II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1285
To amend part A of title IV of the Social Security Act to provide funding
to sustain and increase the supply and quality of child care, access
to child care, and the child care workforce, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL3, 2025
Mr. W
YDEN(for himself, Ms. WARREN, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. SMITH, Mr.
W
ELCH, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. KIM, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. MAR-
KEY, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend part A of title IV of the Social Security Act
to provide funding to sustain and increase the supply
and quality of child care, access to child care, and the
child care workforce, 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 ‘‘Building Child Care 4
for a Better Future Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. INCREASED FUNDING FOR THE CHILD CARE ENTI-1
TLEMENT TO STATES. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 418(a)(3) of the Social 3
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 618(a)(3)) is amended to read 4
as follows: 5
‘‘(3) A
PPROPRIATION.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For grants under this 7
section, there are appropriated— 8
‘‘(i) for fiscal year 2026, 9
$20,000,000,000; and 10
‘‘(ii) for each fiscal year after fiscal 11
year 2026, the greater of— 12
‘‘(I) the amount appropriated 13
under this subparagraph for the pre-14
vious fiscal year, increased by the per-15
centage increase (if any) in the con-16
sumer price index for all urban con-17
sumers (all items; United States city 18
average) for the most recent 12- 19
month period for which data is avail-20
able; and 21
‘‘(II) the amount appropriated 22
under this subparagraph for the pre-23
vious fiscal year. 24
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‘‘(B) AMOUNTS RESERVED .—Of the 1
amount appropriated under subparagraph (A) 2
for a fiscal year— 3
‘‘(i) an amount equal to 5 percent of 4
such amount shall be available for grants 5
to Indian tribes and tribal organizations; 6
‘‘(ii) an amount equal to 4 percent of 7
such amount shall be available for grants 8
to territories; 9
‘‘(iii) an amount, not to exceed
1
⁄2of 10
1 percent of such amount, shall be re-11
served by the Secretary to support tech-12
nical assistance and dissemination activi-13
ties under paragraphs (3) and (4) of sec-14
tion 658I(a) of the Child Care and Devel-15
opment Block Grant Act of 1990; and 16
‘‘(iv) an amount equal to
1
⁄2of 1 per-17
cent of such amount appropriated may be 18
reserved by the Secretary to conduct re-19
search and demonstration activities, as well 20
as periodic external, independent evalua-21
tions of the impact of the Child Care and 22
Development Block Grant program estab-23
lished under subchapter C of chapter 8 of 24
title VI of the Omnibus Budget Reconcili-25
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ation Act of 1981 (Public Law 97–35), as 1
carried out under this subsection and 2
under such subchapter, on increasing ac-3
cess to child care services and improving 4
the safety and quality of child care serv-5
ices, using scientifically valid research 6
methodologies, and to disseminate the key 7
findings of those evaluations widely and on 8
a timely basis.’’. 9
(b) R
EDISTRIBUTION OF FUNDSRESERVED FOR 10
T
RIBALGRANTS.—Section 418(a) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 11
618(a)) is amended— 12
(1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para-13
graph (6); and 14
(2) by inserting after paragraph (4), the fol-15
lowing: 16
‘‘(5) R
EDISTRIBUTION OF UNUSED TRIBAL 17
GRANTS.— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 19
determine an appropriate procedure for redis-20
tributing the amounts described in subpara-21
graph (B) for each fiscal year to each Indian 22
tribe and tribal organization that applies for 23
such amounts, to the extent the Secretary de-24
termines that the Indian tribe or tribal organi-25
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zation will be able to use such additional 1
amounts to provide child care assistance. 2
‘‘(B) A
MOUNTS DESCRIBED .—The 3
amounts described in this subparagraph are, 4
with respect to a fiscal year, the unused 5
amounts of any payment made to an Indian 6
tribe or tribal organization under this sub-7
section for the fiscal year which the Secretary 8
determines will not be used by the Indian tribe 9
or tribal organization during the period in 10
which such payments are available to be obli-11
gated.’’. 12
(c) R
EMOVAL OFRESTRICTION ONAPPLICATION OF 13
U
PDATEDFMAP.—Section 418(a)(2)(C) of such Act (42 14
U.S.C. 618(a)(2)(C)) is amended by striking ‘‘, as such 15
section was in effect on September 30, 1995’’. 16
