Home » Public Policy » Key Legislation Before Congress »

Reauthorization of the Child Care & Development Block Grant

BACKGROUND:

The Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCBDG) is the primary federal funding stream for child care in the United States. The CCDBG program was created in 1990 and was reauthorized and expanded in 1996 as part of welfare reform. CCDBG is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and provides formula block grants to states. States primarily use the grants to subsidize child care for TANF recipients, families transitioning off TANF, and other families that earn low incomes. In addition, no less than 4 percent of CCDBG funding goes to support activities designed to improve the overall quality and supply of child care, including Child Care Resource & Referral services.

STATUS:

Along with the TANF program, CCDBG was initially up for reauthorization in 2002 and has been maintained for the past several years through a series of extensions. In 2006, as part of budget reconciliation, Congress reauthorized the TANF program and established mandatory child care funding levels until 2010. However, program rules reauthorizing CCDBG were not included in the budget reconciliation bill. As a result, CCDBG has still not been reauthorized. Because CCDBG reauthorization was not completed in the 110th Congress, reauthorization legislation will need to be reintroduced in the 111th Congress.

NACCRRA recommends that Congress conduct hearings on the condition of child care in the United States, paying special attention to the lessons learned from the military child care program. Twenty years ago, Department of Defense (DoD) funds spent on child care were not accountable, quality was poor, and still military families struggled with the cost of care. Congress strengthened the Military Child Care Act in 1989 to ensure that funds would be spent in an accountable manner, that care would be of high quality, and that child care would be provided in an affordable manner for families. NACCRRA calls on Congress to reauthorize and strengthen CCDBG in a similar manner so that civilian families have access to affordable, quality child care in all communities. Congress should also ensure that funding is sufficient so that all eligible children are able to receive assistance.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS:

NACCRRA Recommends that:

Congress:

• Reauthorize CCDBG in the 111^th Congress and appropriate sufficient funding to ensure all eligible children are able to receive assistance, and that states can meet quality improvement goals;
• Conduct hearings that focus on the safety, quality and affordability of child care;
• Establish quality child care as a goal for any use of related federal funding (i.e., funds used for child care through CCDBG, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG));
• Set clear expectations about what quality means and establish a floor for what is minimally acceptable;
• Require states to conduct comprehensive background checks on all paid child care providers who regularly care for unrelated children;
  (click here for pending legislation)
• Require all paid child care providers who care for unrelated children on a regular basis to complete 40 hours of pre-service training (primarily CPR and other basic safety & health training in addition to child development) as well as 24 hours of annual training;
• Require quarterly unannounced inspections of licensed providers (the same standard Congress required of the military child care system);
• Require quality funds to be linked to measurable program outcomes, especially training and preparation of the workforce;
• Require states to not only conduct current market rate studies, but use the studies in setting subsidy levels to ensure that families can access no less than 75 percent of providers in the community; and, provide higher subsidy rates for nontraditional hour care, care for infants & toddlers, and care in underserved communities (rural or urban);
• Require states to create or strengthen Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to tier provider payment rates based on quality indicators;
• Permanently authorize the set-aside for infant-toddler care, school-age care, Child Care Resource & Referral services, and Child Care Aware, and increase funding for these programs; and,
• Increase the federal quality set-aside to 6 percent of base funding and 25 percent of new funding, consistent with quality investments in Head Start; and
• Require the Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the National Academy of Sciences, to determine the cost of quality and report back to Congress;

Department of Health and Human Services:

• Create a Department of Early Care and Learning within HHS, which encompasses the Child Care Bureau and the Head Start Bureau, providing sufficient administrative funding to ensure adequate oversight and technical assistance to the States;
• Ensure that child care paid for with federal funding meets minimum health and safety requirements and all those who care for children have background checks equivalent to those required by Head Start, the Department of Defense, and the General Services Administration;
• Require HHS to review state child care plans and impose penalties when state plans fail to meet minimum protections for children, including poor state monitoring practices;
• Establish definitions for child care paid for by federal funding; and
• Support state efforts to create an infrastructure through which quality improvement projects can be systematically supported.

States:

• Require all paid child care providers who regularly care for unrelated children (as a business) to obtain a state license;
• Require child care paid for with federal funds to meet minimum health and safety protections for children;
• Require transparency in licensing and ensure parents have access to information about licensing and violations (i.e., require states to post inspection reports and substantiated complaints on the internet);
• Require that the input of parents be sought as states make child care public policy decisions;
• Require comprehensive background checks, including federal and state fingerprint checks, on all paid adult child care providers who regularly care for unrelated children;
• Require all paid child care providers who care for unrelated children on a regular basis to complete 40 hours of pre-service training (primarily CPR and other basic safety and health training in addition to child development) as well as 24 hours of annual training;
• Require quarterly unannounced inspections of licensed providers (the same standard Congress required of the military child care system);
• Require states to have more effective sliding fee assistance phase-out plans to ensure parents who receive a modest raise do not lose all child care assistance;
• Raise provider payment rates or reimbursement rates to at least the current 75th percentile of market providers and allow families to receive assistance for 12 months without recertification similar to Head Start eligibility; and
• Require states to apply early learning standards to all types of early care and education settings including child care. levels pay for care.