After Hours Childcare Act

In recent years, working families have struggled to find high-quality, affordable childcare in the United States. Difficulty finding these services has forced mothers out of the workforce and has hurt the education of American Children. Families have reported spending the majority of their income on childcare, leaving our nation's leadership searching for solutions. In 2019, the Center for American Progress (CAP) reported on the crisis. According to their research, fifty percent of parents reported difficulty obtaining childcare. Parents often have to excuse themselves from work due to the lack of childcare. Parents leaving the office to care for their children has cost businesses billions of dollars (Center for American Progress, 2019). The childcare crisis escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the schools closed their doors parents lost their primary childcare resource. According to Harvard Business School (2021), twenty-nine percent of women became unemployed during the pandemic due to a lack of childcare. In a Bipartisan effort, Senator Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, and Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, introduced the After-Hours Childcare Act to give flexibility to all parents, especially those who work non-traditional hours. The Legislation would grant  980 million dollars in Childcare and Development Block Grants, expanding access to childcare and assisting sections of the country where childcare services are increasingly difficult to obtain ( Center for American Progress, 2022). The legislation also addresses one of the forgotten members of this debate: the workers. Since 2019, an estimated 100,000 childcare workers have left the industry, citing low pay, poor working conditions, and licensing issues, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the New York Times, childcare workers often struggle to make ends meet, making minimum wage, and often facing food insecurity. The legislation aims to use grants to set a base wage comparable to the salaries of elementary educators and can be adjusted based on cost-of-living expenses. The After-Hours Childcare Act would be a monumental step in caring for our children and investing in their success by giving them early education opportunities while also investing in the American economy, allowing parents to continue in their employment with the safety of their children in their mind.