Congressional Democrats recently unveiled a bill aimed at making child care more accessible, the Child Care for Working Families Act. Education Week has an informative blog post about the bill overall, but specifically related to CTE, the bill helps to grow and support the child care workforce.
In part, the bill amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990. One of the aims of the 1990 law is to improve the quality of childcare, and the Democrats’ amendments would add workforce development provisions to the list of permissible uses of funds in the existing law. Broadly, the amendments allow states to use funding for “supporting the training and professional development of the child care workforce…”
The specific provisions relevant to training and workforce development can be found on pages 35-41 of the bill. Among other uses, they include training for the nutritional, physical activity, and neurological development needs of children, and for children with disabilities. The amendments would also create or expand both apprenticeship programs and scholarships for child care providers to obtain child care-related credentials. Additionally, the bill aims to foster support for articulation agreements between 2- and 4-year public institutions of higher education to grow the child care workforce.
In the Senate, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who serves as the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is sponsoring the legislation. On the House side, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), who serves as the ranking member on the Committee on Education and the Workforce is sponsoring the bill.
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