(d) T
ECHNICAL ANDCONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 17
Section 418 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 618(a)) is amended— 18
(1) in subsection (a)— 19
(A) in paragraph (1), in the matter pre-20
ceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘para-21
graph (3)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraph (3)(A) 22
and remaining after the application of para-23
graph (3)(B)’’; 24
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(B) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking 1
‘‘paragraph (3)(A),’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraph 2
(3)(A) and remaining after the application of 3
paragraph (3)(B) and’’; 4
(C) in paragraph (4)— 5
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 6
‘‘paragraph (3)(C)’’ and inserting ‘‘para-7
graph (3)(B)(ii)’’; and 8
(ii) by striking subparagraph (E); and 9
(D) in paragraph (6), (as redesignated by 10
subsection (b)(1)), by inserting ‘‘(as in effect on 11
June 29, 2003)’’ after ‘‘section 403(a)(1)(D)’’; 12
(2) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ‘‘by a State 13
under this section’’ and inserting ‘‘by a State, a ter-14
ritory, or an Indian tribe or tribal organization 15
under subsection (a)’’; 16
(3) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 17
following: 18
‘‘(c) A
PPLICATION OFCHILDCARE ANDDEVELOP-19
MENTBLOCKGRANTACTof 1990.—Notwithstanding any 20
other provision of law, amounts provided to a State, a ter-21
ritory, or a Indian tribe or tribal organization under sub-22
section (a) shall be transferred to the lead agency under 23
the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990, 24
integrated by the State, territory, or Indian tribe or tribal 25
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organization into the programs established by the State, 1
territory, Indian tribe or tribal organization under such 2
Act, and be subject to requirements and limitations of 3
such Act.’’; and 4
(4) by striking subsection (d) and inserting the 5
following: 6
‘‘(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
‘‘(1) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian tribe’ 8
means entities included on the list published pursu-9
ant to section 104(a) of the Federally Recognized 10
Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 5131(a)). 11
‘‘(2) S
TATE.—The term ‘State’ means each of 12
the 50 States and the District of Columbia. 13
‘‘(3) T
ERRITORY.—The term ‘territory’ means 14
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United 15
States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and 16
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is-17
lands. 18
‘‘(4) T
RIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘tribal 19
organization’ means— 20
‘‘(A) the recognized governing body of any 21
Indian tribe, and any legally established organi-22
zation of Indians which is controlled, sanc-23
tioned, or chartered by such governing body or 24
which is democratically elected by the adult 25
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members of the Indian community to be served 1
by such organization and which includes the 2
maximum participation of Indians in all phases 3
of its activities, except that in any case where 4
a contract is let or grant made to an organiza-5
tion to perform services benefitting more than 6
one Indian tribe, the approval of each such In-7
dian tribe shall be a prerequisite to the letting 8
or making of such contract or grant; and 9
‘‘(B) includes a Native Hawaiian organiza-10
tion, as defined in section 6207 of the Elemen-11
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 12
U.S.C. 7517) and a private nonprofit organiza-13
tion established for the purpose of serving 14
youth who are Indians or Native Hawaiians.’’. 15
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 16
this section take effect on October 1, 2025. 17
SEC. 3. GRANTS TO IMPROVE CHILD CARE WORKFORCE, 18
SUPPLY, QUALITY, AND ACCESS IN AREAS OF 19
PARTICULAR NEED. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 418 of the Social Security 21
Act (42 U.S.C. 618), as amended by section 2, is further 22
amended by adding at the end the following: 23
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‘‘(e) GRANTSTOIMPROVECHILDCAREWORK-1
FORCE, SUPPLY, QUALITY, ANDACCESS INAREAS OF 2
P
ARTICULARNEED.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as otherwise pro-4
vided in this subsection, the preceding provisions of 5
this section shall not apply to this subsection. 6
‘‘(2) A
PPROPRIATIONS.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For grants under this 8
subsection to improve child care workforce, sup-9
ply, quality, and access in areas of particular 10
need, there are appropriated $5,000,000,000 11
