Child care sector gets some relief in newly approved bill

The child care crisis got a bit of relief in the latest funding bill approved by the White House, which contains a $1 billion increase for early learning and child care programs, as Marketplace reported. 

The funding includes an additional $275 million for the Head Start program and $725 million for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a roughly 30% increase.

“One way that states might choose to use this increased funding is to increase subsidy eligibility thresholds,” said Susan Gale Perry, CEO of the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America, as Marketplace reported. “More families would have access to help paying for child care. It may also be used for things like improving the rates that states pay for child care providers.”

Because even after that bump, programs will only serve a fraction of eligible families, according to Sarah Rittling, who runs the First Five Years Fund, a D.C.-based children’s advocacy group. Through Child Care and Development Block Grants to states, for example, she said,  “14% of eligible families are served with the $8 billion-plus that we have.”

Through Head Start, which helps low income children, “we’re serving roughly 36% of eligible families and 11% of eligible families in early Head Start, so we have our work cut out for us,” said Rittling.

Still, advocates are calling this a win, given the extremely contentious atmosphere and budget woes that put pressure on the final appropriations agreement.