I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1826
To implement or strengthen programs that increase the supply of quality
child care services by enhancing the wages of child care workers, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH4, 2025
Mr. C
ARBAJAL(for himself, Mr. LAWLER, Ms. DAVIDSof Kansas, and Mr.
C
ISCOMANI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To implement or strengthen programs that increase the sup-
ply of quality child care services by enhancing the wages
of child care workers, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Care Workforce 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 6
The purpose of this Act is to establish a pilot pro-7
gram to increase the supply of quality child care services 8
by providing funding to States, Indian Tribes, and Tribal 9
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 1826 IH
organizations to implement or strengthen programs to 1
supplement the wages of eligible child care workers, in 2
order to— 3
(1) attract and retain eligible child care work-4
ers; 5
(2) improve eligible child care worker well- 6
being; 7
(3) improve the quality of child care services; 8
and 9
(4) increase the availability of affordable child 10
care services. 11
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 12
In this Act: 13
(1) C
HILD CARE WORKER .—The term ‘‘child 14
care worker’’ means any individual whose primary 15
and daily focus of work is— 16
(A) providing child care services, including 17
direct care and education services, to children 18
for a family child care provider or other child 19
care provider, or a provider of early childhood 20
education, that is in compliance with any licens-21
ing or registration standards, or regulations, of 22
the State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization 23
involved; and 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 1826 IH
(B) providing the child care services in a 1
center-based or home-based setting. 2
(2) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 3
has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 4
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 5
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 6
(3) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of 7
the several States, the District of Columbia, the Vir-8
gin Islands of the United States, the Commonwealth 9
of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the 10
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 11
(4) T
RIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘‘Tribal 12
organization’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘trib-13
al organization’’ in section 658P of the Child Care 14
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 15
U.S.C. 9858n). 16
SEC. 4. PILOT PROGRAM. 17
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Health and 18
Human Services (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec-19
retary’’) shall establish a pilot program to award competi-20
tive grants to States, Indian Tribes, and Tribal organiza-21
tions to supplement the wages of eligible child care work-22
ers. 23
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 1826 IH
(b) CONSIDERATIONS.—In selecting States, Indian 1
Tribes, and Tribal organizations to receive grants under 2
this section, the Secretary shall consider— 3
(1) the number of children under the age of 5 4
residing in the State or on the Tribal land of the In-5
dian Tribe or Tribal organization; 6
(2) the number of child care workers working in 7
licensed, regulated, or registered programs in the 8
State or on the Tribal land; 9
(3) the average wage of child care workers 10
working in the State or on the Tribal land; 11
(4) the percentage of families in the State or on 12
the Tribal land who are eligible for child care sub-13
sidies under the Child Care and Development Block 14
Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9857 et seq.) but do 15
not receive the subsidies; and 16
(5) the need for additional child care workers in 17
the State or on the Tribal land. 18
(c) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible for a grant under 19
this section, a State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization 20
shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, 21
in such manner, and containing such information as the 22
Secretary may require, including— 23
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 1826 IH
(1) information showing a significant need for 1
increased numbers of child care workers and in-2
creased wages among child care workers; 3
(2) a commitment to using the grant funds to 4
supplement the wages of low-wage eligible child care 5
workers; 6
(3) a plan for using the grant funds to supple-7
ment the wages of eligible child care workers, includ-8
ing— 9
(A) the criteria that will be used to deter-10
mine which child care workers are eligible to re-11
ceive the wage supplements; 12
(B) a description of how funds will be 13
prioritized for areas with greatest need, includ-14
ing areas with overall staffing challenges, un-15
derserved geographic areas, areas with short-16
ages of programs that serve low-income children 17
and families, and areas with shortages of pro-18
grams that serve infants and toddlers, that 19
serve children with disabilities, or that offer 20
child care services during nontraditional hours; 21
and 22
(C) a description of how the wage supple-23
ments will be provided to eligible child care 24
workers (directly, through the employer, or 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•HR 1826 IH
through a trusted intermediary) and how the 1
supplements will be provided in a timely man-2
ner; 3
(4) a plan to engage in a public awareness cam-4
paign directed at eligible child care workers; 5
(5) a description of the measures that will be 6
used to assess the impact of the wage supplement 7
pilot program on attraction and retention of eligible 8
child care workers, eligible child care worker well- 9
being, child care services quality, and availability of 10
affordable child care services, provided by eligible 11
child care workers; 12
(6) a description of how the pilot program will 13
contribute to the State’s or Tribe’s overall plan for 14
increasing eligible child care worker compensation; 15
(7) a description of the plan for addressing and 16
minimizing any destabilization that may occur after 17
the grant funds are expended; and 18
(8) such other information as the Secretary 19
may require. 20
SEC. 5. USE OF FUNDS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 22
(c), a State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization that re-23
ceives a grant under section 4 shall use the grant funds 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•HR 1826 IH
solely to supplement the wages of eligible child care work-1
ers. 2
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out subsection (a), 3
a State, Indian Tribe, or Tribal organization shall— 4
(1) disburse the wage supplements to eligible 5
child care workers not less frequently than quarterly; 6
(2) target grant funding based on the areas de-7
scribed in section 4(c)(3)(B); 8
(3) provide to eligible child care workers edu-9
cation on any effect the wage supplements may have 10
on taxes or public benefit eligibility; and 11
(4) inform eligible child care workers that ac-12
ceptance, of the wage supplements, is voluntary. 13
(c) A
DMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—The State, Indian 14
Tribe, or Tribal organization may use not more than 10 15
percent of the grant funds to pay for administrative costs 16
associated with the administration of payments to eligible 17
child care workers, financial counseling for eligible child 18
care workers, including as described in subsection (b)(3), 19
and public awareness campaigns to make child care work-20
ers aware of the availability of such payments. 21
SEC. 6. EVALUATION. 22
The Secretary shall conduct an evaluation of the pilot 23
program to assess its effectiveness in— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 8
•HR 1826 IH
(1) attracting and retaining eligible child care 1
workers; 2
(2) improving eligible child care worker well- 3
being and the quality of child care services; and 4
(3) increasing the availability of affordable child 5
care services. 6
SEC. 7. REPORT. 7
Not later than 2 years after the date on which the 8
pilot program is implemented, the Secretary shall submit 9
a report to Congress containing the results of the evalua-10
tion. 11
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 12
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 13
this Act such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 14
2025 and each subsequent fiscal year. 15
SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. 16
This Act shall take effect 75 days after the date of 17
enactment of this Act. 18
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1826.IH H1826
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB