May 01, 2023

Duckworth, Durbin Help Re-Introduce Bill to Get Families the Child Care and Pre-K They Need

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) last week joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Representative Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03) in reintroducing the Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation to tackle the child care crisis and help ensure families across America can find and afford the high-quality child care they need. The legislators were joined by 35 cosponsors in the Senate and 43 cosponsors in the House.

“For most working parents, affordable child care isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity,” said Duckworth. “Access to child care can unlock economic opportunities, enhance childhood development and promote safety within our communities. That’s why this legislation is so important—it helps ensure hardworking Americans have access to the child care they need to raise strong and healthy families, while also supporting higher wages for our essential child care workers.”

“High-quality, affordable, and reliable child care is a necessity for Illinois’ working families.  But with the rising cost of child care, it’s become an out-of-reach luxury,” said Durbin.  "With the Child Care for Working Families Act, we can ensure that working parents have access to affordable child care, including pre-kindergarten programs, while caregivers are earning the wages they deserve.”

Across the country, too many families cannot find—or afford—the high-quality child care they need so parents can go to work and children can thrive, and the worsening child care crisis is holding families, child care workers, businesses and our entire economy back. Over the last three decades, the cost of child care has increased by 220%, forcing families—and mothers, in particular—to make impossible choices, and more than half of all families live in child care deserts. Meanwhile, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet on the poverty-level wages they are paid and child care providers are struggling to simply stay afloat. The crisis—which was exacerbated by the pandemic—is costing our economy dearly, to the tune of $122 billion in economic losses each year.

The Child Care for Working Families Act would tackle the child care crisis head-on: ensuring families can afford the child care they need, expanding access to more high-quality options, stabilizing the child care sector and helping ensure child care workers taking care of our nation’s kids are paid livable wages. The legislation will also dramatically expand access to pre-K and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increased wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, the typical family in America will pay no more than $10 a day for child care—with many families paying nothing at all—and no eligible family will pay more than 7% of their income on child care.

The Child Care for Working Families Act would:

  • Make child care affordable for working families. 
    • The typical family earning the state median income will pay about $10 a day for child care. 
    • No working family will pay more than seven percent of their income on child care.
    • Families earning below 85% of state median income will pay nothing at all for child care.
    • If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts or Head Start agencies.
  • Improve the quality and supply of child care for all children and expand families’ child care options by:
    • Addressing child care deserts by providing grants to help open new child care providers in underserved communities.
    • Providing grants to cover start-up and licensing costs to help establish new providers.
    • Increasing child care options for children who receive care during non-traditional hours.
    • Supporting child care for children who are dual-language learners, children who are experiencing homelessness and children in foster care.
  • Support higher wages for child care workers.
    • Child care workers would be paid a living wage and achieve parity with elementary school teachers who have similar credentials and experience.
    • Child care subsidies would cover the cost of providing high-quality care.
  • Dramatically expand access to high-quality pre-K.
    • States would receive funding to establish and expand a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
    • States must prioritize establishing and expanding universal local preschool programs within and across high-need communities.
    • If a state does not choose to receive funding under this program, the Secretary can provide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts or Head Start agencies.
  • Better support Head Start programs by providing the funding necessary to offer full-day, full-year programming and increasing wages for Head Start workers.

In the Senate, the bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Lujan (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-RI).

The legislation is endorsed by: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, All Our Kin, The Center for American Progress, The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Child Care Aware of America, Community Change Action, Council for Professional Recognition, Family Value @ Work, MomsRising, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Education Association (NEA), National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Oxfam, Save the Children, Save the Children Action Network, SEIU, YWCA and Zero to Three.

The bill text of the Child Care for Working Families Act is available here.

A fact sheet on the Child Care for Working Families Act is available here. 

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