Senate Panel Examines Child Care and Early Education Reform

On July 26, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families held a hearing, “CCDBG Reauthorization: Helping to Meet the Child Care Needs of American Families.” The hearing focused on the reauthorization of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act (P.L. 101-508) and examined reforms needed to improve child care quality and access across the country.

"Parents across the nation want child care that is safe, affordable, accessible and high-quality. That's what parents expect. That's what children deserve,” said Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) in her opening statement. She continued, “At the federal level, we expect far too little. In CCDBG, we have no expectation that child care workers have pre-service training; no expectation that providers who get federal tax dollars have regular inspections or background checks, no expectation that CCDBG programs promote healthy development cognitively, emotionally, or physically…We want to accomplish four things: increase participation of low-income and other vulnerable children in high-quality child care, promote stable and continuous care, ensure program integrity and accountability so that parents have peace of mind, and improve overall quality and coordination of early childhood programs. Through these efforts, we are fighting for children to succeed in school and beyond."

Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-NC) echoed Sen. Mikulski’s call for CCDBG reform in his opening statement: “I believe there are basic upgrades we can make to this program that give us and parents the peace of mind that when they drop their kids off and head off to their jobs, their children are safe. Like most people, I’d like to ensure that every low-income parent who needs child care in order to maintain work and be a productive member of society gets it. But as the waiting lists in many states show, the demand is far outstripping our limited ability to supply care. Meanwhile, we know that nearly 1.7 million children currently receiving subsidies are not receiving quality care. And in some cases, are in conditions unbefitting to federal taxpayer investment. Stories of children dying in locked vans, conditions in facilities that lack basic health and safety protections, are heartbreaking to me, and to most. In this time of limited federal resources, examples of this type of abuse of the public’s and the parents’ trust that children are being well-served cry for this program to be reformed.”

Linda Smith, deputy assistant secretary and interdepartmental liaison for early childhood development at the Administration for Children and Families, discussed the importance of legislation to reauthorize the CCDBG program: “Reforming the CCDBG Act is a critical part of our nation’s efforts to support low-income working families and to close the achievement gap by improving the early learning opportunities of children at risk of falling behind in school. Over the past three years, the Obama Administration has worked to ensure that more low-income children receive high-quality early care and education…Reauthorizing the CCDBG Act provides an opportunity to build upon these efforts by improving the early learning and afterschool opportunities for millions of low-income children in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and hundreds of tribal communities.” She continued, highlighting parts of the administration’s proposal: “The administration’s reauthorization principles preserve state flexibility inherent within the block grant structure, while establishing a foundation that will assure health and safety in child care and a systemic framework through which states and communities can improve the quality of child care. This includes increasing the share of dollars dedicated to quality improvement and incorporating into statute existing quality set-asides included in appropriations language. We also need to ensure that states have effective state monitoring systems and protocols to ensure that providers meet regulatory requirements established by the state. The key principles of our reauthorization proposal align closely with much of the administration’s work on improving opportunities for early learning in child care and education programs. These principles remove barriers to coordination with programs such as Head Start and state pre-kindergarten to allow states and communities to better address the comprehensive needs of children and families.”

During her testimony, Janet Singerman, president of Child Care Resources, Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina, discussed the need for child care reforms despite current fiscal restraints: “Of course, we need significantly greater investment in child care and early education than is currently available and I am told that the subcommittee is considering reauthorizing CCDBG without such additional investment. While I support reauthorization, I am deeply concerned that the current economic environment and national priorities will not provide sufficient additional funding to significantly increase access to high quality child care, particularly for poor families. Even in times of scarcity, our federal government can and should put forward legislation that can improve the uneven array of child care that is available to families across our nation.” She continued, addressing child care subsidy accountability: “Congress will have to decide if it is better to ensure access to quality care for low-income children or continue along the path of allowing subsidies to be used for any care available. Without significant increases, access to quality care is not possible without serving fewer children. I would like to see more children served. At the same time, I think serving children better is an important policy goal. Given the current fiscal constraints, it is not an easy decision for Congress. But, I do think it is important to serve children well and have accountability for subsidy funding whereby the government knows it is purchasing safe quality settings for children. In most states, we do not know the quality of care that families using a subsidy access. I think that’s wrong. I think subsidies should be tracked to ensure that our policy goals are aligned.”

Dr. Rolf Grafwallner, assistant state superintendent at the Maryland State Department of Education, spoke about the need to integrate and coordinate child care and family support programs: “From a state perspective, access to subsidized early care and education could be expanded to more middle-income families if the CCDBG reauthorization were to coordinate its policies with those of Head Start, also administered out of the Administration for Children and Families, in terms of funding and performance standards. Over the past decade, there have been innovative models, where both child care and Head Start funding were supporting early childhood centers that benefitted more children in terms of financial support and providing a better learning environment as a result of the child care programs not only meeting licensing standards, but adopting the more stringent Head Start performance standards. These models meet the test of expanded access and higher quality. CCDBG reauthorization could turn these integrated models into business as usual. This approach should be coupled with a requirement to not only allow states to access Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funds for child care subsidy, but to require that, at a minimum, ten percent of the state’s TANF funds be reserved for child care subsidy. Such an approach would integrate the school readiness mission of a child care/Head Start model with the family support model of all the TANF programs. The first rule of order should probably be a reorganization of the existing programs to allow for a more streamlined and consistent support for children and their families. The reauthorization of the CCDBG can play a historic role in this effort.”

Philip Acord, executive director of the Children's Home in Chattanooga, TN, and Susana Coro, assistant teacher at Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center in Falls Church, VA, also testified.