September 12, 2024

Duckworth, Clark Reintroduce Bill to Expand Child Care on College Campuses, Help Parenting Students Graduate

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA-05) today reintroduced a bill to help increase access to on-campus child care for the more than 4 million parenting students currently enrolled in postsecondary education programs. Despite the growing number of parenting students in postsecondary education, access to affordable on-campus child care services has dwindled since 2004. The Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) Reauthorization Act would help reverse this trend by reauthorizing and fully funding the only federal program that exclusively supports on-campus child care services and ensure the U.S. Department of Education is meeting the needs of parenting students. Duckworth originally introduced this legislation when she was in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“As college costs continue to skyrocket, we can't simply stay on the sidelines as it gets even harder for parenting students to afford higher education,” said Senator Duckworth. “The more than 4 million college students who are also raising children already have enough to worry about—child care should not be one of them. This legislation would help increase access to child care services so parenting students can stay focused on getting an education that will help them provide a better, stronger future for their families.”

“High child care costs are holding parents back — making it impossible for many to remain in the workforce and get the education they need to get ahead. But it doesn’t have to be this way,” said House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark. “With this critical legislation, we can ensure student parents have the support they need and the fair shot they deserve.”

Parenting students already graduate with much higher levels of debt compared to non-parenting students because financial aid offerings do not cover child care. Since 2004, the number of parents enrolled in college has grown by 30 percent while on-campus childcare facilities have closed and services have been dropped. This leaves parenting students in a financial bind as they face exorbitant education costs and a lack of options for safe and affordable child care on their schools' campuses.

The Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) Reauthorization Act would:

  1. Reauthorize the CCAMPIS program through Fiscal Year 2030
  2. Authorize CCAMPIS at $500 million per year, establish the annual maximum individual grant award level at $2 million and increase the annual minimum level to $75,000
  3. Eliminate barriers for parenting students to access benefits
  4. Streamline program requirements and enhance U.S. Department of Education technical assistance to make it easier for child care providers to apply for grants
  5. Help connect parenting students to benefit programs that help with food, housing and health care services
  6. Enhance program transparency and accountability by collecting disaggregated data on the parenting students served by the program

Along with Duckworth, the legislation is co-sponsored in the Senate by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Along with Clark, the legislation is co-led in the House by U.S. Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-01), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA-34), Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-03), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO-07) and Jill Tokuda (D-HI-02).

The legislation has been endorsed by the following organizations: The Hope Center at Temple University, Young Invincibles, First Five Years Fund, National Women’s Law Center, MomsRising, Women Employed, Save the Children and Joliet Junior College.

Duckworth has been a strong supporter of expanding the CCAMPIS program. In 2019, Duckworth helped U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issue a report highlighting the challenges parenting students in college are facing while completing their degree. In the House, Clark helped lead the effort to increase funding for CCAMPIS in the annual budget as a Member of the Appropriations Committee. Now, as top House leadership, Clark champions the call to expand access to affordable child care for all Americans.

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