Policy Updates

5/13/22

This month, the United States Senate will decide if they will send money for child care to every state.

The Senate can secure money for child care through the process known as Reconciliation. This process is how Congress directs Senate committees to adjust their spending. Since the Senate would not pass the Build Back Better Act, which provided full child care funding, the Reconciliation is our only option for child care funding this year.  

We remain hopeful that the Senate will approve the package before Memorial Day. We need to make sure that we can count on every Democrat in the Senate to vote yes!

Here’s the Latest Update on the Senate’s Plan:

Senator Murray, Senator Kaine, and others are proposing $150 – $200 billion for child care in the federal reconciliation package to:

• Help more families get the care they need
• Give child care providers with better pay, including Head Start teachers 
• Improve child care facilities
• Make sure that families do not spend more than 7% of their incomes on child care
• Give grants to states for preschool programs for three- and four-year-olds

Our allies at Child Care Aware, the National Women’s Law Center, and many others have been working hard to make sure child care gets included. We ask you to join us, Senator Warren, Senator Murray, and many others to help get the reconciliation package passed in May! 

Here’s how you can take action:

• Contact your Senator today to make sure they make the right choice for families, children, and child care providers.
• Learn more about the proposal with this press release and fact sheet from the Senate HELP Committee.

4/20/22

Child Care Funding in the California State Budget

State legislators will make important decisions about child care funding over the next few weeks. These child care funding decisions affect all of us, from families whose children attend child care, to child care providers who nurture the next generation, and the children who rely on good, affordable child care to learn and grow.

Governor Newsom will soon release the May Revision of the Budget, based on California’s April tax collections. Lawmakers and the governor work together to decide how much to spend on education, child care, health care, and other essential services.

The Budget Committee is where much of the action happens. Child care advocates visit Budget Committee members in both the Senate and the Assembly each week. Our budget priorities are:

1. Better pay, retirement and health care for child care providers, and
2. More subsidies, so families can get help paying for child care.

Click here to see the complete list of budget priorities that child care advocates request.

Child Care Funding in the Federal Budget

We remain hopeful that we can win new funding in Congress through the Budget Reconciliation process before Memorial Day. 

For too long, families have struggled to find and afford child care, and child care programs have struggled to be viable. The pandemic highlighted this vicious cycle. 

It is time for Congress to act, through the process known as Reconciliation. This is how Congress directs Senate committees to adjust their spending. Since the Senate refused to pass the Build Back Better Act, which included complete child care funding, this is the only path forward for child care. 

Here’s how you can take action: 

1. Sign This Petition telling Senators that they MUST include child care and pre-k in the economic package! 
2. Make a Quick Phone Call – Text “ChildcareNow” to 747464 and enter your zip code, and you’ll be connected to your senator’s office! Tell them it’s time to #SolveChildCare!
3. Click on this super quick and easy tool to send a Letter to Editor (LTE) to your local newspaper, it’s super easy with the LTE tool!
4. Share your child care story to our story collection that MomsRising will share with elected officials!
5. Make a quick, impactful video sharing your child care story here!
6. Tweet – If you’re on Twitter, then tweet this message to each of your senators: “Congress cannot leave families behind. It’s time to #SolveChildCare. Child care and Pre-K MUST be included in the reconciliation package!”

Legislation affecting children and families

SB 976 (Leyva) proposes a universal preschool program. It builds on transitional kindergarten and allows families to choose school sites or neighborhood child care centers and homes. Right now, TK is limited to school sites. Families should be able to select preschools that will work for their children and their work schedules. 

AB 92 (Gómez-Reyes) makes sure that families with child care subsidies don’t pay unnecessary fees. Child care will be more affordable.  A policy rooted in the legacy of racism will be reformed.

AB 2589 (Santiago) would give a one-time payment of $2,000 (per child) to families earning less than $30,000 per year. It raises the minimum amount for the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) from $1 to $255.   

Check out the ECE Coalition’s Budget Requests here!

January 27, 2022

Black, Brown, and Immigrant parents deserve good, affordable child care and child care providers, most of whom are women of color, have a right to fair pay for their integral work. 

Each year, the governor and legislature have an opportunity to fulfill these fundamental rights by allocating adequate funding for child care in the state budget. 

The pandemic has amplified how critical child care is for families during the past two years. With the pandemic far from over, more and more families desperately juggle child care, expenses, work schedules, upheaval due to Covid-19, daycare program and school closures, and illness. We still need substantial state funding to give families nurturing child care and providers the wages and job protections they deserve.

This week, on Monday, January 10, Governor Newsom released his budget Blueprint for California in 2022. Despite a projected surplus of $20.6 billion in the General Fund and a child care waiting list of one million children, Governor Newsom’s proposed budget does not contain much new spending on child care.  

Governor Newsom’s budget for child care relies on multi-year expenditures that he and the legislature agreed to last year: 

• $1.6 B to fund 145,000 child care spaces (35,000 new spaces, in addition to 110,000 added last year)
• $373 million for a full year of rate increases to child care providers (agreed to in last year’s budget)
• $25 million to address child care deserts

Laurie Furstenfeld, Co-Director of Legal & Legislative Advocacy at the Child Care Law Center, expressed that these proposed dollars are not enough to fund child care for families in our state:

 “The budget last year froze child care co-payments for struggling families and assured child care providers could stay open despite pandemic absences. These reforms gave parents and providers much-needed relief – and they began to undo the past racist practices. It’s distressing that Governor Newsom did not include them this year.” 

Babies and toddlers are relying on us to prioritize their development. Families are increasingly going without the immense support system of child care. Child care providers need lawmakers to pay them fairly to sustain their businesses. By refusing to allocate resources for child care, the Governor’s Budget exacerbates racial inequities and diminishes Californians’ quality of life. 

Legislators will respond with a budget of their own over the next few months. As they work with the governor, we urge them to take the opportunity to create equitable policies so that all Californians can raise their families with dignity. 

January 14, 2022

The California Department of Fair Employment & Housing announced in a Press Release on January 10, 2022 that it has issued a fact sheet on the rights of child care providers. The fact sheet is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Somali, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.