[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 98 (Thursday, July 18, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7042-S7043]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DODD (for himself, Ms. Snower, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Reed, Mr. 
        Bingaman, Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Murray, and Mr. Edwards):
  S. 2758. A bill entitled ``The Child Care and Development Block Grant 
Amendments Act''; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with my colleagues 
Senator Snowe, Senator Jeffords, Senator Reed, Senator Bingaman, 
Senator Clinton, Senator Murray, and Senator Edwards today in 
introducing the new Access to High Quality Child Care Act.
  On April 11, I introduced, S. 2117, which represented a bipartisan 
partnership with the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions, HELP, Committee to both improve the 
quality of child care and expand the availability of child care. The 
bill that we are introducing today further strengthens and improves 
that legislation.
  Compared to S. 2117, the new legislation we are introducing today: 
further strengthens the coordination among agencies and outreach about 
the availability of child care assistance, so that the child care 
agency and TANF agency coordinate in providing information to eligible 
parents about the availability of child care assistance; includes a new 
section to improve parent access to the process of obtaining child care 
subsidies; strengthens accountability for the use of quality funds by 
requiring States to set State child care quality goals, set 
quantifiable measures for each goal; and requires States to describe 
their progress in meeting each goal in an annual report; strengthens 
provisions to improve the quality and availability of child care for 
infants and toddlers, child care for disabled children, and child care 
for children who need care during nontraditional hours; allows States 
to operate an At Home Infant Care program to improve the quality of 
care for infants, currently successful in Montana and Minnesota; 
consolidates the general quality setaside and the child care workforce 
development setaside under S. 2117 into one 10 percent quality setaside 
to be used by States to improve the quality of care that children 
receive, regardless of setting; consolidates data collection under 
current law to make data collection and reporting requirements easier 
for States while retaining useful information for policymakers; deletes 
the section on school readiness incentive grants under S. 2117, 
instead, replacing these grants with the text of S. 2566, the Early 
Care and Education Act authorized separately under Title III of this 
new legislation; shifts the text of the Child Care Centers in Federal 
Facilities Act and the Technical and Financial Assistance Grants Act 
under S. 2117 to Title II of the new bill as separate authorizations; 
adds the text of the Book Stamps Act to Title II as a separate 
authorization; and, authorizes $1 billion in FY2003 and such sums as 
necessary in the out years 2004-2007.
  In short, the Access to High Quality Child Care Act is about putting 
``Development'' back into the Child Care and Development Block Grant.
  The fact is that 78 percent of school-age parents are working today; 
65 percent of parents with children under 6 are working today; and, 
over half of mothers with infants are in the workforce today.
  That means about 14 million children, including 6 million infants and 
toddlers, under the age of 5 are in some type of child care 
arrangement. Many of them are in child care every week for many hours.
  While their parents work, children are being cared for in a variety 
of settings. Some of them are very good, but sadly, some of them are 
not. What we know is that 46 percent of kindergarten

[[Page S7043]]

teachers report that half or more of their students enter kindergarten 
not ready to learn.
  This new legislation that we are introducing today further 
strengthens our efforts to improve the quality of care to promote 
school readiness while expanding child care assistance to more working 
poor families.
  We filed this legislation yesterday in the HELP Committee and will 
proceed to markup next Wednesday, July 24th. I urge my colleagues to 
join us in supporting this legislation that so many working families 
with children need.
  I ask unanimous consent that summary of the legislation be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the summary was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 The 2002 Access Act--The Access to High Quality Child Care Act Brief 
                                Summary

       Background: The Access to High Quality Child Care is about 
     putting ``Development'' back into the Child Care and 
     Development Block Grant. About 14 million children, including 
     6 million infants and toddlers, under the age of 5 are in 
     some type of child care arrangement. Many of them are in 
     child care every week for many hours. The fact is that 78% of 
     school-age parents are working today; 65% of parents with 
     children under 6 are working today; and, over half of mothers 
     with infants are in the workforce today. While these parents 
     work, their children are being cared for in a variety of 
     settings--some of which are very good, but sadly, some of 
     them are not. What we know is that 46% of kindergarten 
     teachers report that half or more of their students enter 
     kindergarten not ready to learn. This reauthorization bill is 
     geared toward improving the quality of care to promote school 
     readiness while expanding child care assistance to more 
     working poor families.
       Key Provisions: The Child Care and Development Block Grant 
     is designed to give parents maximum choice among child care 
     providers. The bill retains parental choice, but provides 
     states with a number of ways to help child care providers 
     improve the quality of care that they provide. The 2002 
     Access Act will: Strengthen the coordination among agencies 
     and outreach about the availability of child care assistance; 
     Promote greater coordination among federal, state, and local 
     care and early childhood development programs, including the 
     transition from early care programs to elementary school; Set 
     aside 10% of CCDBG funds to improve the quality of child care 
     for any of the following activities--initiatives to improve 
     recruitment, education, and retention of child care staff; 
     initiatives to improve the quality and availability of care 
     for infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, or care 
     during nontraditional hours; resource and referral services; 
     training and technical assistance; grants or loans to improve 
     provider compliance with state or local law; support for 
     states to monitor compliance or other activities deemed by 
     the state to improve the quality of care, including the 
     provision of emergency child care.
       Improve the accountability of the use of quality funds by 
     requiring states to set quality improvement goals that are 
     measurable to ensure that states are making progress in 
     improving the quality of child care. Set aside 5% of CCDBG 
     funds to help states increase the reimbursement rate for 
     child care providers to ensure that parents have real choices 
     among quality providers. Under current law, CCDBG payment 
     rates are supposed to be sufficient ``to ensure equal access 
     for eligible children to comparable child care services in 
     the state or substate area that are provided to children 
     whose parents are not eligible to receive assistance''. But, 
     current low state reimbursement rates do not offer parents 
     comparable care for their children.
       Allow states to operate an at-home infant care program to 
     promote the quality of care for infants.
       The children of working parents need quality child care if 
     they are to enter school ready to learn. Yet, 30 states 
     require no training in early childhood development before a 
     teacher walks into a child care classroom. 42 states require 
     no training in early childhood development before a family 
     day care provider opens its home to unrelated children. The 
     2002 Access Act will: Require states to set training 
     standards, just as they are required to do now for health and 
     safety under current law. Such training would go beyond CPR 
     and first aid to include training in the social, emotional, 
     physical, and cognitive development of children.
       Exempt relatives from the training requirements, but 
     through the quality funding in CCDBG states could partner 
     with colleges and R&Rs to provide training to relatives and 
     informal caregivers on a voluntary basis. Initial evaluations 
     in Connecticut of such efforts show that relatives and 
     informal caregivers are voluntarily participating and are 
     feeling better about themselves and their interactions with 
     the children have improved.
       Reduce administrative barriers and improve coordination 
     among agencies so that low income working parents can more 
     easily access the process for obtaining and retaining child 
     care assistance.


       Separate Authorizations for Quality Child Care Initiatives

       Separate authorizations include the following measures: the 
     Child Care Centers in Federal Facilities Act, the Technical 
     and Financial Assistance Grants Act, the Book Stamps Act, and 
     the Early Care & Education Act.
                                 ______