I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 581
To assist States in carrying out projects to expand the child care workforce
and child care facilities in the States, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY21, 2025
Mr. H
ARDERof California (for himself and Mr. FITZPATRICK) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and
Workforce
A BILL
To assist States in carrying out projects to expand the child
care workforce and child care facilities in the States,
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
and Facilities Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. CHILD CARE WORKFORCE AND FACILITIES GRANTS. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 7
(1) C
HILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT BLOCK 8
GRANT ACT OF 1990 DEFINITIONS .—The terms ‘‘eli-9
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gible child care provider’’, ‘‘Indian Tribe’’, ‘‘Tribal 1
organization’’ and ‘‘State’’ have the meanings given 2
the terms in section 658P of the Child Care and De-3
velopment Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 4
9858n). 5
(2) C
HILD CARE DESERT .—The term ‘‘child 6
care desert’’ means— 7
(A) an area— 8
(i) within a census tract; and 9
(ii) in which the number of children 10
who are under age 5 (as determined using 11
the most recent American Community Sur-12
vey 1-year Estimates, as published by the 13
Bureau of the Census) is more than 3 14
times the number of slots provided by child 15
care providers who are licensed or reg-16
istered by the State involved; or 17
(B) a community that the State or Tribal 18
entity involved determines has a low supply of 19
quality, affordable child care. 20
(3) F
AMILY CHILD CARE PROVIDER .—The term 21
‘‘family child care provider’’ means such a provider 22
that is described in paragraph (6)(A) of section 23
658P of the Child Care and Development Block 24
Grant Act of 1990. 25
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(4) LICENSED FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME .— 1
The term ‘‘licensed family child care home’’ means 2
a facility of a family child care provider. 3
(5) P
ORTABLE CREDENTIAL ; STACKABLE CRE-4
DENTIAL.—The terms ‘‘portable’’ and ‘‘stackable’’, 5
used with respect to a credential, have the meanings 6
given the terms in the guidance document entitled 7
‘‘Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 8
15–10’’, issued by the Assistant Secretary for Em-9
ployment and Training of the Department of Labor 10
on December 15, 2010. 11
(6) P
OSTSECONDARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITU -12
TION.—The term ‘‘postsecondary educational institu-13
tion’’ means an institution of higher education, as 14
defined in section 102 of the Higher Education Act 15
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002). 16
(7) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 17
the Secretary of Health and Human Services, after 18
consultation with the Secretary of Education and 19
the Secretary of Labor. 20
(8) T
RIBAL AREA.—The term ‘‘Tribal area’’ 21
means a reservation or other area that is served by 22
a Tribal entity. 23
(9) T
RIBAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘Tribal entity’’ 24
means an Indian Tribe or Tribal organization. 25
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(b) GRANTS TOSTATES ANDTRIBALENTITIES.— 1
(1) G
RANTS.— 2
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 3
make grants to States and Tribal entities on a 4
competitive basis under subparagraph (B) to 5
pay for the Federal share of the cost of car-6
rying out projects described in this Act, in 7
order to increase access to quality child care, by 8
eligible child care providers, in the States and 9
Tribal areas. 10
(B) T
YPES OF GRANTS.—In making those 11
grants, the Secretary may make— 12
(i) a child care workforce grant for a 13
State or Tribal project to develop and ex-14
pand the workforce of eligible child care 15
providers in child care deserts in the State 16
or Tribal area; or 17
(ii) a child care facility grant for a 18
State or Tribal project through which a 19
State or Tribal entity may use or disburse 20
the grant funds, including by making 21
loans, for the construction, expansion, or 22
renovation of facilities of eligible child care 23
providers, including licensed family child 24
care homes of family child care providers 25
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(including combinations of such providers) 1
who are eligible child care providers, in 2
child care deserts in the State or Tribal 3
area. 4
(C) P
ERIOD OF GRANTS .—The Secretary 5
shall make a grant under this paragraph for a 6
period of not more than 5 years. 7
(2) A
PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 8
grant under this subsection, a State or Tribal entity 9
shall submit an application to the Secretary for a 10
project described in paragraph (1) at such time, in 11
such manner, and containing a plan that contains 12
such information related to the project as the Sec-13
retary may reasonably require, including— 14
(A) information identifying the lead State 15
