Child Care Aware has watched with growing alarm as thousands of employees and entire functions and offices that oversee federal child care and early learning programs have been eliminated without transition plans, consideration of the impact, or transparent communication. Cutting alone is not a strategy for building a strong and efficient child care system that works well for families, child care providers, businesses, and communities.
Every state in America relies on the over $24b in federal Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start funding that helps working parents with low incomes afford child care. Federal child care and early learning funding also supports growing the supply of child care programs, building a skilled child care workforce, and improving quality learning opportunities. With federal funding also comes requirements that states ensure their child care system is a healthy and safe place for children to learn and develop.
Federal oversight and support, and the staff that manage it, ensures that states faithfully use federal funding. For example, federal oversight ensures that states conduct background checks of child care teachers and that staff in child care facilities have access to trainings in critical life-saving skills like infant-child First Aid/CPR and how to protect children from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Child Care Aware of America urges the Administration to reverse course now on child care and early learning staffing reductions and instead work with Congress on a vision and path forward for a strong child care and early learning system that:
- Respects the right of every parent to choose child care that best meets the needs of their children and family.
- Ensures that young children are healthy, nurtured, and learning while their parents are at work.
- Builds a skilled and stable child care workforce that earns enough to stay on the job and care for their own families.
- Produces enough affordable, quality child care options in every community so that children, families, businesses, and our economy flourishes.
Poll after poll show that Americans recognize our current child care system is broken, and they want action that makes it better. Working together, we can make America child care strong and that makes everyone stronger.