for each fiscal year. 12
‘‘(B) A
MOUNTS RESERVED .—Of the 13
amount appropriated under subparagraph (A) 14
for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall reserve— 15
‘‘(i) an amount equal to 5 percent of 16
such amount for grants to Indian tribes 17
and tribal organizations; 18
‘‘(ii) an amount equal to 4 percent of 19
such amount for grants to territories; 20
‘‘(iii) an amount, not to exceed
1
⁄2of 21
1 percent of such amount, to support tech-22
nical assistance and dissemination activi-23
ties related to improving child care work-24
force, supply, quality, and access, including 25
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in areas of particular need, under para-1
graphs (3) and (4), respectively, of section 2
658I(a) of the Child Care and Develop-3
ment Block Grant Act of 1990; 4
‘‘(iv) an amount equal to
1
⁄2of 1 per-5
cent of such amount to carry out the eval-6
uation required under paragraph (8); and 7
‘‘(v) an amount, not to exceed 3 per-8
cent of such amount, for administrative ex-9
penses of the Secretary in administering 10
this subsection. 11
‘‘(3) G
RANTS.— 12
‘‘(A) I
NDIAN TRIBES AND TRIBAL ORGANI -13
ZATIONS.—The Secretary shall use the amount 14
reserved under paragraph (2)(B)(i) for a fiscal 15
year to make grants under this subsection for 16
the fiscal year to Indian tribes and tribal orga-17
nizations in amounts that shall be allotted 18
among Indian tribes and tribal organizations in 19
proportion to their respective needs. 20
‘‘(B) T
ERRITORIES.—The Secretary shall 21
use the amount reserved under paragraph 22
(2)(B)(ii) for a fiscal year to make grants 23
under this subsection for the fiscal year to each 24
territory in amounts that shall be allotted 25
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among the territories in proportion to their re-1
spective needs. 2
‘‘(C) S
TATES.—The Secretary shall use the 3
amount appropriated under subparagraph (A) 4
of paragraph (2) for a fiscal year that remains 5
after the application of subparagraph (B) of 6
that paragraph, to make grants for the fiscal 7
year under this subsection to each State in 8
amounts that bear the same proportion to the 9
amount so remaining as the sum of the amount 10
granted under paragraph (1) of subsection (a) 11
and the amount allotted and paid under para-12
graph (2) of subsection (a) to each such State 13
for the fiscal year (without regard to amounts 14
redistributed under subparagraph (D) of sub-15
section (a)(2) for the fiscal year) bears to the 16
total amounts granted and allotted to all of the 17
States under paragraphs (1) and (2) of that 18
subsection for such fiscal year. 19
‘‘(4) I
NCORPORATION INTO CCDBG PLAN .— 20
‘‘(A) C
ONTENTS.—In order to be paid a 21
grant under this subsection for a fiscal year, 22
the lead agency of a State, territory, Indian 23
tribe, or tribal organization shall submit to the 24
Secretary, as part of the initial submission of 25
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the Child Care and Development Block Grant 1
plan for the period that includes such fiscal 2
year, or as an amendment to that plan, a de-3
scription of the planned use of grant funds 4
that— 5
‘‘(i) describes the demographic and 6
economic data and other criteria the lead 7
agency proposes to use to determine 8
whether an area is in particular need of 9
child care; 10
‘‘(ii) describes how community mem-11
bers were engaged to identify community- 12
specific needs such as diverse types of care 13
delivery, care for infant and toddlers, mul-14
tilingual care, and nontraditional oper-15
ational hours; 16
‘‘(iii) identifies specific areas deter-17
mined to be in particular need of child 18
care, where such areas are located, the size 19
and scope of such areas, and the age 20
groups of children in need of child care in 21
such areas; 22
‘‘(iv) outlines how the lead agency 23
proposes to use the grant funds to increase 24
child care workforce, supply, quality, and 25
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access for all families, including families 1
who are eligible for subsidies under the 2
Child Care and Development Block Grant 3
Act of 1990, in the areas determined to be 4
in particular need of child care through ac-5
tivities such as— 6
‘‘(I) contracting and providing 7
grants to child care providers to pay 8
for specified numbers of child care 9
slots (including slots in family child 10
care homes) and to build supply and 11
stability by including expectations for 12
compensation in the contracts and 13
grants; 14
‘‘(II) establishing or expanding 15
the operation of community or neigh-16
borhood-based family child care net-17
works by providing grants and con-18
tracts for training and other activities 19
that increase the supply and quality of 20
