Order Code RL33805
Early Childhood Care and Education Programs
in the 110th Congress: Background and Funding
January 17, 2007
Melinda Gish and Gail McCallion
Specialists in Social Legislation
Domestic Social Policy Division
Early Childhood Care and Education Programs
in the 110th Congress: Background and Funding
Summary
Federal support for child care and education comes in many forms, ranging from
grant programs to tax provisions. Some programs serve as specifically dedicated
funding sources for child care services (e.g., the Child Care and Development Block
Grant, or CCDBG) or education programs (e.g. Elementary and Secondary Education
Act, Title I, Part A, Early Reading First, Even Start, the 21st Century Community
Learning Centers Program, the Early Childhood Educator Professional Development
program, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act — Preschool Grants program and
Infants and Toddlers program), while for others (e.g., Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families, or TANF), child care is just one of many purposes for which funds
may be used. In many cases, federal programs target low-income families in need of
child care assistance, but in the case of certain tax provisions, the benefits reach
middle- and upper-income families as well. This report provides an overview of
federal child care, early education, and related programs, and their funding status in
the 110th Congress.
Funding for many child care, early education, and related programs is provided
each year as part of the annual appropriations process for the Departments of Labor
(DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education (ED). Fiscal year (FY)
2007 appropriations bills for those departments (among most others) did not receive
floor action in the House or Senate during the 109th Congress, although the 2007
fiscal year began on October 1, 2006. The process now extends into the 110th
Congress, with a third continuing resolution (P.L. 109-383) temporarily funding
government operations (through February 15, 2007) at rates based on the FY2006
funding levels. FY2006 appropriations (P.L. 109-149) included funding slightly
below FY2005 amounts for most child care and related programs, as a result of an
across-the-board rescission of 1% applied to most discretionary programs.
Additional targeted funding for Head Start and the Social Services Block Grant —
supplemental funding targeted specifically in response to needs arising from the Gulf
Coast hurricanes of 2005 — was included in the FY2006 Defense Appropriations Act
(P.L. 109-148).
Some of the programs discussed in this report have continued to receive funding
despite expired program authorizations. Efforts to reauthorize the CCDBG (expired
with FY2002) and the Head Start program (expired with FY2003) began in the 108th
Congress, but have yet to reach fruition. Thus, potential legislative agenda items for
the 110th Congress include reauthorization of those two programs, in addition to
education programs covered by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), which
expires with FY2007.
The Administration’s budget proposals for FY2008 are expected to be released
in February. This report will be updated to reflect such activity, as well as
developments with respect to appropriations and changes to programs’
reauthorization status.
Contents
Recent Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Third Continuing Resolution Extends Funding
into the 110th Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Federal Child Care and Early Education Programs
and Tax Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Head Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Title I, Part A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Early Reading First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The William F. Goodling Even Start Family
Literacy Programs (Even Start) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
21ST Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Early Childhood Educator Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Programs . . . . . . . 6
Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CAMPIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Early Learning Fund/Early Learning Opportunities Act Program . . . . . 7
Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
FY2007 Appropriations Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
List of Tables
Table 1. Funding for Federal Early Childhood Care,
Education, and Related Programs, FY2002-FY2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Table 2. President’s FY2007 Funding Request Compared
to FY2007 Funding Levels Approved by Committees in House
(H.R. 5647) and Senate (S. 3708) — 109th Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Early Childhood Care and Education
Programs in the 110th Congress:
Background and Funding
Recent Developments
Third Continuing Resolution Extends Funding into the 110th
Congress. The 109th Congress adjourned with the FY2007 appropriations process
still underway. A third continuing resolution (CR), P.L. 109-383, was signed into
law December 9, 2006, providing funding for government operations (including the
Departments of Health and Human Services and Education) through February 15,
2007, based on FY2006 funding.
Funding for many child care, early education, and related programs is provided
each year as part of the annual appropriations process for the Departments of Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS-ED). For information on
the FY2007 Labor-HHS-ED appropriations bills that were approved by House and
Senate committees in the 109th Congress, but did not receive floor action, see
“FY2007 Appropriations Process,” later in this report.
Federal Child Care and
Early Education Programs and Tax Provisions
Several federal programs support child care, education, or related services,
primarily for low-income working families. In addition, the tax code includes
provisions specifically targeted to assist families with child care expenses.
