FACT SHEET: Historic Biden-Harris Administration Investments in Child Care Recovery Lowered Costs for Millions of Families, Helped Speed the Return to Work of Hundreds of Thousands Mothers, and Grew the Child Care Workforce | The White House

New CEA Analysis Shows American Rescue Plan Support for Child Care Lowered Costs for Families

New CEA analysis shows that American Rescue Plan support for child care helped lower child care costs for a typical family with young children by over $1,200 per child per year

President Biden and Vice President Harris recognize the importance of accessible, affordable, high-quality child care for children, their parents, and the economy. Since the beginning of their administration, they have focused on reducing child care costs for hardworking families and improving wages for child care workers.

American Rescue Plan’s Impact on Child Care

The American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Child Care Stabilization program provided historic support to over 225,000 child care programs, benefiting up to 10 million children across the country. This support ensured that working families who rely on child care had access to these services. A new report released by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) highlights the following outcomes:

• Saved families with young children who rely on paid child care approximately $1,250 per child per year by slowing the rise of child care prices.
• Helped hundreds of thousands of women with young children enter or re-enter the workforce more quickly, increasing the labor force participation and employment of mothers of young children by an additional 3 percentage points.
• Boosted the child care workforce and helped raise the real wages of child care workers, increasing the availability and reliability of child care options and ensuring fairer pay for those who take care of our children.

These investments had a benefit-cost ratio of about 2:1, demonstrating that the benefits for the broader economy outweighed the costs of the investment.

Continued Investment in Child Care

With the end of the Child Care Stabilization program approaching, the success of the program emphasizes the need for Congress to provide further investment in the child care sector. President Biden and Vice President Harris have called on Congress to provide an additional year of child care stabilization funding to support child care providers. They have also advocated for sustained, transformative investments to ensure that all families can access affordable, high-quality child care and that child care workers are appropriately compensated.

The Department of Treasury’s 2021 report on the economics of child care supply in the U.S. highlights the chronic underinvestment in the child care sector, which hinders parents’ ability to contribute to the economy and make a decent living. Simply returning to the pre-pandemic status quo would negatively impact families and our economic potential.

Broad Reach of the ARP Child Care Stabilization Program

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services released new data on the ARP Child Care Stabilization program, showcasing its extensive reach in supporting child care providers across the country:

• All 50 states, Washington, D.C., and four US territories operated Child Care Stabilization programs. Nationwide, providers in over 96% of counties received aid.
• More than 8 in 10 licensed child care centers nationwide received assistance.
• About 30,000 child care programs in rural counties received aid, benefiting small businesses and families in areas where child care was already scarce.
• Assistance was provided to child care providers in 98% of persistent poverty counties, which are counties with a history of high poverty rates.
• Over 44% of programs that received assistance were owned or operated by people of color.
• 53% of providers receiving stabilization funds were operating in the most racially diverse counties.

The Child Care Stabilization program played a critical role in supporting child care centers and family child care providers, many of which are small women-owned businesses. It helped these businesses remain open or reopen and retain their child care workforce, which is predominantly made up of women of color. Stabilization funds were used by child care centers to cover personnel costs, while family child care programs used the funds to cover rent or mortgage payments, their largest operating expense.

###

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 1: No Poverty
• SDG 5: Gender Equality
• SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
• SDG 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
• SDG 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
• SDG 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, there are indicators mentioned in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets:

• Indicator: Amount of money saved per child per year in child care costs.
• Indicator: Increase in labor force participation and employment of mothers of young children.
• Indicator: Increase in real wages of child care workers.
• Indicator: Benefit-cost ratio of the investments.
• Indicator: Percentage of child care providers receiving assistance in different counties and territories.
• Indicator: Percentage of licensed child care centers receiving assistance nationwide.
• Indicator: Number of child care programs in rural counties receiving aid.
• Indicator: Assistance provided to child care providers in persistent poverty counties.
• Indicator: Percentage of programs owned or operated by people of color receiving assistance.
• Indicator: Percentage of providers receiving stabilization funds operating in racially diverse counties.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.

Source: whitehouse.gov

Join us, as fellow seekers of change, on a transformative journey at https://sdgtalks.ai/welcome, where you can become a member and actively contribute to shaping a brighter future.