family child care; 21
‘‘(III) furnishing child care pro-22
viders with start-up funding, technical 23
assistance, support for improving 24
business practices, and support navi-25
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gating real estate financing and devel-1
opment processes, including leveraging 2
additional facilities financing re-3
sources; 4
‘‘(IV) providing guidance to child 5
care providers on negotiating with 6
landlords or applying for land or 7
home ownership; 8
‘‘(V) providing technical assist-9
ance to child care providers through-10
out the child care licensing process; 11
‘‘(VI) recruiting child care pro-12
viders and staff; 13
‘‘(VII) supporting the training 14
and professional development of the 15
child care workforce including through 16
apprenticeships, partnerships with 17
labor unions or labor-management 18
partnerships, and partnerships with 19
public and nonprofit institutions of 20
higher education to provide com-21
prehensive scholarships that support 22
equitable access to, and completion of, 23
credentials and degrees in early child-24
hood education; 25
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‘‘(VIII) attracting and maintain-1
ing an effective and diverse early care 2
workforce by increasing total com-3
pensation, providing wage supple-4
ments or bonuses, or offering wage 5
and retention rewards and ensuring 6
adequate wages for staff of child care 7
providers, including sole proprietors 8
and independent contractors, that, at 9
a minimum— 10
‘‘(aa) provide a living wage 11
for all staff of such child care 12
providers; and 13
‘‘(bb) are adjusted on an an-14
nual basis for cost of living in-15
creases to ensure payment rates 16
remain sufficient to meet the re-17
quirements of this subsection; 18
‘‘(IX) subject to subparagraph 19
(C), providing financial support (with-20
out regard to limitations on expendi-21
tures imposed under section 658F(b) 22
of the Child Care and Development 23
Block Grant Act of 1990) for projects 24
involving the purchase or improve-25
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ment of land, a major renovation, 1
repurposing facilities, the purchase, 2
acquisition, construction, or perma-3
nent improvement of any building or 4
facility, including major renovation 5
and minor remodeling, indoor or out-6
door modifications, including such 7
modifications to support accessibility 8
for children with disabilities, 9
predevelopment or soft costs, and for 10
projects to upgrade child care facili-11
ties to assure that providers meet 12
State and local child care standards, 13
including applicable health, safety, 14
and quality requirements; or 15
‘‘(X) subject to subparagraph 16
(C), contracting with an intermediary 17
with experience securing private 18
sources of capital financing for child 19
care facilities or other low-income 20
community development projects to 21
provide financial or managerial assist-22
ance, technical support through the 23
real estate process, including success-24
ful execution of Federal interest docu-25
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mentation, or furnishing an evaluation 1
of sustainability or operational capac-2
ity of providers; 3
‘‘(v) in the case of a State or terri-4
tory, contains an assurance that the State 5
or territory shall collaborate with respect 6
to the use of grant funds to improve child 7
care workforce, supply, quality, and access 8
in areas of particular need identified with-9
in the State or territory with each Indian 10
tribe and tribal organization in such area; 11
and 12
‘‘(vi) contains such other information 13
as the Secretary may require. 14
‘‘(B) A
PPROVAL.—The Secretary shall ap-15
prove a planned use of funds submission that 16
contains the information required under sub-17
paragraph (A), and, with respect to the pro-18
posed criteria required under subparagraph 19
(A)(i), shall accept any reasonable criteria that 20
are based on internal analyses by a lead agency 21
of a State, territory, Indian tribe, or tribal or-22
ganization or analyses by organizations with ex-23
perience in evaluating research on various ap-24
proaches to identifying areas where there is a 25
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low supply of child care that is affordable and 1
that is in particular need of child care. 2
‘‘(C) S
PECIAL RULES.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary 4
shall develop parameters on the use of 5
funds from an allotment paid under this 6
subsection for projects described in sub-7
clause (IX) or (X) of subparagraph 8
(A)(iv). 9
‘‘(ii) R
EQUIREMENT.—The param-10
eters developed under clause (i) shall pro-11
vide that, in the case of funds from an al-12
lotment paid under this subsection that are 13
used for projects described in subclause 14
