Mothers’ Preferences for COVID and Post-COVID Child Care Background and Policy Proposals
Mom Congress
Developed in partnership by the
Bipartisan Policy Center & Mom Congress
The Urgent COVID Child Care Need:
Women make up a significant portion of the labor force. Their employment is critical to the U.S. economy.
64% of non-Black mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in their households.
84% of Black mothers are the primary or co-breadwinner in their households.
1 in 5 working-age adults is now unemployed because COVID upended their child care arrangements according to a recent Census Bureau and Federal Reserve study.
Women are nearly 3x more likely than men to have been impacted according to new research from the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve.
There simply isn’t an economic recovery for thriving and supported mothers, without childcare.
Many families will not send their children back to child care centers for the foreseeable future.
Survey results find: Those who do not plan on sending their children back to child care plan to provide care in their home with their spouse (57%) or rely on a family member to provide care (33%).
Informal feedback: Mothers are interested in care being provided by one provider for multiple families so their children can interact.
What’s Already Been Done:
The CARES Act provided 3.5 Billion in funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) for states to provide child care vouchers to serve essential workers and low-income families, and provide flexibility for states to offer grants directly to providers to ensure their business stability. States are also pulling from other flexible sources provided in CARES to support the child care supply and demand, due to the supplemental CCDBG funds running out. More information on how states used their CARES Act funding is available here.
Pending Legislation:
Senator Ernst (R-IA): Back to Work Childcare Grants Act https://www.ernst.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a3b77406-0f14-4c6e-bb2f-7d396a418514/3A29ED74EBCE51C84EDC84B6F901DEEE.back-to-work-child-care-grants-one-pager-final-002-.pdf
SB 3874 Child Care is Essential Act - Senator Murray (D-WA)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3874
HR 7027 Childcare is Essential Act - Rep DeLaura (D-CT)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7027#:~:text=%2F29%2F2020)-,Child%20Care%20Is%20Essential%20Act,disease%202019)%20public%20health%20emergency.
Additional Short Term Policy Solutions to Provide In-Home COVID “Crisis Care”
Allow FSA payments to go directly to family members. Currently, the families are restricted from using funds to pay for child care to a spouse, the parent of the child, a dependent or a dependent child under the age of 19. This could go along with other proposals to increase FSA increases and the ability to roll them over into the next calendar year.
Allow multi-family FSA contributions for shared care arrangements, including nanny share, when more than one family splits a caregiver. Currently, only one family can use their FSA (whoever created the business and does the payroll).
Support Employer-sponsored child care, by amending 29 U.S. Code § 207(e) (4) with the following changes, making child care benefits exempt from the regular rate, freeing employers to provide the benefit. “(4) (a) contributions irrevocably made by an employer to a trustee or third person pursuant to a bona fide plan for providing old-age, retirement, life, accident, or health insurance or similar benefits for employees; or (b) sums paid to provide child care or child care subsidies”
Train those who have lost jobs (potentially through virtual community college training) to become in-home childcare providers, employed by childcare centers and employers. This could be done through grants, a tax incentive, or other means (hiring credit).
Open question: do we need to pilot, or is that not necessary, particularly given the urgent need?
Provide flexibility in TANF that allows direct child care payments for parents with infants (that would otherwise have gone to a provider) when the parent cannot work due to COVID-19, including because they lack a child care provider or their area lacks sufficient supply of infant care. Similar idea to unemployment insurance (and to AHIC), but TANF already waives work requirements for parents of infants and this would be structured as a longer term and more stable fix to COVID impacts.