The New Economic Recovery Law: Child Care, Head Start and Early Head Start Resources

The Children's Defense Fund has gathered useful materials from federal agencies, congressional sources, and advocacy and other organizations that can help you become familiar with the Recovery Act funding and program activities available in states and communities. The New Economic Recovery Law: Resources to Help Children and the Economy provides links to these materials. This section of the guide provides information and resources for child care, head start and early head start and will be updated frequently to provide the latest and most helpful resources. 

Child Care, Head Start and Early Head Start

Departmental or Congressional Organizations

• Department of Health and Human Services' recovery website will include more details over time on funding for these programs
• Congressional Research Service (CRS): Gives a description and state allocation estimates for the $2 billion added to the Child Care and Development Block Grant prepared for the House Education and Labor Committee. 

Advocacy and Other Organizations

• Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP): CLASP has several helpful resources on their Reinvesting in Child Care web site.  
  • State-by-state estimates of dollars available to states for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).
  • An overview of what the Recovery Act does for the Child Care and Development Block Grant 
  • "Making Use of Economic Recovery Funds: Child Care Policy Options for States." This brief offers state policymakers and advocates a set of stimulative policy options for spending CCDBG Recovery Act funds that create new jobs, put additional resources into state economies, and/or help low-income families stay in the paid work force. These policy options will expand access to child care for low-income families and will improve the quality of available child care. 
  • "Ten Policies States Can Implement Now to Improve Infant/Toddler Child Care with Economic Recovery Funds." This brief  presents ten policy ideas for state policymakers to implement now to support quality programs and enhancement strategies that will improve early care and learning for infants and toddlers.
  • "Child Care and Early Education: Opportunities to Serve More Low-Income, Working Families." This audio conference discusses the opportunity for states and local communities to serve more low-income working families and to make long-term investments in quality programs through new investments in child care and early education in the Recovery Act. 
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC): It has a website devoted to Recovery Act resources that will help improve access to and the quality of early childhood education, including resources and state allocations for specific programs.   
• Build Initiative: "Maximizing Resources from the Stimulus Package: Possible Strategies for Funding Quality Rating and Improvement Systems." This brief describes potential sources for early childhood funding under the Recovery Act and how they can help assure quality early childhood programs.  These suggestions, which include efforts to increase teacher quality, also are helpful in exploring how the Recovery Act funds can be used to support other state early childhood initiatives. 
• Birth to Five Policy Alliance: The Alliance and its 16 grantees promote state policies to ensure positive early childhood development and supportive parenting.  It has developed an Economic Recovery Help Center, which includes an Economic Recovery News Center that provides state data, guidance, upcoming calls and events related to early childhood, and links to other relevant state and federal websites. People can also find answers to their specific Recovery Act questions by posting questions on the Alliance Recovery Blog. This website also offers customized assistance from the Alliance Recovery Response Team.   
• Zero to Three:  Navigating the Opportunities for Families with Young Children in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is an interactive tool designed to help decision makers and advocates navigate the ways in which Recovery Act funds may be used to positively impact the healthy development of infants and toddlers. The tool is organized around the needs of the whole child — Good Health, Strong Families, and Positive Early Learning Experiences. For each featured program, you can click on the links within the tool for an overview of the program, the population served or eligible, the Recovery Act provisions, and ways the new funds may be used.