(IX) or (X) of subparagraph (A)(iv)— 15
‘‘(I) for such projects involving a 16
privately-owned family child care 17
home, the Secretary shall not retain 18
any Federal interest; and 19
‘‘(II) for all other such projects, 20
the Secretary shall not retain a Fed-21
eral interest after a period of 10 22
years. 23
‘‘(iii) W
AGE RATES.—All laborers and 24
mechanics employed by contractors or sub-25
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contractors in the performance of construc-1
tion, alteration, or repair work carried out, 2
in whole or in part, with funds from an al-3
lotment paid under this subsection for 4
projects described in subparagraph (A)(iv) 5
shall be paid wages at rates not less than 6
the prevailing rates for projects of a simi-7
lar character in the locality as determined 8
by the Secretary of Labor in accordance 9
with subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 10
40, United States Code. With respect to 11
the labor standards specified in the first 12
sentence of this clause, the Secretary of 13
Labor shall have the authority and func-14
tions set forth in Reorganization Plan 15
Numbered 14 of 1950 (64 Stat. 1267; 5 16
U.S.C. App.) and section 3145 of title 40, 17
United States Code. 18
‘‘(5) O
THER FUNDING AND PAYMENT RULES .— 19
‘‘(A) A
PPROVAL AND PAYMENT DEAD -20
LINE.—The Secretary shall make quarterly pay-21
ments to the lead agency of each State, terri-22
tory, Indian tribe, and tribal organization with 23
a planned use of funds submission approved 24
under paragraph (4) from the grant determined 25
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for the State, territory, Indian tribe, or tribal 1
organization under paragraph (3) for a fiscal 2
year. 3
‘‘(B) N
O MATCHING REQUIREMENT .—Nei-4
ther subparagraph (C) of subsection (a)(2) nor 5
any other cash or in-kind matching requirement 6
shall apply to the grants paid under this sub-7
section. 8
‘‘(C) M
AINTENANCE OF EFFORT .— 9
‘‘(i) C
ERTIFICATION FUNDS WILL 10
SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT, GENERAL 11
REVENUE EXPENDITURES .—Each State 12
paid a grant under this subsection for a 13
fiscal year shall certify that the grant 14
funds will be used to supplement and not 15
supplant the level of general revenue ex-16
penditures from State, local, and other 17
non-Federal sources that are used to pro-18
vide child care assistance for low-income 19
families. 20
‘‘(ii) S
TATE MINIMUM EXPENDITURES 21
REQUIREMENT.— 22
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—Each State 23
paid a grant under this subsection for 24
a fiscal year shall certify that the 25
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State shall satisfy the required min-1
imum general revenue expenditures 2
for child care assistance for low-in-3
come families dollar amount applica-4
ble to the State for the fiscal year. 5
‘‘(II) S
TATE MINIMUM GENERAL 6
REVENUE EXPENDITURES FOR CHILD 7
CARE ASSISTANCE FOR LOW -INCOME 8
FAMILIES DOLLAR AMOUNT .—With 9
respect to a State and a fiscal year, 10
the minimum general revenue expend-11
itures for child care assistance for 12
low-income families dollar amount for 13
the State and fiscal year is— 14
‘‘(aa) in the case of the first 15
fiscal year for which the State is 16
paid a grant under this sub-17
section, the aggregate dollar 18
amount of general revenue ex-19
penditures for child care assist-20
ance for low-income families for 21
the most recent State fiscal year 22
for which data is available; and 23
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‘‘(bb) in the case of any suc-1
ceeding fiscal year, the greater 2
of— 3
‘‘(AA) the minimum 4
baseline dollar amount of 5
general revenue expenditures 6
for child care assistance for 7
low-income families applica-8
ble to the State for the pre-9
ceding year; and 10
‘‘(BB) the minimum 11
baseline dollar amount of 12
general revenue expenditures 13
for child care assistance for 14
low-income families for the 15
most recent State fiscal year 16
for which data is available. 17
‘‘(III) A
NNUAL GUIDANCE.—The 18
Secretary shall issue annual guidance 19
to States specifying— 20
‘‘(aa) the data and reporting 21
that will be required for purposes 22
of enforcing the State minimum 23
general revenue expenditures for 24
child care assistance for low-in-25
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come families dollar amount re-1
quirement under this subpara-2
graph; and 3
‘‘(bb) for each fiscal year 4
and State for which a grant is 5
paid under this subsection, the 6
minimum general revenue ex-7
penditures for child care assist-8
ance for low-income families dol-9
lar amount that is required for 10
the State and fiscal year. 11
‘‘(D) P
ERIOD FOR AVAILABILITY ; REDIS-12
TRIBUTION OF UNUSED FUNDS .— 13