Descriptions of those programs and tax provisions follow, as does Table 1, which
shows funding (or estimated revenue loss or obligations where applicable) for the
programs and tax provisions for the past five years. In many cases, other
Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports are referenced as sources for more
detailed information about individual programs. Several programs were due for
reauthorization in the 109th Congress (i.e., Child Care and Development Block Grant
and Head Start) but remained unauthorized at the end of the 109th Congress, whereas
others (TANF and mandatory child care funding) were reauthorized in the second
session. Most of the education programs discussed in this report are contained in the
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLBA), which expires with FY2007. (These
programs include Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I, Part A,
Early Reading First, Even Start, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers
program (21st CCLC), and the Early Childhood Educator Professional Development
program.) It is anticipated that the 110th Congress will be considering reauthorization
of the NCLBA in 2007. Programs for young children contained in the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), e.g., the Preschool Grants program and the
Infants and Toddlers program, are not up for reauthorization in the 110th Congress.
CRS-2
Readers should be aware that this report does not attempt to cover all issues
connected with each of those reauthorizations.
Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).1 The primary
federal grant program funding child care is the CCDBG, which was created in 1990,
and reauthorized (through FY2002) and substantially expanded in 1996, as part of
welfare reform. The CCDBG is overdue for reauthorization, and the 110th Congress
inherits this unfinished task. (While the 109th Congress completed legislation to
provide the mandatory funding portion for the CCDBG through FY2010, the
CCDBG Act itself, which outlines the rules of program, and includes the
authorization level for discretionary funding, awaits reauthorization. In the
meantime, discretionary funding has been provided via the appropriations process.)
The CCDBG is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), and provides formula block grants to states, which use the grants to subsidize
the child care expenses of families with children under age 13, if the parents are
working or in school and family income is less than 85% of the state median. (In
practice, many states establish income eligibility levels that are lower than this
federal threshold.) Child care services are provided on a sliding fee scale basis, and
parents may choose to receive assistance through vouchers or certificates, which can
be used with a provider of the parents’ choice, including sectarian providers and
relatives.
States receiving CCDBG funds must establish child care licensing standards,
although federal law does not dictate what these standards should be or what types
of providers must be covered. In addition, states must have health and safety
requirements applicable to all providers receiving CCDBG subsidies that address
prevention and control of infectious diseases, building and physical premises safety,
and health and safety training for care givers. However, federal law does not dictate
the specific contents of these requirements.
The CCDBG is funded through both discretionary and capped entitlement
(mandatory) grants (referred to in combination as the Child Care and Development
Fund (CCDF)), and state maintenance-of-effort (MOE) and matching requirements
apply to part of the entitlement funds.2 States must use at least 4% of their total
funds to improve the quality and availability of child care, and according to statute,
must target 70% of entitlement funds on welfare recipients working toward self-
sufficiency or families at risk of welfare dependency. However, because all families
falling below the 85% of state median income requirement can be categorized as “at
risk,” the 70% targeting of the welfare or at-risk population does not necessarily
mean welfare families must be served. In theory, all funds may be used for low-
income, non-welfare, working families. However, state plans indicate that many
1 For more information, see CRS Report RL30785, The Child Care and Development Block
Grant: Background and Funding, by Melinda Gish.
2 For more detailed information on the CCDF financing structure and early spending trends
(through FY2000), see CRS Report RL31274, Child Care: Funding and Spending under
Federal Block Grants, by Melinda Gish.
CRS-3
states guarantee child care to welfare families. No more than 5% of state allotments
may be used for state administrative costs.
The FY2006 Appropriations Act for the Departments of Labor, HHS, and
Education (P.L. 109-149) included roughly $2.1 billion in discretionary funding for
the CCDBG. (An across-the-board rescission of 1% brought the precise total to
$2.062 billion.) For FY2005, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-447)
provided $2.083 billion. Mandatory (or “entitlement”) CCDBG funding beginning
in FY2003 through FY2005 was provided at the FY2002 rate ($2.717 billion for the
year), under a series of funding extensions. Ultimately, as alluded to earlier, funding
for a longer, five-year period (FY2006-FY2010) was included in the Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005, a budget spending reconciliation bill (S. 1932), which was
signed into law (P.L. 109-171) on February 8, 2006. This law provides $2.917
billion annually for each of FY2006-2010.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF, created in
the 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193), provides fixed block grants for
state-designed programs of time-limited and work-conditioned aid to needy families
with children. The original legislation provided $16.5 billion annually through
FY2002, and after a series of twelve temporary extensions, Congress included several
welfare provisions (and mandatory child care funding) in its spending budget
reconciliation bill (S. 1932) which was signed into law (P.L. 109-171) on February
8, 2006. The law maintains the TANF block grant at $16.5 billion for FY2006-2010.