agency that will administer the grant as deter-16
mined by the Governor of the State, including 17
whether the lead agency will be different from 18
the lead agency referred to in section 658D of 19
the Child Care and Development Block Grant 20
Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858b), or cor-21
responding information for a lead Tribal agency 22
in the case of a Tribal area; 23
(B) in the case of a child care workforce 24
grant— 25
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(i) information specifying how the 1
project carried out under the grant will in-2
crease the number of individuals attaining 3
stackable and portable credentials in child 4
care or early childhood education; 5
(ii) information describing how the 6
State or Tribal agency will emphasize the 7
provision of— 8
(I) outreach to individuals who 9
do not have degrees from postsec-10
ondary educational institutions, re-11
garding career pathways to careers in 12
child care or early childhood edu-13
cation; and 14
(II) outreach to individuals who 15
seek a career working with children, 16
but who have not completed the re-17
quirements for, or cannot afford to 18
obtain, a degree from a postsecondary 19
educational institution in education, 20
child care, or early childhood edu-21
cation; 22
(iii) information describing how the 23
project will provide assistance, including 24
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assistance described in paragraph (3)(A), 1
to individuals— 2
(I) who are pursuing or with 3
such project assistance would pursue 4
secondary education, postsecondary 5
education, or training, that leads to a 6
recognized postsecondary credential 7
(as defined in section 3 of the Work-8
force Innovation Opportunity Act (29 9
U.S.C. 3102)), and that is eligible for 10
support under the Carl D. Perkins 11
Career and Technical Education Act 12
of 2006 (20 U.S.C. 2301 et seq.) or 13
the Workforce Innovation and Oppor-14
tunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.), 15
to enable the individuals to success-16
fully complete the education or train-17
ing involved; or 18
(II) who are pursuing or with 19
such project assistance would pursue 20
secondary education, postsecondary 21
education, or training, that meets 22
such requirements as the State or 23
Tribal entity shall specify, even if the 24
education or training does not lead to 25
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credit toward such a recognized post-1
secondary credential or a degree from 2
a postsecondary educational institu-3
tion; 4
(iv) information describing how the 5
project will— 6
(I) increase the availability of 7
quality child care provided by eligible 8
child care providers in child care 9
deserts (referred to in this clause as 10
‘‘target child care’’) in the State or 11
Tribal area; 12
(II) address the affordability of 13
target child care; and 14
(III) address the provision of tar-15
get child care during nontraditional 16
hours; 17
(v) information describing how the 18
project will increase access to quality child 19
care provided by eligible child care pro-20
viders in centers or other child care facili-21
ties; 22
(vi) information describing how the 23
project will enhance retention or compensa-24
tion of eligible child care providers; and 25
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(vii) a description of how the State 1
agency or Tribal entity will— 2
(I) coordinate activities carried 3
out under the child care workforce 4
grant with activities carried out under 5
the Carl D. Perkins Career and Tech-6
nical Education Act of 2006 (20 7
U.S.C. 2301 et seq.) and the Work-8
force Innovation and Opportunity Act 9
(29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) to support 10
education and training described in 11
clause (iii)(I); 12
(II) leverage funds provided 13
under the Acts specified in subclause 14
(I) to support that education and 15
training; and 16
(III) utilize, and encourage indi-17
vidual participants in projects sup-18
ported under this subsection to utilize, 19
available Federal and State financial 20
assistance, including assistance avail-21
able under the Workforce Innovation 22
and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3101 23
et seq.), education assistance benefits 24
available to veterans, and Federal Pell 25
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Grants available under section 401 of 1
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 2
U.S.C. 1070a), prior to using assist-3
ance made available under this Act; 4
and 5
(C) in the case of a child care facility 6
grant— 7
(i) information, with respect to the 8
child care facility project involved, de-9
scribed in clause (v) of subparagraph (B); 10
(ii) information on how the State or 11
Tribal entity will use the grant funds to 12
expand the supply of family child care pro-13
viders (including combinations of such pro-14
viders); and 15
(iii) information describing how the 16
project will— 17
(I) directly and indirectly, in-18
crease the availability of quality child 19
care provided by eligible child care 20
