On April 22, 2021, the Child Care for Working Families Act (CCWFA) was reintroduced by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in the U.S. Senate and by Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The CCWFA amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act and the Head Start Act to increase access to high quality early learning services by improving the quality and supply of child care services and preschool programs, incentivizing a highly skilled child care workforce, and lowering child care costs for working families.
In addition, the CCWFA contains several provisions aimed at removing barriers for children and families experiencing homelessness, and improving long-term outcomes. These provisions are summarized below:
- Children who are found to be experiencing homelessness or are in foster care at the time of enrollment will remain eligible for child care until the child reaches the age of compulsory school attendance.
- States must include on their application a description of how they will coordinate child care services with programs such as the McKinney-Vento Act, IDEA, Head Start, and home visiting programs.
- States must provide an assurance that all preschool programs funded through the CCWFA will adopt policies and practices to provide expedited enrollment and prioritization to children experiencing homelessness, and other groups including children in foster care, and migratory children, and also conduct outreach to these families.
- States must prepare annual reports for HHS including data on the number and percentage of children enrolled in eligible preschool programs, disaggregated by race, family income, the child’s age, children’s housing status, and whether the child is in foster care.
- States must prepare annual reports for HHS including data on the number and percentage of children enrolled in public kindergarten programs, disaggregated by race, family income, the child’s age, children’s housing status, whether the child is in foster care, including information on whether or not the programs are full-day and whether or not they are offered at no cost to families.
- Lead state agencies must submit a plan that describes how it will ensure that families experiencing homelessness, as well as families with limited internet connectivity access, families in rural areas, families with dual language learners, and families where there is an individual with disabilities, have access to low-barrier enrollment and re-enrollment.
- States must use quality child care amounts for activities that improve access to child care for children experiencing homelessness and children in foster care, including immediate enrollment, training and technical assistance on identifying and serving these children, and conducting outreach to these families. (Note: this provision is also in current law.)
- States must use quality child care amounts to provide training and professional development that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for child care workers, Head Start, and Early Head Start workers, including offering specialized training for child care providers who are caring for children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, dual language learners, and children with disabilities.
- States must use “quality child care amounts” to improve availability of and access to child care services, and ensure that priority access to services through the highest tier of providers is given to children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, very low-income families, dual language learners, and children with disabilities.
- Lead state agencies must submit a child care equity review every three years that:
- Contains information on the percentage of children who received child care services, disaggregated by status as a homeless child, status as a foster child, status as a dual language learner, status as a child with disabilities, age, family income and race/ethnicity.
- Contains information on the quality of child care services received by children, disaggregated by status as a homeless child, status as a foster child, status as a dual language learner, status as a child with disabilities, age, family income and race/ethnicity, (unless disaggregation reveals personally identifiable information about a provider or child).
- Changes definition of an eligible child to include children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, and children who are in contact with protective services.
Find a fact sheet of the legislation here.
Read the full text of the legislation here.