I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2000
To establish the Child Care Provider Development and Retention Grant 
Program, the Child Care Provider Scholarship Program, and a program 
of child care provider health benefits coverage, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 28, 2005
Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California (for himself, Mr. PLATTS, Mr. KILDEE, 
Ms. DELAURO, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. AN-
DREWS, Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island, Mr. STARK, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. 
DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. OWENS, Mrs. 
MCCARTHY, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. 
BROWN of Ohio, and Mr. WEINER) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in 
addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To establish the Child Care Provider Development and Re-
tention Grant Program, the Child Care Provider Scholar-
ship Program, and a program of child care provider 
health benefits coverage, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Focus On Committed 
and Underpaid Staff for Children’s Sake Act’’ or as the 
‘‘FOCUS Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) Research on early brain development and 
early childhood demonstrates that the experiences 
children have and the attachments children form 
early in life have a decisive, long-lasting impact on 
their later development and learning. 
(2) High-quality, developmentally appropriate 
child care beginning in early childhood and con-
tinuing through the years that children are in school 
improves the scholastic success and educational at-
tainment of children, and the success and attain-
ment persist into adulthood. 
(3) According to a growing body of research, 
the single most important determinant of child care 
quality is the presence of consistent, sensitive, well-
trained, and well-compensated child care providers. 
However, child care programs nationwide experience 
high turnover in teaching staff, fueled by poor com-
pensation and few opportunities for advancement.
(4) The Department of Labor reports that, in 
2003, the average wage for a child care provider was 
$8.47 per hour, or $17,610 annually. For full-time, 
full-year work, the average annual wage for a child 
care provider was not much above the 2003 poverty 
line of $14,824 for a family consisting of a parent 
and 2 children. Family child care providers earned 
even less. The median weekly wage of a family child 
care provider in 2003 was $334, which equals an an-
nual wage of $17,368. 
(5) Despite the important role child care pro-
viders may play in early child development and 
learning, on average, a child care provider earns less 
in a year than a bus driver ($30,730), barber 
($23,300), or janitor ($20,480). 
(6) Employer-sponsored benefits are minimal 
for most child care staff. Even for child care pro-
viders at child care centers, the availability of health 
care coverage for staff remains woefully inadequate. 
(7) To offer compensation that would be suffi-
cient to attract and retain qualified child care pro-
viders, child care programs would have to charge 
parents fees that many parents could not afford. For 
programs that serve low-income children whose fami-
lies qualify for Federal and State child care sub-
sidies, the reimbursement rates set by the State 
strongly influence the level of compensation that 
staff receive. Current reimbursement rates for cen-
ter-based child care services and family child care 
services are insufficient to recruit and retain quali-
fied child care providers and to ensure high-quality 
services for children. 
(8) Teachers leaving the profession are being 
replaced by staff with less education and formal 
training in early child development. 
(9) As a result of low wages and limited bene-
fits, many child care providers do not work for long 
periods in the child care field. Approximately 30 per-
cent of all teaching staff employed at child care cen-
ters leaves employment with a child care center each 
year. 
(10) Child care providers, as well as the chil-
dren, families, and businesses that depend upon the 
providers, suffer the consequences of inadequate 
compensation. This is true, with few exceptions, for 
providers in all types of programs, including sub-
sidized and nonsubsidized programs, programs of-
fered by for-profit and nonprofit entities, and pro-
grams in large and small child care settings.
(11) Because of the severe nationwide shortage 
of qualified staff available for employment by child 
care programs, several States have recently initiated 
programs to improve the quality of child care by in-
creasing the training and compensation of child care 
providers. Such programs encourage the training, 
education, and increased retention of qualified child 
care providers by offering financial incentives, in-
cluding scholarships and increases in compensation, 
that range from $350 to $6,500 annually. 
(12) Family child care providers are almost 
twice as likely to lack health insurance as the gen-
eral population. One in four child care centers does 
not offer health insurance benefits to employees. 
Even child care providers with health insurance cov-
erage state that it is difficult to afford out-of-pocket 
health care expenses. 
(13) In a study of lower income family child 
care providers without health insurance, more than 
half had used emergency room services for their own 
health care in the past year. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to establish the Child Care Provider Devel-
opment and Retention Grant Program, the Child
Care Provider Scholarship Program, and a program 
of child care provider health benefits coverage; and 
(2) to help children receive the high quality 
child care and early education the children need for 
positive cognitive and social development, by reward-
ing and promoting the retention of committed, quali-
fied child care providers and by providing financial 
assistance to improve the educational qualifications 
of child care providers. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) CHILD CARE PROVIDER.—The term ‘‘child 
care provider’’ means an individual who provides a 
service directly to a child on a person-to-person basis 
for compensation for—
(A) a center-based child care provider that 
is licensed or regulated under State or local law 
and that satisfies the State and local require-
ments applicable to the child care services pro-
vided; 
(B) a licensed or regulated family child 
care provider that satisfies the State and local 
requirements applicable to the child care serv-
ices provided; or