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as pro-14
vided in clause (ii), the period in which the 15
funds from grants paid under this sub-16
section for a fiscal year are available for 17
expenditure, the determination as to 18
whether funds from the grant will not be 19
used, and the procedure for redistributing 20
unused funds, shall be made in the same 21
manner as if— 22
‘‘(I) in the case of 1 of the 50 23
States or the District of Columbia, 24
the funds were considered amounts al-25
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lotted to the State or District under 1
subsection (a)(2)(B) for a fiscal year; 2
‘‘(II) in the case of a territory, 3
the funds were considered a grant 4
made to the territory under subsection 5
(a)(4) for such fiscal year; and 6
‘‘(III) in the case of an Indian 7
tribe or tribal organization, the funds 8
were considered a grant made to the 9
Indian tribe or tribal organization 10
under subsection (a) for such fiscal 11
year. 12
‘‘(ii) E
XTENSION OF AVAILABILITY OF 13
FUNDS USED FOR CERTAIN PROJECTS .—If 14
funds from a grant paid under this sub-15
section are used to provide financial sup-16
port for a project described in subclause 17
(IX) or (X) of paragraph (4)(A)(iv), the 18
funds shall remain available for expendi-19
ture by the lead agency of a State, terri-20
tory, Indian tribe, or tribal organization 21
(as applicable) for a period of 5 years. 22
‘‘(E) I
NAPPLICABILITY OF TERRITORIAL 23
PAYMENT LIMITATION .—Section 1108(a) shall 24
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not apply with respect to any funds paid under 1
this subsection. 2
‘‘(6) U
SE OF FUNDS.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—To the extent per-4
mitted under this paragraph, section 658G(b) 5
of the Child Care and Development Block 6
Grant Act of 1990, and the approved planned 7
use of funds submission of the lead agency of 8
a State, territory, Indian tribe, or tribal organi-9
zation under paragraph (4), each such lead 10
agency shall use funds from a grant paid under 11
this subsection to increase child care workforce, 12
supply, quality, and access in areas determined 13
to be in particular need of child care (with ac-14
tivities provided directly, or through grants or 15
contracts with local child care resource and re-16
ferral organizations or other appropriate enti-17
ties). Activities carried out with such funds 18
shall be— 19
‘‘(i) designed to improve the quality of 20
child care services, including improving the 21
quality of the child care workforce, and in-22
crease parental options for, and access to, 23
high-quality child care, especially in areas 24
of concentrated poverty; and 25
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‘‘(ii) in alignment with the most re-1
cent statewide or tribal assessment of the 2
State’s or Indian tribe’s or tribal organiza-3
tion’s needs to carry out such services and 4
care. 5
‘‘(B) P
RIORITY.—If a lead agency chooses 6
to make grants from the funds paid under this 7
subsection, each such lead agency shall give pri-8
ority to funding child care services that will use 9
the grant to provide or coordinate services in 10
order to— 11
‘‘(i) provide child care services during 12
nontraditional hours; 13
‘‘(ii) serve dual language learners, 14
children with disabilities, children experi-15
encing homelessness, children in foster 16
care, children from low-income families, or 17
infants and toddlers; 18
‘‘(iii) serve a high proportion of chil-19
dren whose families are eligible for sub-20
sidies under the Child Care and Develop-21
ment Block Grant Act of 1990 for the 22
child care; 23
‘‘(iv) operate in rural communities 24
with a low supply of child care; 25
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‘‘(v) support child care services pro-1
vided by public entities, non-profit entities, 2
and small businesses that are at least 51 3
percent owned and controlled by individ-4
uals who are socially and economically dis-5
advantaged, as defined by the Adminis-6
trator of the Small Business Administra-7
tion; or 8
‘‘(vi) provide competitive wages and 9
support the recruitment and retention of a 10
high-quality child care workforce, including 11
through increased compensation (including 12
wages and benefits), bonuses, tuition or fee 13
support for educational attainment or pro-14
fessional development, child care appren-15
ticeship programs, or other financial incen-16
tives. 17
‘‘(C) H
EAD START AND EARLY HEAD 18
START PROGRAMS .—A lead agency may use 19
funds from a grant paid under this subsection 20
for activities or assistance under a Head Start 21
program (including an Early Head Start pro-22
gram) carried out under the Head Start Act 23
(42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.). 24
