Child Care Aware® of America applauds bipartisan FY 2024 bill positioned to
support and sustain child care across the country
ARLINGTON, VA, March 21, 2024 – Congressional leaders today unveiled legislation to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. The final bill includes good news for our nation’s children, families and communities, adding $1 billion to child care and early learning over fiscal year 2023. These investments would improve affordability and access to child care while advancing compensation and supports for child care providers through investments in the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start.
Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) applauds this hard-fought deal aimed at protecting and prioritizing child care funding for families, children and communities across the country. The bill provides $21 billion for child care and early learning programs, including $8.7 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, an increase of $725 million over fiscal year 2023, as well as $12.27 billion for Head Start, a $275 million increase over fiscal year 2023.
According to recent CCAoA findings, for the vast majority of this country’s families, child care is neither affordable nor accessible. “This is a problem that we cannot afford to ignore,” shared CCAoA CEO Susan Gale Perry. “Child care is essential for children and communities to succeed, but our current funding doesn’t cover the gap between what families can afford to pay and the true cost of delivering high-quality care. This stifles the potential to grow and sustain the mix of child care options necessary to meet family, community and business needs. This much-needed funding continues to address that need. Now, we must ensure our next federal budget – which will be here before we know it – continues to prioritize child care. We’re on our way, but we still have plenty of work left to do.”
CCAoA has long fought to ensure every family in the United States has access to high-quality, affordable child care, and this essential funding will reduce barriers for families and child care providers, placing high-quality care within reach for more families in more places. We look forward to continuing to work with legislators on both sides of the aisle to build a thriving, well-supported child care and early learning system.
