CLASP Estimates State Allocations For $2 Billion In Child Care Funding

Jan 28, 2009

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have released their respective plans for an economic recovery plan. Both pieces of legislation include $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program. These funds would be appropriated as Discretionary funding, and therefore do not require a state match. The total amount of economic recovery funds that each state would receive based on either bill is identical; however, the two pieces of legislation appropriate the payments to states differently.

CLASP has estimated the state allocations for $2 billion in CCDBG funding for each bill: 

• In the House version, states would receive an initial payment upon passage of a final bill (which we assume would be during Fiscal Year 2009). The proposal specifies that $1 billion will be made available as of October 1, 2009.
  
  
• In the Senate version, $2 billion in funding will be available through September 30, 2010. We assume that portions of these funds may be allocated to states over two years by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Senate reserves $255 million for quality initiatives, including $94 million to improve the quality of infant/toddler care. These funds would be included as set-asides in the $2 billion allocated to states.

According to narrative summaries from the House and Senate Committees, the $2 billion in child care funding will provide assistance for an additional 300,000 children. CLASP's state by state data show the number of children that could be served in each state with these funds. Under CCDBG, states may choose how they spend these funds, and may use them in ways that result in more, or less, slots than we have estimated.

The House and Senate also include substantial increases in other early childhood programs:

• Both the House and Senate include a total of $2.1 billion for Head Start, split as $1 billion for Head Start and $1.1 billion for Early Head Start. 
• The House plan includes $600 million for the IDEA infant and toddler program (Part C), while the Senate plan provides $500 million for Part C and increased funding to support the IDEA preschool program.
• Both plans include $13 billion in Title I funding. The Senate would require local education agencies to spend at least 15 percent of Title I funds to support programs on children prior to the age of school entry.
• The Senate included $2.25 billion for a Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which can be used for construction and rehabilitation of early childhood programs.