“Children Learning, Parents Earning, Communities Growing"

The content on this page is to serve as a resource of pending federal legislation, information from national partners and relevant updates to the Child Care Development & Block Grant (CCDBG) law and to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) updated as of July 25, 2023.

Click here to go to Federal Code of Regulations PART 98 - CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT FUND

Click here to see Child Care Aware's one-pager on the CCDBG

Click here to watch live US Senate Floor proceedings.

Click here to watch US House of Representatives hearings.

Click here to see the Notice of Proposed Rule Changes for CCDF

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UPDATED: November 28, 2023

Federal Update

On November 17th, President Biden signed a clean continuing resolution (CR) to prevent a government shutdown, ensuring that federal child care and early learning funding will continue as usual into the new year. However, the bill does not include some important items, such as emergency funding for child care, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and an expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC).

The CR has an uncommon feature, a two-step process where groups of appropriations bills expire on different dates early in 2024. Four bills will expire on January 19, 2024, while the rest—including the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) bill, which includes federal child care and early learning programs—will expire on February 2, 2024. Congress will need to adopt a final budget for the year before the resolution expires. More: Government shutdown: Biden signs bill pushing budget fight into 2024 | AP News

Also, this week, the US House brought their Labor-HHS appropriations bill to the floor, which includes $64 billion in cuts. The bill slashes $750 million from Head Start/Early Head Start and eliminates the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, which are just two of the devastating cuts to programs that are critical to supporting women, families, and children. More: FACT SHEET: House Republican Funding Bill Denies Education and Training Opportunities for Students and Job Seekers at All Stages of Life | House Committee on Appropriations

NWLC and other organizations urged House Members to vote No on the bill, and luckily the House lacked the votes for final approval. They adjourned for the Thanksgiving recess without completing work on the bill and without a clear path forward. More: Republicans Once Again Fail to Pass Their Own Bills | House Committee on Appropriations

Federal NPRM - Biden-Harris Administration Proposes New Rule to Strengthen the Head Start Workforce, Increase Wages & Support Quality Programming

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF):

On November 15th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced a new proposed rule to strengthen Head Start’s ability to recruit and retain qualified staff, raise teacher wages, and provide consistent quality programming for the children and families they serve. The new proposed rule follows President Biden’s April 2023 Executive Order, which directed HHS to develop strategies to encourage comparability of compensation and benefits between staff employed by Head Start grant recipients and elementary school teachers and make child care and Head Start more accessible for those families most in need. If finalized, the new proposed rule would raise Head Start teacher annual wages by more than $10,000 on average. And it will put Head Start teachers on a path to parity with public school teachers by ensuring that their salaries are at least equivalent to preschool teachers in public school settings without impacting children currently enrolled in Head Start.

Over the past two years, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured more than $1.2 billion in funding increases for Head Start. However, a persistent Head Start workforce shortage has forced many Head Start classrooms to close, contributing to a nationwide under-enrollment. Head Start programs report losing teachers to other employers, including food service, retail, and other education programs, largely because they cannot provide competitive compensation. If finalized, the proposed rule would support and stabilize the Head Start workforce in the face of a national early childhood workforce crisis and help provide the highest quality early education to Head Start children who are further from opportunity. And while the quality and stability of Head Start programs will rise because of the new rule, enrollments will remain roughly constant.

Biden-Harris Administration Proposes New Rule to Strengthen the Head Start Workforce, Increase Wages & Support Quality Programming

Blog - States Try to Fill the Gap as Billions in Federal Child Care Funding Expires. But Is It Enough?

From the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC):

“Billions in federal child care relief just expired. Costs are already skyrocketing.”

Despite calls from advocates, early educators, and parents, Congress has yet to act to provide the emergency funding that’s needed to stabilize the child care sector after $24 billion in federal child care funds through the American Rescue Plan Act expired on September 30, 2023.

The good news is that, in the face of this Congressional inaction, several states are acting to stave off the worst of the impacts for women, children, early educators, and businesses. Read more about Wisconsin, Kentucky, and New York.

Brief - How North Carolina is advancing early educator pay

From the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE):

In our recent Bold on Early Educator Compensation Learning Community session, advocates from the state shared tactics, including a salary scale and toolkit developed by the North Carolina Early Childhood Compensation Collaborative. The scale aims to help programs analyze their own compensation and set targets.

Learn more about North Carolina advocates' strategies to advance educator pay in our summary.

If you're looking to advance your own strategies, our solutions-based fact sheet provides legislators with key issues facing the ECE workforce, state-based solutions, and four action steps to take to champion workforce policies.

