I 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4680 
To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to 
improve the quality of infant and toddler care. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 20, 2014 
Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts (for herself, Ms. MOORE, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. 
VAN HOLLEN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. TIERNEY, Mrs. DAVIS 
of California, Mr. LANGEVIN, Ms. MENG, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, 
and Mr. SCHIFF) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant 
Act of 1990 to improve the quality of infant and toddler 
care. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Infant and Toddler 
Care Improvement Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
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(1) The brain undergoes its most dramatic de-
velopment during a child’s first 3 years of life, with 
700 new neurological connections being formed every 
second based on early experience. During this time, 
the brain’s foundational capacities for thinking, lan-
guage, emotion, and self-regulation are formed. 
(2) Economic deprivation can also affect the de-
velopment of the brain and impair all aspects of de-
velopment. Children in families below the poverty 
line are at risk for prolonged ‘‘toxic’’ stress, which 
can change the shape of the brain’s structure. Twen-
ty-five percent of children younger than 3 years of 
age live in families with incomes below the poverty 
level. 
(3) Child care is second only to the family set-
ting as the place in which early development takes 
place for many infants and toddlers. Sixty-one per-
cent of mothers with children younger than 3 years 
of age are in the labor force and over 6,000,000 
children younger than 3 years of age are cared for 
by someone other than their parents for some part 
or all of the day. Therefore, the relationship between 
the child and the child care provider often plays a 
significant role in child development. 
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(4) Research shows that high-quality child care 
can mitigate some of the effects of adverse experi-
ences caused by poverty and that low-income chil-
dren can benefit particularly well from high-quality 
child care. Yet, at-risk children younger than 3 years 
of age often receive low-quality child care that can 
lead to poor developmental outcomes. 
(5) High-quality child care has been shown to 
promote positive cognitive, language, and social and 
emotional development, and contribute to academic 
success. High-quality child care can also help im-
prove a child’s communication skills, cognitive skills, 
behavioral skills, math and language assessment 
scores, and verbal intelligence. 
(6) Providing training and technical assistance 
to family child care providers who are infant and 
toddler care providers, through family child care net-
works, has been shown to improve the quality of 
caregivers. 
(7) Twenty-seven States use infant and toddler 
specialist networks as the structure for providing 
training and technical assistance, using research- 
based training and techniques such as mentoring 
and on-site coaching, to all types of providers of 
child care for infants or toddlers. 
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(8) Preparation for early childhood educators 
often does not include training specific to infants 
and toddlers. Only 21 States have infant and toddler 
credential requirements that define the particular 
knowledge and skills needed to work with children 
younger than 3 years of age. 
(9) Infants and toddlers have unique needs that 
differ from those of older children in areas such as 
health and safety, interaction with teachers and 
caregivers, and learning, yet not all States recognize 
those differences in licensing regulations or in their 
Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. Just 20 
States have infant and toddler quality indicators in 
their Quality Rating and Improvement Systems and 
only 3 States have separate categories of child care 
regulations related to infants and toddlers. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to improve 
the overall quality of child care programs serving infants 
or toddlers. 
SEC. 3. HIGH-QUALITY INFANT AND TODDLER CARE PRO-
GRAM. 
The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act 
of 1990 is amended by inserting after section 658G (42 
U.S.C. 9858e) the following: 
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‘‘SEC. 658H. HIGH-QUALITY INFANT AND TODDLER CARE 
PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE INFANT OR TODDLER CARE PRO-
VIDER.—The term ‘eligible infant or toddler care 
provider’ means an eligible child care provider, con-
sistent with section 658P, who provides care to an 
infant or toddler. 
‘‘(2) INFANT OR TODDLER.—The term ‘infant 
or toddler’ means an individual under 3 years of 
age. 
‘‘(3) INFANT OR TODDLER WITH A DEVELOP-
MENTAL DELAY OR DISABILITY.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘infant or 
toddler with a developmental delay or disability’ 
has the meaning given the term ‘infant or tod-
dler with a disability’ in section 632 of the Indi-
viduals with Disabilities Education Act (20 
U.S.C. 1432). 
‘‘(B) PLURAL FORM.—The term ‘infants 
and toddlers with developmental delays or dis-
abilities’ means more than 1 infant or toddler 
with a developmental delay or disability. 
‘‘(4) LIMITED
ENGLISH
PROFICIENT.—The 
term ‘limited English proficient’ has the meaning 
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given the term in section 637 of the Head Start Act 
(42 U.S.C. 9832). 
‘‘(5) LOW-INCOME
COMMUNITY.—The term 
‘low-income community’ shall be defined by the Sec-
retary. 
‘‘(6) LOW-INCOME FAMILY.—The term ‘low-in-
come family’ means a family with a family income 
described in section 658P(4)(B). 
‘‘(b) GRANTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make 
grants to eligible States, from allotments described 
in paragraph (2), to enable the States to improve 
the quality of care for infants and toddlers. 
‘‘(2) ALLOTMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) AMOUNTS RESERVED.— 
‘‘(i) 
TERRITORIES
AND
POSSES-
SIONS.—The Secretary shall reserve an 
amount not to exceed 0.5 percent of the 
amount appropriated under this section for 
each fiscal year for payments to Guam, 
American Samoa, the United States Virgin 
Islands, and the Commonwealth of the 
Northern Mariana Islands, to be allotted in 
accordance with their respective needs. 
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‘‘(ii) INDIAN TRIBES.—The Secretary 
shall reserve not less than 1 percent, and 
not more than 2 percent, of the amount 
appropriated under this section for each 
fiscal year for payments to Indian tribes 
and tribal organizations with applications 
approved under section 658O(c). 
‘‘(B) ALLOTMENTS
TO
STATES.—After 
making reservations under subparagraph (A), 
the Secretary shall use the remainder of the 
amount appropriated under this section for a 
fiscal year to allot to each State an amount 
that bears the same relationship to that remain-
der as the amount allotted to the State under 
section 658O for that fiscal year bears to the 
amount allotted to all States under section 
658O for that fiscal year. 
‘‘(C) STATE.—In this paragraph, the term 
‘State’ does not include Guam, American 
Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, or the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is-
lands. 
‘‘(c) AMENDMENT TO STATE PLANS.—A State that 
receives a grant under this section shall include in the 
State’s plan under section 658E, a description of how the 
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State will use funds provided under this section to improve 
the quality of infant and toddler care. 
‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—A State that receives a 
grant under this section shall use the funds made 
available through the grant to carry out 1 or more 
of the activities described in paragraphs (2) through 
(7). 
‘‘(2) INCREASING HIGH-QUALITY INFANT AND 
TODDLER CARE.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A State may use the 
funds described in paragraph (1) to make 
grants to eligible entities to be resources for eli-
gible infant and toddler care providers, to im-
prove the quality of early care and development 
services provided to infants and toddlers in the 
community from low-income families and to 
help such providers serving low-income families 
improve their capacity to offer high-quality care 
to such families. 
‘‘(B) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—To be eligible to 
receive a grant under this paragraph, an entity 
shall be an eligible child care provider that— 
‘‘(i) serves infants and toddlers from 
low-income families; and 
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