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‘‘(D) ADMINISTRATION THROUGH THE 1
CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT 2
ACTof 1990.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as pro-4
vided in clause (ii) or to the extent other-5
wise provided in this subsection, subsection 6
(c) shall apply to the grants paid under 7
this subsection in the same manner as that 8
subsection applies to amounts paid under 9
subsection (a). 10
‘‘(ii) N
ONAPPLICATION OF CERTAIN 11
USE OF FUNDS REQUIREMENTS .—The re-12
quirements of subparagraphs (D) and (E) 13
of section 658E(c)(3) of the Child Care 14
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 15
shall not apply to the grants paid under 16
this subsection. 17
‘‘(7) R
EPORTS.— 18
‘‘(A) CCDBG
REPORTS.—The lead agency 19
of each State, territory, Indian tribe, and tribal 20
organization paid a grant under this subsection 21
for a fiscal year shall include information re-22
garding how the lead agency spent the grant in 23
each monthly, quarterly, or annual report, as 24
applicable, submitted under section 658K(a)(2) 25
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of the Child Care and Development Block 1
Grant Act of 1990. The information required to 2
be collected and reported under this paragraph 3
shall be— 4
‘‘(i) in addition to, and shall not af-5
fect, reporting and data collection require-6
ments imposed under the Child Care and 7
Development Block Grant Act of 1990, in-8
cluding to the extent any information spec-9
ified under this paragraph also is required 10
to be included in a report submitted under 11
that Act; and 12
‘‘(ii) made publicly available. 13
‘‘(B) 1-
YEAR POST-AWARD REPORT.—Not 14
later than 6 months after receipt of the first 15
payment from a grant under this subsection, 16
the lead agency of the State, territory, Indian 17
tribe, or tribal organization (as applicable) shall 18
submit a report to the Secretary that includes 19
information and data (reported on such basis as 20
the Secretary shall specify) regarding— 21
‘‘(i) the supply of child care in the 22
areas determined to be in particular need 23
of child care by the lead agency, including 24
with respect to the pre-grant award assess-25
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ment of the number of Child Care and De-1
velopment Block Grant-eligible child care 2
slots reserved by grants or contracts in 3
such areas and the pre-grant award assess-4
ment of the number of providers who are 5
regulated under State law in such areas, 6
and the number of providers who are not 7
covered by or are exempt from such a reg-8
ulation but are eligible child care providers 9
providing services under the Child Care 10
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 11
(42 U.S.C. 9857 et seq.) in such areas; 12
and 13
‘‘(ii) the supply, quality, and access of 14
child care in the areas determined to be in 15
particular need of child care by the lead 16
agency. 17
‘‘(C) 3-
YEAR POST-AWARD REPORT.—Not 18
later than December 31 of the calendar year in 19
which the third fiscal year for which the lead 20
agency of a State, territory, Indian tribe, or 21
tribal organization is paid a grant under this 22
subsection ends, the lead agency shall submit a 23
report to the Secretary that includes the fol-24
lowing information: 25
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‘‘(i) Data that describes the impact of 1
expenditures of grant funds on— 2
‘‘(I) the supply of child care in 3
the areas determined to be in par-4
ticular need of child care by the lead 5
agency, including with respect to the 6
pre-grant award assessment of the 7
number of Child Care and Develop-8
ment Block Grant-eligible child care 9
slots reserved by grants or contracts 10
in such areas and the pre-grant award 11
assessment of the number of providers 12
who are regulated under State law in 13
such areas, and the number of pro-14
viders who are not covered by or are 15
exempt from such a regulation but are 16
eligible child care providers providing 17
services under the Child Care and De-18
velopment Block Grant Act of 1990 19
(42 U.S.C. 9857 et seq.) in such 20
areas; and 21
‘‘(II) the supply, quality, and ac-22
cess of child care in the areas deter-23
mined to be in particular need of child 24
care by the lead agency, and on the 25
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extent to which areas in which such 1
funds were used experienced outcomes 2
that reduced the conditions in such 3
areas which factored into such deter-4
mination. 5
‘‘(ii) Information specifying the areas 6
determined to be in particular need of 7
child care by the lead agency and the ac-8
tivities in which grant funds were used in 9
such areas. 10
‘‘(iii) Demographic data on the child 11
care providers receiving funds and on the 12
