This document compiles proposals relating to child care that the 107th Congress may consider in the course of welfare reform reauthorization in 2001 or 2002. The proposals extend across the political spectrum and are gleaned from various sources as noted. Please note that the final sets of recommendations are actually found in pieces of legislation that have already been introduced.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)

1.  Continue funding the current Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) at no less than $2 billion in discretionary funds and $2.7 billion in entitlement funding. Add $200 million annually to the matching funding portion of CCDF. Maintain in the law the state's option to draw down these funds by a matching fund formula, wherein funds that are not fully matched by some states should continue to be available to other states that have drawn down all their current funds.
2. Restore the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) to $2.8 billion, maintain the Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) block grant at no less than current funding of $16.8 billion, preserve state authority to transfer up to 30 percent of the TANF block grant into CCDF, and preserve the ability to spend TANF funds directly on child care.
3. Maintain current program flexibility, i.e., allow states to obligate funds and liquidate them over time so that states can design child care plans that balance the expansion of services and new quality of care initiatives. Review deadlines for expending the discretionary, matching, and mandatory child care funds to determine if they can be improved upon.
4. Increase the number of child care providers eligible for nutrition assistance by eliminating the (eligibility) link between the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and SSBG and, instead, making the link between CACFP and SSBG, CCDF, or TANF-funded child care.
5. Continue and encourage Head Start Awards that favor full-day, full-year services that blend funds.
6. Ensure that any efforts to coordinate CCDF-funded child care and other federal programs maintain and respect parental choice in the design of these coordinated projects.
7. Evaluate future expansion of funds for afterschool and out-of-school time programs to determine their role in child care.
8. Support research that contributes to the understanding of measurable quality indicators that can be addressed at state and local levels.
9. Promote policies that encourage public and private sectors in building and sustaining an early care and education workforce that is well trained, well respected, and adequately compensated.

1. Data about child care patterns and spending should be more comprehensive, more reliable, and more timely. Specifically better data are needed to understand patterns of child care usage and to identify gaps in coverage, income and demographics of recipients, the nature and hours of care, hours of work, and parental copayments.
2. Funding streams should be less categorical and less rigid, and there should be a more stable source of key child care funding than unspent welfare funds. To facilitate longer-term policy planning (and budgeting), statutory provisions should be updated to reflect the sharp decline in welfare caseloads and the correspondingly large increases in child care spending.
3. Implement a mechanism to better coordinate Head Start with the broader world of child care so that it is relevant to working mothers and to welfare reform.
4. Eliminate unnecessary barriers to the use of child care subsidies for part-time care and for care by home-based providers, especially family or household members, e.g., policies concerning eligible providers, minimum wage payments to care in the family home, and copayment requirements. Ensure that the Fair Labor Standards Act is not applied against close relatives providing child care.
5. Replace the current federal income limit for receiving child care benefits of 85 percent of state median family income with a generalized requirement that states give priority to serving children based on financial need. The current eligibility limit is misleadingly high and causes policy and administrative confusion; in many states, waiting lists rather than pure financial need are used to ration subsidies.
6. Tie eligibility and subsidy rules more effectively to financial need, as well as family and household composition.
7. Consider cashing out child care benefits or, at least, making vouchers partially refundable. This will solve discrimination in the current system against mothers who receive child care help from other family members or who need only part-time care, and eliminate unfair bonuses to mothers who have other sources of household assistance.
8. Earmark 6 percent of CCDF expenditures and 3.2 percent of Head Start expenditures to fund a concerted effort to improve the quality of child care through, a) a national research agenda of randomized studies of best practices in child care, and b) rules that allow subsidized parents to spend more of their own money on child care and, in response, to have the provider receive a high payment from the government.
9. Whether additional child care funding is needed should be determined in light of specific factors, specifically whether resolution of policy issues results in: a) fuller participation of income eligible families, b) greater use of licensed and center-based care, c) an increase in mandatory activities for welfare recipients so that more mothers will need care for their children, d) a reduction in the amount of unspent welfare funds available for child care, and e) an increase in the number of working poor.

