By Adina Genn

(Excerpt)

Under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), New York has a lot of flexibility with the dollars. New York can award child care providers based on enrollment of children, rather than attendance. New York can also use the funds to provide child care subsidies to families, including essential workers (health care employees, emergency responders, sanitation workers, and other workers deemed essential), regardless of their income. This fund is projected to expand child care subsidies to an estimated 875,000 children nationwide.

The Center for Law and Social Policy released this statement about the funding:

“With this funding, the child care sector—which has already lost one in six jobs during the pandemic — will be poised to be part of the nation’s economic recovery. These critical direct investments are how we begin to bring the child care sector back from the brink, yet it will take additional significant investments to undo the damage of long-standing under-investments and build back a better, more equitable, accessible, and affordable system that meets the needs of children, families, and early educators.”

Read the full article here.