families and children served. 13
‘‘(iv) Information specifying whether 14
grant funds were used for projects de-15
scribed in subclause (IX) or (X) of para-16
graph (4)(A)(iv) and if so, the status of 17
such projects, including if such projects 18
are ongoing at the time of reporting. 19
‘‘(D) S
UBMISSION TO CONGRESS .—The in-20
formation reported in accordance with subpara-21
graphs (A), (B), and (C) shall be incorporated 22
into the biennial reports to Congress by the 23
Secretary required under section 658L(a) of the 24
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Child Care and Development Block Grant Act 1
of 1990. 2
‘‘(8) R
EGULAR EVALUATIONS .— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—From a geographically 4
diverse selection of the lead agencies paid a 5
grant under this subsection that includes rep-6
resentation of States, territories, and Indian 7
tribes and tribal organizations, the Secretary 8
regularly shall evaluate the impact of the activi-9
ties carried out by such lead agencies with re-10
spect to improving the supply and quality of 11
child care in the areas determined to be in par-12
ticular need of child care by such lead agencies. 13
‘‘(B) S
UPPLY ASSESSMENT.—In evaluating 14
the extent to which there are improvements in 15
the supply of child care in the areas determined 16
to be in particular need of child care, the Sec-17
retary shall focus on the following areas: 18
‘‘(i) General availability of child care 19
services. 20
‘‘(ii) Availability of child care services 21
that— 22
‘‘(I) are provided during non-23
traditional hours; 24
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‘‘(II) serve dual language learn-1
ers, children with disabilities, children 2
experiencing homelessness, children in 3
foster care, children from low-income 4
families, or infants and toddlers; 5
‘‘(III) serve a high proportion of 6
children whose families are eligible for 7
subsidies under the Child Care and 8
Development Block Grant Act of 9
1990; and 10
‘‘(IV) operate in rural commu-11
nities with a low supply of child care. 12
‘‘(iii) Opportunity for parental choice 13
in child care services. 14
‘‘(iv) Improvement in workforce re-15
cruitment and retention for child care serv-16
ices. 17
‘‘(C) Q
UALITY ASSESSMENT .—In evalu-18
ating the extent to which there are improve-19
ments in the quality of child care in the areas 20
determined to be in particular need of child 21
care, the Secretary shall focus on at least 5 of 22
the following areas: 23
‘‘(i) Ratios of staff to children and 24
group size. 25
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‘‘(ii) Developmentally appropriate cur-1
riculum. 2
‘‘(iii) Approaches to instruction. 3
‘‘(iv) Relationship quality between 4
children and staff. 5
‘‘(v) Children’s learning and develop-6
ment. 7
‘‘(vi) Physical environment quality 8
and ability to protect children and staff 9
from illness and injury. 10
‘‘(vii) Qualifications, experience, and 11
specialized training of staff. 12
‘‘(viii) Opportunities for staff profes-13
sional development. 14
‘‘(ix) Wages and benefits for staff. 15
‘‘(x) Ability to foster relationships 16
with families and communities. 17
‘‘(xi) Leadership and management ca-18
pacity. 19
‘‘(xii) Creating a stable work environ-20
ment for staff retention. 21
‘‘(xiii) Pursuit or earning of national 22
accreditation. 23
‘‘(D) R
EPORT.—The Secretary shall— 24
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‘‘(i) submit a report to the appro-1
priate committees of Congress regarding 2
the evaluations of the impact of the activi-3
ties carried out by lead agencies with funds 4
from grants paid under this subsection— 5
‘‘(I) within 180 days of the com-6
pletion of each such evaluation; and 7
‘‘(II) at least once every 5 years; 8
and 9
‘‘(ii) make each such report, along 10
with the data and report for each evalua-11
tion, publicly available. 12
‘‘(9) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 13
‘‘(A) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -14
GRESS.—The term ‘appropriate committees of 15
Congress’ means the Committee on Appropria-16
tions, the Committee on Ways and Means, and 17
the Committee on Education and Workforce of 18
the House of Representatives and the Com-19
mittee on Appropriations, the Committee on Fi-20
nance, and the Committee on Health, Edu-21
cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate. 22
‘‘(B) L
EAD AGENCY.—The term ‘lead 23
agency’ has the meaning given that term in sec-24
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tion 658P(9) of the Child Care and Develop-1
ment Block Grant Act of 1990.’’. 2
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section take effect on October 1, 2025. 4
Æ
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