Impact of $550 Million CCDBG Funding Increase for States

In the final FY2020 Appropriations Bill, Congress increased by $550 million its investment in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the largest source of federal funding for child care. This is an important step forward that follows on the heels of the historic 2018 $2.37 billion increase. However, it doesn’t come close to the $2.4 billion increase for 2020 passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would have provided child care for up to an additional 300,000 children. Even with this increase, CCDBG will continue to reach only a small fraction of eligible children, and Latinx and Asian American families are especially likely to be underserved.