How the CARES Act Impacts Child Care
Washington, DC – The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Early Childhood Initiative has released two white papers studying how the newly-enacted CARES Act can benefit child care providers facing closures and financial uncertainty.
Most child care providers run on very tight financial margins. In fact, a recent NAEYC survey found that 46% of child care providers did not believe they could survive a shutdown of a month or longer. Just as many industries are experiencing dramatic shocks as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, child care providers and the industry at large face challenging questions about what the future may look like.
The CARES Act provides an additional $3.5 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant as direct support to child care centers, but there a host of other ways providers may use provisions within the law to seek financial support.
In the first paper, we break down the child care-related funding streams in the CARES Act. In the second, we analyze the unemployment insurance provisions and how they could benefit providers and educators.
Linda K. Smith, director of the Early Childhood Initiative, and her team are available for interviews.