1. Restore the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) to $2.38 billion, as provided in S. 685, Strengthening Working Families Act of 2001, to add to the availability of resources for child care.
2. Encourage employer-sponsored child care through a tax credit such as that provided in Title V of S. 685.
3. Increase the funding level of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in FY 2002 by $1 billion. This increase should be part of an annual Congressional commitment to narrowing the gap between the children who receive CCDBG aid and the number who need it.
4. Ensure that CCDBG funds are available to address the urgent need for more child care facilities to provide non-traditional hours of service so that poor families will not be forced to settle for substandard child care arrangements.

Restore the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) to $2.38 billion, as provided in S. 685, Strengthening Working Families Act of 2001, to add to the availability of resources for child care.

1. Increase the amount of federal resources specifically dedicated to child care through the CCDF and maintain the flexibility states currently have to access TANF dollars for child care.
2. Eliminate the distinction between assistance and nonassistance child care and classify all expenditures for child care with TANF funds as nonassistance.
3. Ensure that TANF funds used for child care are fully subject to CCDF data collection requirements.
4. Review CCDF data collection requirements with a focus on simplifying and improving the policy relevance of data collected. As states above, the same data elements should then be made generally applicable to TANF-funded child care assistance, and states should be strongly encouraged to collect the same core data for state-funded child care assistance.

S. 1 (Sen. James Jeffords, I-VT) and H.R. 1 (Rep. John Boehner, R-OH), Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Reauthorization Bill. (Passed both Chambers and currently in conference committee, this legislation deals with broad educational subject matter, including funding for afterschool programs.)

1. S. 1:  Provide an additional $1.5 billion for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) for FY 2002 and an additional $500 million each year up to $4.5 billion in FY 2008. Funding would be block granted; it would be distributed to seven states and 25 school districts.
2. H.R. 1: Provide substantially less in additional funding, including for the 21st CCLS program.

1. (Title V) Encourage employer-sponsored child care through a tax credit that can be used for up to 10 percent of qualified child care resource and referral expenditures, and for up to 25 percent of qualified child care expenditures. Services cannot discriminate in favor of higher compensated employees. Qualified expenditures can include acquiring, constructing, rehabilitating, or expanding property to be used as part of a child care facility, and operating costs, including employee training, scholarship programs, and increased compensation to employees with higher levels of child care training. A qualified child care facilities must meet all state regulations and licensing requirements. The tax credit cannot exceed $150,000 for any taxable year.
2. Restore the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) to $2.38 billion to add to the availability of resources for child care.

1. Provide full funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Head Start, including a gradually increasing pool of funds for infants and toddlers in CCDBG and expanded funding for Early Head start to serve 25 percent of eligible children ages 0 to three.
2. Expand the amount of money set aside in CCDBG for improving the quality of child care from 4 to 12 percent of total funds.
3. Increase rates paid to child care providers.
4. Expand access by child care teachers to professional development programs.
5. Create a new program to increase compensation, improve facilities, and expand access to resource and referral programs.
6. Require states to make two unannounced visits per year to all providers receiving federal child care funds.
7. Require all child care providers receiving CCDBG funds to have child development training.
8. Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and make it refundable. Increase the current credit from a maximum of $720 for one child age 12 and younger to $1,200 for one child age 13 or younger, and from a maximum of $1,440 for two or more children to $2,400.
9. Increase funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

Amend CCDBG to provide incentive grants to improve the quality of child care. Increase funding for this purpose by $500 million for FY 2002 and as needed in future years. Grants would be provided to states that have conducted market rate surveys in the last two years and that will increase payment rates in accordance with the survey results. A 25 percent state match would be required.

Provide yearly stipends to child care providers with appropriate early childhood training. Funding--$5 billion over five years--would be allocated to all states based on the formula in CCDBG, taking into account state poverty levels and number of young children. A state match would increase from 10 percent to 25 percent of the five years. Administration could be at the state or local level.

Extend to 2002 the allowance on CACFP, the nutrition assistance program for for-profit child care centers having at least 25 percent of their enrolled children eligible for free or reduced price school lunch, in order to ensure that such child care programs in states not using Title XX funds are eligible.