Child care is one of many services for which states may use TANF funding. In
FY2005, HHS reports that states spent $1.3 billion in federal TANF funds for child
care within the TANF program, and $1.92 billion in state TANF and separate state
program (SSP) MOE funds. (Of that $1.92 billion in state spending, approximately
$858 million could be “double counted” as state spending toward the CCDF MOE
requirement.)3 In addition, states may transfer up to 30% of their TANF allotments
to the CCDBG (CCDF), to be spent according to the rules of that program (as
opposed to TANF rules). The transfer from the FY2005 TANF allotment to the
CCDBG totaled $2.0 billion (representing 12% of the FY2005 TANF allotment).
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The CACFP provides
federal funds (in some cases commodities) for meals and snacks served in licensed
child care centers, family and group day care homes, and Head Start centers. Child
care providers that are exempt from state licensing requirements must comply with
alternative state or federal standards. Children under 12, migrant children under 15,
and children with disabilities of any age may participate, although most are
preschoolers. Eligible providers are usually public and private nonprofit
organizations. The CACFP is an open-ended entitlement, administered by the
Department of Agriculture. For FY2005, obligations are estimated to have been
$2.066 billion, increasing to $2.174 billion in FY2006.4
3 For more information on states’ use of TANF funds, see CRS Report RL32748, The
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant: A Primer on Financing and
Requirements for State Programs, by Gene Falk.
4 See CRS Report RL33307, Child Nutrition and WIC Programs: Background and Recent
(continued...)
CRS-4
Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). Title XX of the Social Security Act
authorizes Social Services Block Grants, which may be used for social services at the
states’ discretion. There are no federal income eligibility requirements, targeting
provisions, service mandates, or matching requirements. The most recently
published HHS analysis of state expenditures indicates that 10% of total SSBG
expenditures made in FY2004 ($254 million) were for child care in that year, an
increase from those made for child care in FY2003 ($165 million). Title XX is a
capped entitlement, and state allocations are based on relative population size. It
should be noted that although the SSBG has an entitlement ceiling, appropriations
may not always abide by it. For example, the ceiling in FY2001 was $1.7 billion;
however, Congress appropriated $1.725 billion for that year, despite the ceiling. The
FY2006 Appropriations Act for the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education (P.L.
109-149) included identical provisions to the FY2005 appropriations: $1.7 billion
for the SSBG and states’ authority to transfer up to 10% of their TANF block grants
to the SSBG. (Note: the SSBG is not a discretionary program, and thus was not
affected by the across-the-board rescission.) In addition to the regular SSBG
funding, an additional $550 million was provided in the Defense Appropriations Act
(P.L. 109-148), targeted for needs arising from the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005.5
Head Start. Head Start provides comprehensive early childhood education
and development services to low-income preschool children, typically (but not
always) on a part-time basis. The Head Start Act has been due to be reauthorized
since the end of FY2003, but remained an unfinished legislative agenda item at the
close of the 109th Congress. Funding has nevertheless been provided through the
appropriations process. Under current law, Head Start funds are provided directly by
HHS to local grantees, which must comply with detailed federal performance
standards. In its budget request for FY2006, the Administration proposed to give up
to nine states the opportunity to administer Head Start, provided they demonstrate
how Head Start will be coordinated with other preschool programs and services to
emphasize developing skills and behaviors including language development; pre-
reading skills; numeracy; and social and emotional competence, while meeting state-
established accountability standards. This proposal proved controversial in both the
House and Senate during the 108th Congress, and was not proposed in either the
reauthorization bill passed in the House (H.R. 2123) or the Senate bill approved in
committee (S. 1107) during the 109th Congress; nor did the President propose it with
his budget for FY2007.6
The available data show funded enrollment for Head Start in FY2005 to have
totaled 906,993 children (10% of whom were under age 3, participating in Early
Head Start). The FY2006 Appropriations Act for the Departments of Labor, HHS,
and Education (P.L. 109-149) provided $6.786 billion (post-rescission of 1%) for
4 (...continued)
Funding, by Joe Richardson.
