Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization

Basic 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.

Requiring Accountability for Public Dollars: Research shows that high-quality child care can promote healthy child development and help children enter school better able to succeed. Yet within and among the states, there is a haphazard approach to child development. Despite low standards in many states, half the states use federal funds to pay for at least one-fifth of the children receiving federal subsidies to be in license-exempt care (care that is legally operating but not subject to state licensing standards or regulation).  For example, in Michigan, 66 percent of children receiving subsidies are in license-exempt care. In Oregon, 58 percent of children receiving subsidies are in license exempt care; in New York, it is 46 percent, and in Connecticut, it is 44 percent.  There is little accountability with regard to state standards, but nothing is known about the quality of license-exempt care.

To ensure that federal child care funds are spent in an accountable manner, providers receiving federal funds must meet minimum quality indicators. It makes no sense to subsidize child care in settings where there is no oversight, no knowledge of whether health and safety standards are met, as well as no knowledge of whether the adult provider has a violent or abusive history. Children need to have minimum protections, particularly when federal funds are used.

Under current CCDBG law, all states are required to have in place minimum health and safety standards for child care.  However, the lack of minimum protections for children and oversight by states has led to a wide array of safety standards among the states and little monitoring to check compliance. Given about $12 billion in government money spent on child care, and the number of hours each week that children of working mothers spend in child care (on average 36 hours), NACCRRA proposes that federal funds be restricted to safe settings that promote healthy development.

NACCRRA Recommends that Congress PROTECT CHILDREN by:

• Requiring that all paid child care providers who regularly care for unrelated children (as a business) have a comprehensive background check, including federal and state fingerprint checks; and, a check of the sex offender and child abuse registries.
• Requiring that basic health & safety standards be established and enforced;
• Requiring child care providers to have training in child development and health & safety practices;
• Requiring that low child-staff ratios be maintained;
• Requiring that an age-appropriate curriculum be used; and
• Requiring that parents be actively involved and have access to information about licensing and oversight (i.e. that state inspection results should be posted on the internet for parents to help use in making choices between child care settings for their children.

For more information about issues related to child care reauthorization, check out:  the Public Policy area of NACCRRA's Web Site.