GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 281
Short Title: Essential Relief for Child Care Act. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Chitlik, Robinson, and Bradley (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
March 17, 2025
*S281 -v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO CONTINUE FUNDING FOR CHILD CARE STABILIZATION GRANTS. 2
Whereas, accessible child care is essential for the continued growth of North 3
Carolina's economy; and 4
Whereas, there is bipartisan consensus that child care must be a focus of the 5
2025-2027 legislative biennium; and 6
Whereas, one in five employers cite child care issues as a barrier to hiring; and 7
Whereas, the cost of operating a child care facility continues to rise even as parents' 8
ability to afford it declines; and 9
Whereas, child care providers and the families they serve have not recovered from 10
the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; and 11
Whereas, the failure to continue to provide for child care stabilization grants will lead 12
to the closure of an estimated 20% of all child care facilities in our State within the next year; 13
and 14
Whereas, we affirm that State investment in our child care providers is an investment 15
in the economic development of current and future generations; Now, therefore, 16
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 17
SECTION 1. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of 18
Health and Human Services, Division of Child Development and Early Education (Division), the 19
sum of fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2024-2025 fiscal year to 20
continue the compensation grants portion of the child care stabilization grants. The Division shall 21
continue the compensation grants portion of the child care stabilization grants through the fourth 22
quarter at the current 2024-2025 fiscal year level. 23
SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law. 24