5 See CRS Report 94-953, Social Services Block Grant (Title XX of the Social Security Act),
by Melinda Gish.
6 For more information, see CRS Report RL30952, Head Start: Background and Issues, by
Melinda Gish.
CRS-5
Head Start, a decrease from the FY2005 funding level (post-rescission of 0.8%) of
$6.843 billion. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the Defense Appropriations Law
(P.L. 109-148) provided $90 million in Head Start funding to be used specifically for
grantees serving children displaced by last year’s Gulf Coast hurricanes, and to help
with costs of renovating Head Start facilities that were affected by the storms.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I, Part A.
ESEA Title I, Part A, is the largest federal program serving disadvantaged children,
particularly school-age children. After Head Start, it is the largest program providing
early education and care to young children. The U.S. Department of Education
estimates that approximately 2% of children served by Title I each year are
preschoolers. Preschool services are not separately funded under Title I, Part A —
such spending occurs if local educational agencies (LEAs) choose to use some of
their Title I funds for this purpose. Title I, Part A, received $12.71 billion in funding
for FY2006 and $12.74 billion in funding for FY2005.
Early Reading First. The Early Reading First program, authorized by ESEA
Title I, Part B, Subpart 2, supports local efforts to enhance the school readiness of
young children — particularly those from low-income families — through scientific
research-based strategies and professional development that are designed to enhance
the verbal skills, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and pre-reading skills of
preschool age children.7 The program provides competitive grants to eligible local
educational agencies (LEAs) and to public or private organizations or agencies that
are located in eligible LEAs. The Department of Education may award grants for up
to six years. Early Reading First received $103 million in funding for FY2006, and
$104 million in funding for FY2005.
The William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Programs (Even
Start). The Department of Education administers the Even Start program, which
provides education and related services jointly to disadvantaged parents and their
young children.8 The program is authorized by ESEA Title I, Part B, Subpart 3, and
is intended to integrate early childhood education, adult basic education, and
parenting skills education into a unified family literacy program. The program
provides grants to states which then distribute them to eligible entities (consisting of
a local education agency (LEA) in collaboration with a community based
organization). Even Start services generally serve children age 0-7 and their parents.
Even Start services must include adult literacy instruction, early childhood education,
instruction to help parents support their child’s education, participant recruitment,
screening of parents, staff training, and home-based instruction.
The Even Start program, first authorized in 1989, grew rapidly in its first years,
but it has been subject to increasing criticism in recent years and has seen its funding
decline in each year from FY2003 through FY2006. The appropriation for FY2006
7 For more information, see CRS Report RL31241, Reading First and Early Reading First:
Background and Funding, by Gail McCallion.
8 For more information, see CRS Report RL30448, Even Start Family Literacy Programs:
An Overview, and CRS Report RL33071, Even Start: Funding Controversy, by Gail
McCallion.
CRS-6
was $99 million, a cut of $126 million from the FY2005 funding level of $225
million. The Administration has requested no funding for the program for FY2007.
The Administration contends that the program has not demonstrated it has been
effective in improving child and adult learning outcomes through the integration of
the four core services of adult education, parenting education, parent-child activities,
and early childhood education. The Administration argues that these conclusions are
supported by data from three national evaluations of Even Start, as well as poor
ratings on their Program Assessment Rating Tool system (PART).
Advocates of continuing the Even Start program argue that the goal of providing
integrated family literacy services to an extremely disadvantaged population is so
important that the program should not be eliminated. Furthermore, they argue that
a thorough study of the impact of legislatively mandated quality improvements to
Even Start is needed, as well as a concerted effort to improve the program through
implementation of model programs and technical assistance.
21ST Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC). The 21st
CCLC program is administered by the Department of Education and is authorized by
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Title IV, Part B, as amended in
2002 by the No Child Left Behind Act (P.L. 107-110).9 Funding for the 21st CCLC
program is provided to states under a formula grant, based on states’ shares of Title
I, Part A, funds. States use their allocations to make competitive awards to local
educational agencies, community-based organizations, or consortia of public or
private agencies that primarily serve students who attend schools with concentrations
of poor students or low-performing schools. The focus of the program is on
providing after-school academic enrichment opportunities for children. Most 21st
CCLC funding serves school-age children; the U.S. Department of Education
estimates that approximately 0.6% of regular attendees are preschoolers, and
approximately 5% of regular attendees are kindergartners. The 21st CCLC received
$981 million in funding for FY2006, and $991 million for FY2005.
