receive quality care in a safe environment.”
The first bill, the Starting Early, Starting Right Act (S.1000) would reverse chronic underfunding of child care and increase the availability of high-quality child care to children in low-income and working class families. Underfunding from the previous Administration has left only one in seven eligible children receiving federal assistance and the national average wage for child care workers is barely above the poverty line.
The second bill, the Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009 (S.1002) would address the critical importance of a quality physical environment for children, an issue that has often been overlooked in the need to ensure greater access to quality care. The shortage of quality child care environments is a persistent problem nationwide, particularly in low-income communities. This bill would provide federal support for funding and technical assistance needs for the acquisition, construction, renovation and improvement of child care facilities.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, the author of the House version of the Child Care Facilities Finance Act said: “I want to thank Senators Casey and Lincoln for their leadership on this important issue. Early care and education has a profound impact on the development of our nation’s youth. By allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award competitive grants to experienced non-profit community development organizations, this bill would help providers develop well-designed and appropriately-located facilities that will foster an environment of productive play and staff dedication.”
The Starting Early, Starting Right Act and Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009 have the endorsement of the following groups: the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Women’s Law Center, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the National Children’s Facilities Network, the Service Employees International Union, the Public Citizens for Children and Youth, the Pennsylvania Head Start Association and the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
Starting Early, Starting Right would increase funding available for programs that offer child care to children up to 13 years of age who are in low-income families. Since FY 2002, federal funding of child care had been essentially frozen, while inflation and the economic needs of families have steadily increased. Today, only one in seven eligible children receives federal child care assistance. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of children are on waiting lists for child care assistance and may wait months or years for help. Some states no longer keep waiting lists due to lack of funding.
The Starting Early, Starting Right Act will address this enormous unmet need by increasing funding for child care, with the dual goals of helping more families afford child care and improving the quality of early care. The bill will increase the quality of care by, among other things, ensuring states visit and monitor child care providers on an announced as well as an unannounced basis every year and requiring child care providers who are licensed or registered to participate in 40 hours of training before they work with children as well as 24 hours on an ongoing annual basis. The bill will also help increase compensation for qualified child care providers.
The Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009 will address an important factor in child care quality that is often overlooked: the physical environment. Children must have a healthy and productive environment in which to play and learn and develop. In many communities, especially low-income neighborhoods, child care programs often occupy makeshift, surplus or donated space such as church basements or storefronts, and out of date school buildings designed for older children. Unlike the K-12 education system, the early care and education field lacks the funding and organized infrastructure to design, develop, finance and maintain appropriate buildings to support quality programming.
The Child Care Facilities Financing Act will address this need by creating a pool of flexible capital for the acquisition, improvement, renovation or construction of quality early care and education facilities. The bill will target funding to experienced nonprofit community development financial intermediaries who understand real estate planning and financial packaging and can leverage private resources for early care and education facilities. These intermediaries can use the federal pool of funds to provide low-cost loans and grants to early care and education providers to develop quality facilities, and will provide specialized technical assistance on project planning, budgeting, fundraising and design. Intermediaries can also package these resources with private funding to leverage public investment with more substantial investment.
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