Washington, DC — Today, the House unanimously passed legislation introduced by Rep. Lucy McBath (GA-06). H.R.3986/S.2683, the Child Care Protection Improvement Act, previously passed the Senate, and today's vote approved an extended timeline for the established task force through summer 2022. Pending approval of the amended timeline by the Senate, the bill will head to the president’s desk to be signed into law.
H.R.3986/S.2683 addresses barriers in completing background checks for childcare providers who receive funding through the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Representatives Van Taylor (TX-03), Cindy Axne (IA-03), Fred Keller (PA-12), and Abby Finkenauer (IA-01) joined McBath in introducing this bipartisan measure.
“Parents and families across our nation deserve to know their kids are being cared for by qualified providers, and deserve the comfort of knowing they are receiving the best possible care. We must do everything we can to ensure the safety of our children,” said McBath. “I want to applaud my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working together to keep our children safe, set them up for educational success, and ensure our qualified childcare providers have access to the opportunities they’ve worked so hard to achieve.”
The Child Care Protection Improvement Act creates an inter-agency task force to identify barriers in background check completion and recommend best practices to overcoming them. Interstate background checks have been particularly challenging with no streamlined processes for conducting background checks across state lines. In 2014, when Congress reauthorized the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 1990, it made substantial changes to the law, including adding background checks to ensure that child care centers receiving federal dollars are employing quality professionals. In some states, legal roadblocks prevent out-of-state entities from conducting background checks.
More than three-quarters of preschool-aged children attend some form of early care and education before reaching kindergarten. Research shows that the quality of early care programs has significant impact on a child’s future development. When children attend safe, high-quality early care and education programs, they develop the skills that help them succeed in school and in the future.