Early Childhood Educator Professional Development. The
Department of Education provides competitive grants to partnerships to improve the
knowledge and skills of early childhood educators who work in communities that
have high concentrations of children living in poverty. FY2006 funding was $14.5
million; FY2005 funding was $15 million.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Programs. The
majority of IDEA funding for special education and related services (approximately
90%) goes to school-age children via grants to states. However, IDEA also
authorizes two state grant programs for young children — an early intervention
program for Infants and Toddlers with disabilities (IDEA, Part C) and a Preschool
program for children with disabilities (IDEA, Part 619).10 The Infants and Toddlers
9 For more information, see CRS Report RL31240, 21st Century Community Learning
Centers in P.L. 107-110: Background and Funding, by Gail McCallion.
10 For more information, see CRS Report RL31273, Individuals with Disabilities Education
(continued...)
CRS-7
program serves disabled children from birth to 2 years of age, and the Preschool
program generally serves children ages 3 to 5.
The Infants and Toddlers program requires that states receiving grants create and
maintain a “statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency
system that provides early intervention services for infants and toddlers with
disabilities and their families.” Services focus on children experiencing
“developmental delay” with respect to physical, mental, or other capacities, and their
families. Services are detailed for each child and his or her family in an
Individualized Family Service Plan. Services are to be provided, to the maximum
extent feasible, in “natural environments,” including the home, with other infants and
toddlers who are not disabled.
States are eligible for Preschool grants under Section 619 of IDEA if they are
eligible for grants under IDEA, Part B, grants to states, and they make available free
appropriate public education to all disabled children 3 to 5 in the state. In recent
years, all states qualified and received preschool grants under this section. Since Part
B grants to states are used to serve children with disabilities as young as 3 years of
age (as well as school-age children), Section 619 is not so much a separate program
as it is supplementary funding for services to this age group. In general, the
provisions, requirements, and guarantees under the grants to states program that
apply to school-age children with disabilities also apply to children in this age group.
As a result, Section 619 is a relatively brief section of the law, which deals mostly
with the state and substate funding formulas for the grants and state-level activities.
IDEA was reauthorized during the 108th Congress. IDEA, Part C, received $436
million in funding for FY2006, and $441 million in funding for FY2005. IDEA,
Section 619, received $381 million in funding for FY2006 and $385 million in
funding for FY2005.
Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CAMPIS). Authorized
under the Higher Education Act amendments of 1998, and first funded for FY1999
at $5 million, the CAMPIS program is designed to support the participation of low-
income parents in post-secondary education through campus-based child care
services. Discretionary grants of up to four years in duration are awarded
competitively to institutions of higher education, to either supplement existing child
care services, or to start a new program. Funding for FY2006 was $15.8 million;
funding for FY2005 was $16 million.
Early Learning Fund/Early Learning Opportunities Act Program.
This HHS program (referred to by both names), authorized by the FY2001
Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 106-554) was last funded in FY2005 at $36
million. The FY2006 Appropriations Act includes no funding for this program.
When funded, the program provided grants to communities to enhance school
readiness for children under five, specifically by funding efforts to improve the
cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development of these children. Although
10 (...continued)
Act (IDEA): Early Childhood Programs (Section 619 and Part C), by Richard N. Apling.
CRS-8
authorized at $600 million, FY2002 funding for the program was set at $25 million;
FY2003 funding was set at $34 million (despite the President’s FY2003 budget
proposal to eliminate the program) and for FY2004, P.L. 108-199 included $34
million for the Early Learning Fund.
Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC). The DCTC is a non-refundable tax
credit for employment-related expenses incurred for the care of a dependent child
under 13 or a disabled dependent or spouse, under Section 21 of the tax code.11
Beginning in tax year 2003, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act
of 2001 (P.L. 107-16) increased the maximum credit rate to 35% of expenses up to
$3,000 for one child (for a credit of $1,050), and up to $6,000 for two or more
children (for a credit of $2,100). The 35% rate applies to taxpayers with adjusted
gross incomes of $15,000 or less. The rate decreases by 1% for each additional
$2,000 increment (or portion thereof) in income until the rate reaches 20% for
taxpayers with incomes over $43,000. The Joint Committee on Taxation’s estimated
revenue loss for 2005 is $3 billion, and $2.2 billion for 2006.
Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP). Under Section 129 of the
tax code, payments made by a taxpayer’s employer for dependent care assistance may
be excluded from the employee’s income and, therefore, not be subject to federal
income tax or employment taxes.12 The maximum exclusion is $5,000. Section 125
of the tax code allows employers to include dependent care assistance, along with
other fringe benefits, in nontaxable flexible benefit or “cafeteria” plans. The
estimated revenue loss associated with this income exclusion is $1 billion in 2005
and $1.1 billion for 2006.
11 See CRS Report RS21466, Dependent Care: Current Tax Benefits and Legislative Issues,
by Christine Scott.
12 Ibid.
CRS-9
Table 1. Funding for Federal Early Childhood Care, Education,
and Related Programs, FY2002-FY2006
($ in millions)
Program (federal admin. agency)
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
CCDBG -discretionary portion (HHS)
$2,100
$2,086h
$2,087k
$2,083l
$2,062m
CCDBG -entitlement portion (HHS)
2,717
2,717b 2,717b
2,717b
2,917n
TANFa (HHS)
a
a
a
a
a
Child and Adult Care Food (USDA)
1,831c
1,915c
2,056c
2,066c
2,174c
Social Services Block Grant (HHS)
1,700d
1,700d
1,700d
1,700d
1,700d,p
Head Start (HHS)
6,538e
6,668f
6,775e,k
6,843e,l
6,786m,o
Elementary and Secondary Education
Act (ESEA) Title I, Part Aq (ED)
q
q
q
q
q
21st Century Community Learning
Centers (ED)
1,000
994h
999k
991l
981m
Even Start (ED)
250
248h
247k
225l
99m
IDEA Infants and Families (ED)
417
434h
444k
441l
436m
IDEA Preschool Grants (ED)
390
387h
388k
385l
381m
Early Learning Fund / ELOA (HHS)
25
34h
34k
36l
0
Early Reading First (ED)
75
75h
94k
104l
103m
Early Childhood Educator Professional
Development (ED)
15
15h
15k
15l
14.5m
Child Care Access Means Parents in
School (ED)
22i
16h
16k
16l
15.8m
Dependent Care Tax Credit (Treasury)
2,500g
3,200j
3,100j
3,000j
2,200j
Dependent Care Assistance Program
(Treasury)
600g
800g
800g
1,000g
1,100g
Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
a. TANF funds ($16.5 billion annually) may be used for child care, but are not specifically
appropriated as such. HHS reports that states spent $1.3 billion in federal TANF funds for child
care within the TANF program in FY2005 (the most recent data available). Also, the FY2005
transfer from the FY2005 TANF allotment to the CCDBG totaled $2.0 billion (representing
12% of the FY2005 TANF allotment).
b. Funding for TANF and the mandatory portion of CCDBG funding for FY2003, FY2004, and
FY2005 was provided (at the FY2002 rates) through a series of temporary extensions.
c. Obligations (actual for 2002-2004; estimated for 2005-2006), Department of Agriculture.
d. Total SSBG appropriation amount shown. In FY2004 (most recent data available), $254 million
in SSBG expenditures was for child care. In FY2003, the comparable figure was $165 million,
and in FY2002, it was $205 million.
e. In FY2002 and FY2004, $1.4 billion was advance appropriated for the following year. In FY2005,
$1.389 billion of the $6.843 billion was advance appropriated for FY2006.
f. Of the $6.668 billion, $5.268 billion was available for FY2003, and $1.4 billion was available in
FY2004. The $5.268 billion was exempt from rescissions (or “offsets”) included in P.L. 108-7.
However, the advance appropriation of $1.4 billion for FY2004, included in P.L. 108-7, was
subject to the 0.59% rescission included in the FY2004 appropriations law (P.L. 108-199).
g. Revenue loss, Joint Committee on Taxation.
h. Amount reflects rescission included in P.L. 108-7.
i. This amount excludes $3 million in unobligated funds transferred to the Program Administration
account to help offset a $3.7 million rescission in administrative and related expenses pursuant
to section 803 of the FY2002 Supplemental Appropriations Act.
