Federal Update: March 2024

It’s been a busy couple of months in Washington, full of last-minute budget negotiations, the State of the Union address, and important executive actions on child care, just to name a few developments. Below you’ll find more information about the latest federal news related to early care and education.

FY24 Budget

On Saturday, President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion spending package that lumps together the remaining six annual spending bills to fund parts of the government through the end of September. The President’s signature marked the culmination of a lengthy budget process that included the passage of four stopgap measures by Congress. The bill, released early Friday morning and over 1,000 pages in all, passed the House of Representatives on a 286-to-134 vote with more than half of Republicans voting against the spending measure. The Senate then passed the bill on a 74-to-24 vote to send it to the President’s desk.

While six months behind schedule, the spending package includes an additional $1 billion over FY23 levels for key early care and education programs. Specifically, the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) received $8.7 billion, an increase of $725 million, and Head Start received $12.3 billion, an increase of $275 million. Additionally, Preschool Development Grants received level funding at $315 million despite the planned elimination of the program from House Republicans. Finally, the package provides level funding for Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) at $75 million and rejects Republican attempts to dramatically slash Title I funding and providing for a $20 million increase.

President Biden’s FY25 Budget Request

Right as the funding fight for FY24 ends, it begins anew for FY25. On March 11, President Biden kicked off the FY25 budget cycle with the release of his budget request. The New America Education Policy team has all the education-related budget details here. While mostly aspirational, the budget request sets the tone for the debate and negotiations to come and, this year, previews what will likely be some of the central themes of Biden’s reelection campaign.

On the ECE front, President Biden’s budget request builds on his administration’s strong early education record. Like last year, the President’s proposal includes a federal-state partnership to provide free, high-quality pre-K in a variety of settings for all four-year-olds. The request also calls for $25 million for demonstration grants to expand free pre-K to children from families with low incomes, down significantly from last year’s $500 million request for the same program.

The budget request also includes a proposal to lower child care costs by creating a new program for families with incomes up to $200,000 per year that would guarantee child care from birth until kindergarten. Under the proposal, families with the lowest incomes would pay nothing while most other families would pay no more than $10 per day, a figure that might sound familiar due to its similarity to Canada’s goal.

The request also calls for a $500 million increase for CCDBG as well as a $544 million increase for Head Start to help reach pay parity between Head Start educators and some elementary school teachers. Finally, it includes plans to restore increases to the Child Tax Credit that were widely credited for helping to cut the child poverty rate in half.

State of the Union Address

On March 7, President Biden paid a visit to Congress to deliver his final State of the Union address prior to the November elections. You can find speech takeaways from a variety of New America experts here. While the address covered a wide range of issues, both foreign and domestic, it was heartening to hear President Biden reaffirm his support for increasing access to pre-K, saying “I want to give every child a good start by providing access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.” He also emphasized the importance of ensuring families have access to affordable child care and restoring the Child Tax Credit expansion. Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama delivered the Republican response and mentioned the “sky-high child care costs” that many families are currently struggling with.

Executive Actions and Guidance

Finally, on February 29, Vice President Harris announced a finalized rule that builds on the President’s 2023 executive order on care. The rule, estimated to lower child care costs for over 100,000 families, caps co-payments for families participating in CCDBG to no more than seven percent of income, encourages states to eliminate all co-payments for certain groups of children, and directs states to pay child care providers on-time and base provider payments on enrollment rather than attendance.

The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services also recently released several new resources focused on early childhood, including guidance on how Title I funds can support access to high-quality preschool services, a Dear Colleague Letter focused on alignment between early childhood settings and the early grades, and a Dear Colleague Letter reaffirming the administration’s goal of a mixed-delivery system during pre-K expansion.