[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2694 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2694

 To increase the availability of child care for children whose parents 
                  work nontraditional hours or shifts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 3, 1999

 Ms. Woolsey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To increase the availability of child care for children whose parents 
                  work nontraditional hours or shifts.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Community of Care Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Many families need child care during nontraditional 
        hours, and such care is likely to be particularly important for 
        families working to get off welfare.
            (2) Nearly \1/5\ of full-time workers work nonstandard 
        hours. More than \1/3\ of these workers are women.
            (3) One-third of working mothers with incomes below the 
        poverty line work during weekends.
            (4) More than \1/4\ of mothers with incomes above the 
        poverty line but below $25,000 work weekends.
            (5) A study of 207 Illinois families who needed 
        transitional child care after leaving welfare found that nearly 
        75 percent of these families had one or more members who were 
        working irregular hours.
            (6) Almost \1/2\ of low-income working parents work on a 
        rotating or changing schedule. This presents an even greater 
        obstacle to finding child care than either a regular weekend or 
        evening schedule.
            (7) The demand for child care during nontraditional hours 
        outstrips the supply.

SEC. 3. CHILD CARE FOR NONTRADITIONAL HOURS AND VARIED SHIFTS.

    The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 
9801 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 658G the following 
new section:

``SEC. 658H. CHILD CARE FOR NONTRADITIONAL HOURS AND VARIED SHIFTS.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary may make grants under this 
subchapter for activities designed to increase the availability of 
child care for children whose parents work nontraditional hours or 
varied shifts. Such activities shall include the following:
            ``(1) Creating incentives for resource and referral 
        agencies to engage in activities that are designed to increase 
        the awareness of parents who work nontraditional hours or 
        varied shifts about the availability of communities of care.
            ``(2) Providing funds to increase compensation, including 
        bonuses, to communities of care and their employees.
            ``(3) Providing start-up funds for communities of care.
            ``(4) Providing grants to resource and referral agencies, 
        child care organizations, and nonprofit organizations for 
        activities that encourage and recruit caregivers, eligible 
        child care providers, and family child care providers to start 
        new communities of care.
            ``(5) Creating other incentives to increase the number and 
        availability of communities of care.
    ``(b) Definitions.--For the purposes of this section, the following 
definitions apply:
            ``(1) Community of care.--The term `community of care' 
        means caregivers, eligible child care providers, or family 
        child care providers that, alone or in cooperation with other 
        such caregivers or providers, provide child care for an average 
        of 7 or more nontraditional hours daily or for children whose 
        parents work varied shifts.
            ``(2) Nontraditional hours.--The term `nontraditional 
        hours' means those hours--
                    ``(A) between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.; and
                    ``(B) between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Saturday 
                and Sunday.
            ``(3) Varied shifts.--The term `varied shifts' means a 
        schedule requiring work hours that change from pay period to 
        pay period.''.

SEC. 4. FUNDING.

    Section 658B (42 U.S.C. 9858) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``There'' and inserting ``(a) In General.--
        There''; and
    (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(b) Communities of Care.--In addition to amounts appropriated 
under subsection (a), there is authorized to be appropriated to carry 
out community of care activities under section 658H, $200,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2000 through 2002.''.
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