Child Care & Development Funds for California in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
February 13, 2009
California’s low income families and children, and the early care and education community have
been waiting to learn what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) will
mean for the state, and whether there will be new investments in child care, early education and
related programs. The short answer is: California is anticipated to receive $220,273,864 in
additional federal Child Care and Development Block Grant funds over the next two years1, as well
as significant additional Head Start and IDEA Preschool funds. The ARRA has a variety of other
provisions that will help support low and middle-income families in these difficult economic times.
We are grateful to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) for their updated information on
the early care and education provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The conference committee compromise version of the bill is expected to be approved by the
House and Senate by this weekend and signed by the President early next week. The NWLC
summary of the bill, below, is followed by our discussion of the share of funding California is likely
to receive.
National Women’s Law Center Summary of Child Care Funding in ARRA:
-$2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, with $255,186,000 of this amount set
aside for quality improvement (beyond the required 4 percent), of which with $93,587,000 is
targeted for improving infant and toddler care. This funding will be available upon enactment of
the legislation. These funds must be used to supplement, not supplant, existing state general
revenue funds.
-$2.1 billion for Head Start, including $1.1 billion for expansion of Early Head Start programs. Of
the Early Head Start funding, up to 10 percent is available for training and technical assistance and
up to 3 percent is available for monitoring. The report language in