The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 has been reauthorized by the US Congress and signed into law by President Obama! The law, which Congress passed with strong bipartisan support, reauthorizes the child care program for the first time since 1996 and represents a historic re-envisioning of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program. Watch the video below to see President Obama signing this law.
The law makes important statutory changes focused on better balancing the dual purposes of CCDF – to promote families’ economic self-sufficiency by making child care more affordable, and fostering healthy child development and school success by improving the overall quality of early learning and afterschool programs. It also makes significant advancements by defining health and safety requirements for child care providers, outlining family-friendly eligibility policies, and ensuring parents and the general public have transparent information about the child care choices available to them.
North Carolina’s own Senator Richard Burr led the bipartisan effort to reauthorize CCDBG. In North Carolina, the CCDBG brings millions of dollars in federal funding for the state’s early childhood education system. Not only does it make child care available for approximately 100,000 low-income children and families every year, it also provides funding support for Child Care Resource and Referral, the TEACH programs, Wages Administration and much of the state’s regulatory system.
This is major victory for children and families throughout the country!
