Sec. 2. Findings and purposes
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Congress finds the following: For millions of today’s working families, child care is an essential ingredient of their success. Child care helps children, families, and communities prosper, and helps the Nation maintain its competitive edge. Close to 12,000,000 children under age 5, and 10,000,000 over the age of 5, are in some type of child care setting each day. More than 60 percent of children are cared for regularly in a child care setting. Recent polls of working parents found that parents are primarily concerned about safety and quality of care, followed by cost.
Nationally, the most common form of death among post-neonatal infants under age 1 is death occurring during sleep, as a result of incorrect sleeping practices. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year in the United States, more than 4,500 infants die suddenly of no immediately obvious cause. Half of these sudden unexpected infant deaths are due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the leading cause of sudden unexpected infant deaths and all deaths among infants who are not younger than 1 month but younger than 12 months.
Researchers estimate that child care settings account for at least 20 percent of sudden unexpected infant deaths in the United States. In its 2011 report on child care center licensing regulations, Child Care Aware of America, formerly known as the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, noted that— extensive research and recommendations from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention favor simple life-saving safe sleep strategies to eliminate serious risk factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and sudden unexpected infant death; and the strategies noted in subparagraph
(A)are not universally required under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 nor in the majority of State child care regulations.