providers in child care deserts (re-21
ferred to in this clause as ‘‘target 22
child care’’) in the State or Tribal 23
area, including through the construc-24
tion, expansion, or renovation of child 25
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care facilities, including center-based 1
child care facilities and licensed family 2
child care homes; 3
(II) address the affordability of 4
target child care; and 5
(III) address the provision of tar-6
get child care during nontraditional 7
hours. 8
(3) U
SE OF FUNDS.— 9
(A) C
HILD CARE WORKFORCE GRANTS .—A 10
State or Tribal entity that receives a child care 11
workforce grant under paragraph (1)(B)(i) may 12
use the funds made available through the grant 13
to support programs that assist individuals in 14
obtaining the education or training described in 15
paragraph (2)(B)(iii)(I), or education or train-16
ing described in paragraph (2)(B)(iii)(II), in-17
cluding using the funds to defray any of the fol-18
lowing costs of related instruction: 19
(i) Tuition and fees. 20
(ii) Cost of textbooks, equipment, cur-21
riculum development, and other required 22
educational materials. 23
(iii) Cost of creating or expanding ca-24
pacity for statewide, regional, or local child 25
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care resource and referral organizations, or 1
similar entities, to conduct outreach, tech-2
nical assistance, or State-recognized and 3
credentialed training. 4
(iv) Cost of any other item or service 5
determined by the State or Tribal entity to 6
be necessary. 7
(B) C
HILD CARE FACILITY GRANTS .—A 8
State or Tribal entity that receives a child care 9
facility grant under paragraph (1)(B)(ii) may 10
use the funds made available through the grant 11
to increase the availability of quality child care 12
as described in paragraph (2)(C)(iii)(I) by con-13
structing, expanding, or renovating child care 14
facilities, including using the funds to defray 15
any of the following costs: 16
(i) Cost of equipment or materials. 17
(ii) Cost of construction, expansion, or 18
renovation. 19
(iii) Cost of any other item or service 20
determined by the State or Tribal entity to 21
be necessary. 22
(4) A
DMINISTRATIVE COSTS .—The State or 23
Tribal entity that receives a grant under paragraph 24
(1) may use not more than 10 percent of the grant 25
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funds for administrative costs relating to carrying 1
out a project described in paragraph (1). 2
(c) F
EDERALSHARE.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Federal share of the 4
cost described in subsection (b)(1) shall be 50 per-5
cent. 6
(2) N
ON-FEDERAL SHARE.—The State or Trib-7
al entity may make the non-Federal share avail-8
able— 9
(A) in cash or in-kind, fairly evaluated, in-10
cluding plant, equipment, or services; and 11
(B) directly or through donations from 12
public or private entities (other than recipients 13
of assistance from a State or Tribal entity 14
under this section). 15
(d) E
VALUATION ANDREPORT.— 16
(1) E
VALUATION.—The Secretary shall conduct 17
an evaluation of the activities carried out under the 18
grants, which shall include an analysis of— 19
(A) with respect to the child care work-20
force grants— 21
(i) the characteristics of the individ-22
uals benefitting from the grants; 23
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(ii) the progress of such individuals in 1
attaining stackable, portable credentials; 2
and 3
(iii) the progress the States and Trib-4
al entities have achieved through the 5
grants in enhancing retention and com-6
pensation of eligible child care providers; 7
(B) with respect to the child care facilities 8
grants, the number and location of facilities 9
benefitting from the grants; and 10
(C) the overall impact of the grants made 11
under this section on the number and con-12
centration of child care deserts across the Na-13
tion. 14
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 15
end of the grant period of the first child care work-16
force or child care facility grant the Secretary makes 17
under subsection (b)(1), the Secretary shall submit 18
a report to Congress that contains the findings of 19
the evaluation. 20
(e) P
OLICY OF THEUNITEDSTATES.—It is the pol-21
icy of the United States that funds made available to a 22
State or Tribal entity under this section should be used 23
to supplement and not supplant other funds available 24
under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Edu-25
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cation Act of 2006 (20 U.S.C. 2301 et seq.) and the 1
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 2
3101 et seq.) and other Federal and State funds available 3
to the State or Tribal entity to support programs to de-4
velop or expand the child care workforce or to construct, 5
expand, or renovate child care facilities. 6
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 7
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 8
this Act a total of $100,000,000 for fiscal years 2025 9
through 2031. 10
Æ
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