CRS-10
j. Revenue loss, Joint Committee on Taxation. Note: The Economic Growth and Tax Relief
Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) raised the limit on expenses allowed for the credit,
beginning in tax year 2003.
k. These discretionary programs were subject to an across-the-board rescission of 0.59% included in
P.L. 108-199. For the larger programs, the listed amount reflects the rescission, whereas for the
smaller programs, the use of rounding in the table masks the decrease in the actual
appropriation.
l. The omnibus appropriations law (P.L. 108-447) included an across-the-board rescission of 0.8%
for these discretionary programs. The numbers in the table reflect the offset. (For the smaller
programs, the use of rounding in the table masks the decrease in the actual appropriation.)
m. This amount reflects the 1% across-the-board rescission that applies to discretionary programs
included in this appropriations act (P.L. 109-149).
n. P.L. 109-171 provides $2.917 billion for mandatory child care funding in each of fiscal years 2006-
2010.
o. Of the $6.786 billion (post-rescission), $1.386 billion became available in FY2007. In addition
to the amount shown in the table, the Defense Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-148) provided $90
million in additional funding for Head Start, to be used specifically for grantees serving children
displaced by last year’s Gulf Coast hurricanes, and to help with costs of renovating Head Start
facilities that were affected by the storms.
p. In addition to the $1.7 billion appropriated in the Labor, HHS, Education law (P.L. 109-148), the
Defense Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-149) provided $550 million in SSBG funds, specifically
targeted for needs arising from the Gulf Coast Hurricanes of 2005.
q. ESEA Title I, Part A funding primarily serves school-age disadvantaged children; however, the
U.S. Department of Education estimates that approximately 2% of children served by Title I
each year are preschoolers. These preschool services are not separately funded under Title I,
Part A, but rather are spent for this purpose at the discretion of local educational agencies
(LEAs). Preschool spending data is not collected. Total ESEA Title I, Part A funding was
$12.74 billion in FY2006; $12.74 billion in FY2005; $12.34 billion in FY2004; $11.69 billion
in FY2003; and $10.35 billion in FY2002.
FY2007 Appropriations Process
The 110th Congress has inherited the task of completing the FY2007
appropriations process, which has consisted of a series of continuing resolutions, the
third of which (P.L. 109-383) is to provide funding through February 15, 2007 at the
FY2006 annual rate. (Supplemental funding, like that provided to Head Start and
SSBG to target needs arising from the 2005 Gulf hurricanes, was not included in
determining the FY2006 rate for the FY2007 appropriations.) The 2006 fiscal year
concluded with the 109th Congress failing to pass most of its appropriations bills for
FY2007, including a bill making appropriations for the Departments of HHS, Labor,
and Education. Therefore, in order to continue funding government operations into
FY2007, Congress passed the first of three continuing resolutions (CR), attaching it
to the Defense Appropriations Conference Report (H.Rept. 109-676), and it was
signed into law (P.L. 109-289) on September 29, 2006.
While neither the House nor Senate passed a bill in the 109th Congress making
FY2007 appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education, their respective appropriations committees did pass bills. The House
committee reported H.R. 5647 (H.Rept. 109-515) on June 20, 2006, and the Senate
committee reported S. 3708 (S.Rept. 109-287) one month later. The committees’
proposed funding levels for child care and select related programs are shown in
Table 2, alongside the funding levels requested by the President for FY2007.
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Table 2. President’s FY2007 Funding Request Compared to
FY2007 Funding Levels Approved by Committees in House
(H.R. 5647) and Senate (S. 3708) — 109th Congress
($ in millions)
House
Senate
President’s
Committee-
Committee-
request
passed
passed
Program
FY2007
(H.R. 5647)
(S. 3708)
CCDBG discretionary (HHS)
$2,062
$2,062
$2,062
SSBG (HHS)
1,200
1,700
1,700
Head Start (HHS)
6,786
6,789
6,789
21st CCLC (ED)
981
981
981
Even Start (ED)
0
70
0
IDEA Infants and Families (ED)
436
436
436
IDEA Preschool (ED)
381
381
381
Early Childhood Educator
Professional Development (ED)
15
15
15
Early Reading First (ED)
103
103
100
Child Care Access Means Parents in
School (CAMPIS) (ED)
16
16
16
Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).