I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2713
To establish a grant program to improve the quality and expand the availabil-
ity of child care services, and of family support services, for families
with children less than 3 years of age.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 23, 1997
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. MCGOVERN, and Mr. HOYER)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To establish a grant program to improve the quality and
expand the availability of child care services, and of
family support services, for families with children less
than 3 years of age.
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 ‘‘Early Learning and
Opportunity State Grants Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The first 3 years of life are a critical period
of brain development, intellectual growth, and emo-
tional, social, affective, and moral development, that
help determine the health and productivity of a child
in later life.
(2) Scientific research shows that how individ-
uals function from preschool through adolescence
and adulthood hinges to a significant extent on the
experiences children have in their first 3 years of
life.
(3) One in 3 victims of physical abuse is a baby
less than 1 year of age.
(4) In 1993 the National Educational Goals
Panel reported that nearly half of infants in the
United States do not have what they need to grow
and thrive.
(5) High-quality care from a parent or other
adult is necessary to facilitate growth and develop-
ment.
(6) More than 50 percent of mothers with chil-
dren less than 1 year of age are working outside the
home.
(7) Five million children under age 3 are in the
care of other adults while their parents work outside
the home.
(8) Parents of very young children have few
child care service options. Many cannot afford to
stay home with their children, or to pay for safe,
high-quality developmental child care services.
(9) Statewide and multistate studies have found
that less than 20 percent of child care services for
very young children is of good quality; nearly 50
percent is of such substandard quality that it ad-
versely affects such children’s development and may
put their health and safety at risk.
(10) Families with children less than 3 years of
age are the single largest group living in poverty.
Twenty-five percent of such children, 3,000,000 chil-
dren, are living below the poverty line, are at greater
risk for malnutrition, poor health, and maltreat-
ment, and are less likely to receive the care they
need from parents or other child care service provid-
ers to grow and develop normally.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to improve the quality, and to increase the
availability, of child care services for children less
than 3 years of age,
(2) to improve the affordability of child care
services available to such children,
services for families of such children, located in the
State,
(3) has taken substantial legislative or executive
action to reduce the duplication of, and barriers to
providing, such services, and
(4) during the fiscal year for which such grant
is received, will reimburse such providers for such
services at rates that reflect—
(A) the higher costs incurred by such pro-
viders who are accredited by national associa-
tion that provides accreditation for providers of
the respective types of such services and that is
recognized by the Secretary, and
(B) the higher costs incurred by such pro-
viders to provide child care services to children
who are very young children.
SEC. 5. ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS.
To be eligible to receive a grant under section 4, a
State shall submit to the Secretary an application that
satisfies the following requirements:
(1) Such application is prepared by the State
after consultation with providers of child care serv-
ices for very young children, and with providers of
family support services for families of such children,
located in the State.
(2) Such application contains a plan that de-
scribes how the State will expend such grant to do
1 or more of the following:
(A) To improve quality of child care serv-
ices.
(B) To improve licensing standards appli-
cable to providers of child care services for very
young children in the State by specifying mat-
ters that apply to providing child care services,
such as child-to-staff ratios, group size, staff
preparation and qualifications, ongoing staff
training, health and safety, and linkages to par-
ents and community services.
(C) To improve enforcement of licensing
standards applicable to providers of child care
services for care for very young children in the
State.
(D) To improve salaries for caregivers of
such child care services.
(E) To support ongoing and more ad-
vanced training for such caregivers (including
training to provide child care services for chil-
dren with special needs) and to create incen-
tives for individuals to obtain, and child care
centers to employ individuals who have ob-
tained, more advanced training in providing
child care services.
(F) To improve accessibility to child care
services for very young children, including im-
proving the quality of, and expanding the avail-
ability of, resource and referral services and
transportation services for families with very
young children.
(G) To improve affordability of child care
services for very young children.
(H) To improve and expand support serv-
ices to families with very young children.
(I) To improve coordination of existing
Federal and State programs that provide sup-
port services for families with very young chil-
dren.
(3) Such application shall contain assurances
that—
(i) not more than 70 percent of the cost of
carrying out the plan contained in such applica-
tion will be paid with such grant together with
any other available Federal funds,
(ii) such grant will be used to supplement,
not supplant, non-Federal funds otherwise
available to provide child care services for very
young children and support services for the
families of such children,
(iii) the State will expend in cash or in
kind, from State resources (including private
contributions and excluding resources available
to local governmental entities) an amount not
less than 30 percent of the amount of such
grant, and
(iv) such grant will be administered by the
lead agency that is designated by the State
under section 658D of the Child Care and De-
velopment Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C.
9858b).
(4) Such application shall contain such other
information and assurances as the Secretary may re-
quire by rule.
SEC. 6. MODEL TRAINING PROGRAM FOR EMPLOYEES OF
CHILD CARE PROVIDERS.
The Secretary shall—
(1) by adapting the requirements in effect
under section 1792(a) of title 10, United States
Code, develop a voluntary model training program
applicable to individuals who are employed as
caregivers by providers of child care services,
(2) make available to Head Start agencies and
providers of child care services the model training
code developed under paragraph (1), and
(3) provide to such agencies and such providers
technical assistance to implement such program.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act:
(1) CAREGIVER.—The term ‘‘caregiver’’ means
an individual who provides a service directly to a
child on a person-to-person basis.
(2) FAMILY
SUPPORT
SERVICES.—The term
‘‘family support services’’ means community-based
activities designed to promote parental competencies
and behaviors that will increase the ability of fami-
lies to successfully nurture their children.
(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(4) VERY YOUNG CHILDREN.—The term ‘‘very
young children’’ means children who are less than 3
years of age.
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out
this Act $500,000,000 for fiscal year 1999, $750,000,000