II 112th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2135 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES February 28, 2012 Mrs. Murray (for herself and Ms. Mikulski) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to authorize a national toll-free hotline and website, to develop and disseminate child care consumer education information for parents and to help parents access child care in their community, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Child Care and Resources Education Act of 2012.

2.

Purpose

The purposes of this Act are— (1)to develop and disseminate child care consumer education information for parents; and (2)to assist parents in finding safe, affordable, and quality child care in their community.

3.

Findings

Congress makes the following findings: (1)Nearly 11,000,000 children under age 5 are in some type of child care setting every week. (2)Numerous reports have found that child care is hard to find in many communities throughout the United States. (3)A 2010 study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found children who received high-quality care in the first few years of life scored higher on measures of academic and cognitive achievement when the children were 15 years old, and were less likely to misbehave, than children enrolled in low-quality care in those years. (4)More than 1,000,000 families a year receive assistance in finding child care through a national child care hotline and website, with nearly half the calls to the hotline coming from military families who are faced with deployment and need to find child care in their new community. (5)The national child care hotline had 57,000,000 page views by parents looking for child care in their community as well as parents looking for information about selecting a child care provider. (6)Over 200,000 publications were mailed to parents last year, in both English and Spanish, by the operator of the national hotline and website, to provide consumer education to parents looking for child care.

4.

Amendment

Section 658O(a) of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858m) is amended by adding at the end the following: (3)

National toll-free hotline and website

The Secretary shall reserve not less than $1,000,000 of the amount appropriated under this subchapter for each fiscal year for the operation of a national toll-free hotline and website, to develop and disseminate child care consumer education information for parents and to help parents access safe, affordable, and quality child care in their community. .