Report - CACFP and License-Exempt Home-Based Child Care Providers

From the Urban Institute:

Designed to address food insecurity amongst children, the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimburses child care providers for some or all of the costs of feeding children in child care settings. Yet more than 11 million children in home-based child care settings that are exempt from state licensing laws are unlikely to have access to this resource, even though states are allowed to extend CACFP supports to these providers. 

New Urban Institute research finds that more children could get needed nutritional supports if license-exempt home-based child care (LEHBCC) providers were allowed and encouraged to participate in CACFP. Paid and unpaid LEHBCC providers care for more children than licensed child care programs, and often care for vulnerable children, many of whom may be food-insecure.

Read the report, brief, fact sheet, or blog post to learn more about unique opportunities to reduce barriers to participation for LEHBCC providers, as well as some remaining barriers that need to be addressed.

Policy Brief - DC Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund

From DC Action:

In this new policy brief, DC Action provides an overview of and recommendations for the District of Columbia’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. As you may know, in 2018, Washington, DC passed the landmark Birth-to-Three for All law, which among other things, required pay parity for early childhood educators and local public school teachers with similar roles, credentials, and experience. Through the Pay Equity Fund, fair and livable compensation is becoming a reality for thousands of early educators.

Report - Cost-benefit analysis predicts large ROI for early care expansion in NY state

From the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP):

NCCP would like to share the results of a cost-benefit analysis predicting a significant ROI for early care expansion: A Benefit-Cost Analysis of Child Care Subsidy Expansions: The New York State Case.

By estimating the effects of New York’s recent child care subsidy expansion (the New York State Child Care Expansion, or NYSCCE), researchers predicted a net present value between seven and eight times in annual social benefits relative to the yearly cost of the program under new rules legislated by the state government.

New York State’s new rules for the childcare sector: a) extended the exit eligibility threshold for families using subsidized care; b) altered the copayment schedule so that it was more equitable; and c) created essential incentives and supports for childcare workers in the state.

The study was written by economists at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy. It framed large gains in long-term benefits for parents, children, and taxpayers in response to improvements in early care access.

The very high long-term return on the original investment included both direct benefits to recipients of the subsidies (parents and children) and indirect benefits to taxpayers. In their analysis, the authors found that the highest benefits would accrue largely from increases in children’s health across their lifespan as well as from their increased longevity. Additionally, large benefits would accrue from reduced expenditures for taxpayers in criminal justice and victimization costs.

The study can be found online here.

Interactive resource & profiles on states’ access to pre-K data

From Child Trends:

A new report and interactive map and state profiles from the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC) highlights findings from a nationwide survey of state-funded pre-K program administrators. The report offers an in-depth look at the types of data that states have access to, the prevalence of disaggregated data among states, and state-level data infrastructure and management needs; it also highlights opportunities for growth in these areas.

The interactive state maps and profiles show users an overview of 43 states’ capacities to access data on children, programs, and workforce members, and on their ability to coordinate and link data about preschool programs. Preschool leaders, researchers, and policymakers can use these resources to inform their efforts to plan more equitable pre-K systems.

These resources, along with a forthcoming companion report on access to Head Start data, are part of the System Transformation for Equitable Preschools (STEP Forward with Data) Framework project. For project updates and resources, please sign up to receive the ECDC Newsletter.

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Federal News Spotlight:

Do Child Care Solutions Stand a Chance in Congress?

From EdSurge:

In September, when billions of dollars in child care funding were about to expire, a Senate subcommittee convened to discuss solutions. It was there that Sen. John Kennedy laid out the partisan tension at the heart of what’s billed as a bipartisan issue.

He agreed that child care was an investment in the current and future workforce. Being opposed to affordable child care, the Louisiana Republican said, “is like being opposed to golden retrievers — no fair-minded person can be opposed to it.”

What he wanted to know was how the United States would pay for it...

Read the entire article here.

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Federal Organizations Tracking Child Care and Early Education:

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Most viewed federal bills for week of November 27, 2023

1.	S.596 [117th]	Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2021
2.	H.R.6363 [118th]	Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024
3.	S.1323 [118th]	SAFE Banking Act of 2023
4.	H.R.5894 [118th]	Making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes.
5.	H.R.82 [118th]	Social Security Fairness Act of 2023
6.	S.3205 [118th]	Federal Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Act of 2023
7.	S.452 [118th]	Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2023
8.	S.1111 [118th]	ADVANCE Act of 2023
9.	H.R.1042 [118th]	Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act
10.	H.R.1636 [117th]	Postal Vehicle Modernization Act

Click here to find and contact your representative in congress.

For information on child care in the President's budget, click below:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Early Childhood Development

The Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) oversees early care and education programs in the Administration of Children and Families (ACF). ECD provides leadership to support a national agenda focused on young children, their families, and the early care and education workforce. ECD works on administration priorities, interagency projects, budget proposals, and various policy strategies related to early childhood programs and services.