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An estimated 1 million+ children could benefit from the child care and early education proposal recently released by U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) for inclusion in the federal budget reconciliation package. The new framework, which includes $72 billion in additional Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds, will provide direct support to children and families and build up the supply of child care, including by investing in the child care workforce. The resources will be distributed to every state and territory. States can use these investments to address the nation's ongoing child care crisis and expand access to child care and preschool. These funds would lower costs and expand access for families, increase the supply of quality providers, and raise wages for early educators. In addition to the $72 billion investment in CCDBG, the proposal includes funding to create a pilot program that would expand child care assistance; increase access to preschool and Head Start; and raise Head Start teacher wages. Through the pilot program, states would have the opportunity to further expand access and affordability to reach families with higher incomes and cap families' child care expenses at 7 percent of annual income-- the federally established benchmark for affordable child care. The $72 billion in additional CCDBG funding is allocated over 6 years at $12 billion per year--with $9 billion annually to expand access to families and $3 billion annually for child care workforce compensation and supply building. The table presented in this fact sheet provides state-by-state estimates of allocations of the CCDBG funding and the potential number of children who could be served.

The Build Back Better (BBB) Act's "Birth through Five Child Care and Early Learning Program," would provide access to child care for approximately 20 million children and free universal preschool for 6 million children. The bill's historic investments would also improve the quality of programs, increase pay for providers, and reduce child care costs for families. This robust funding allows states to make policy decisions, without the harmful trade-offs, that often result from limited resources. Historically, significant underfunding and a scarcity mindset has driven state policymakers to make difficult decisions about how to allocate limited resources despite an increasing need throughout the system. And, in doing so, policymakers have too often overlooked the children and families who have been deeply impacted by these trade-offs and are in most need. This report discusses historical racial inequities, how the BBB Act's significant funding will be foundational to creating an equitable child care and early education system, and why the act offers an important step toward addressing ongoing systemic and structural inequities that deeply harm children, families, and providers of color.

The most recent version of the Build Back Better (BBB) Act includes historic investments in child care and preschool totaling $390 billion. These investments create a child care entitlement for most children from birth through age five and universal pre-kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds, which would provide significant increases to access for families and children, improve the quality of the programs, and increase pay and support for providers. The U.S. House of Representatives passed this bill on November 19, 2021. The measure is now being considered by the Senate. This brief outlines key provisions of "Section 23001 Birth Through Five Child Care and Early Learning Entitlement" and "Section 23002 Universal Preschool" included in the Build Back Better Act. [For the executive summary to this brief, see ED617024.]

Data collected from across the child care and early education (CCEE) field, both during and prior to COVID-19, have been critical for identifying and scaling public resources to meet the increasing needs of children, families, early educators, and providers. Much of the data collected throughout the global health crisis demonstrated how the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing inequities for communities with low incomes. Central to closing this disconnect and moving toward a more equitable system are equitable community engagement frameworks that center and elevate the voices and needs of those who are directly impacted. By expanding data strategies to include the following recommendations and centering equitable community engagement frameworks as the core of these strategies, policymakers can have a lasting impact on how states support the range of CCEE needs across communities--and specifically within communities of color. Recommendations include: (1) Integrating data across state agencies to better understand and meet community needs and create aligned CCEE resources; (2) Using data to physically map resources through spatial analyses to gauge and increase equitable access to appropriate resources; and (3) Making data accessible, usable, and inclusive for practitioners, families, and advocates; not just researchers, administrators, policy analysts, and policymakers. States must prioritize funding to address the gaps and disconnects in how communities of color are engaged in decision making and the data processes that inform those decisions--both now and beyond COVID-19. [For the corresponding Fact Sheet, see ED617029.]

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how critical child care is for families while also highlighting and exacerbating the existing inequities in the sector. Even as schools are beginning to reopen, continued investment in school-age care is essential to meet families' needs and address the long-standing inequities that children, families, and providers have faced. To ensure that parents--especially mothers--who wish to work can remain or return to the workforce, the nation must strengthen the infrastructure of the child care sector, including school-age child care, through public investment. Fortunately, Congress and the administration are beginning to address these significant, long-overlooked needs with numerous viable and meaningful proposals now on the table including options that would have a tremendous, positive impact on school-age children's access to care. Policymakers must continue making large-scale investments in the sector to ensure that all children, including school-age children, can access the care they need. By prioritizing significant investments in child care, policymakers can secure a strong economic recovery and support establishing an infrastructure that creates a more equitable, sustainable child care system.

Data collected from across the child care and early education (CCEE) field, both during and prior to COVID-19, have been critical in helping policymakers identify and scale public resources to meet the increasing needs of children, families, early educators, and providers. Much of the data collected throughout the global health crisis has shown how the pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequities for communities with low incomes. As states seek to implement strategies to identify and address these inequities, program administrators and researchers must expand data strategies beyond disaggregating outcomes by race/ethnicity. The authors propose a set of recommendations for expanding data strategies. When coupled with equitable community engagement frameworks, these expanded data strategies can have a lasting impact on how states support the range of CCEE needs across communities--and specifically within communities of color. [For the full report, see ED617028.]

The Build Back Better Act (BBB) will provide significant transformative funding to support the fragile child care and pre-kindergarten (pre-K) sectors and more equitably serve America's children, families, and child care workers. In Understanding the Child Care and Pre-K Provisions in the Build Back Better Act, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) outlines these provisions in detail (BBB Act Section 23001, Birth Through Five Child Care and Early Learning Entitlement; and Section 23002, Universal Preschool). Using a question-and-answer format, the full brief reviews specific funding levels and mechanisms; how states, tribes, territories, providers, and families can access these transformative investments; and other important provisions. This executive summary presents a summary on the following: (1) Historic federal investments will help states strengthen and expand child care and pre-K programs; (2) Child care and pre-K will become more affordable for more families under the BBB Act; and (3) How this legislation will improve the availability and quality of child care and pre-K programs. [For the full brief, see ED617023.]