Sec. 132001. Child care access
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Part A of title IV of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 601–619 ) is amended by inserting after section 418 the following: The Secretary shall conduct a stakeholder engagement process to make recommendations about the development and implementation of the State Child Care Information Networks to be operated by the States, Indian tribes, and territories. The stakeholder engagement process may include parents, center-based child care providers, home-based child care providers, child care policy experts, trade associations, labor unions, and other organizations representing child care providers.
The Secretary may use funds made available to the Secretary for administrative purposes to establish national technology models for State Child Care Information Networks, and guidance on development and establishment of interoperable data governance systems that address privacy and allow for sharing and storing data across information systems, including guidance on alignment with State child care consumer education websites. The Secretary shall, in consultation with an interagency work group established by the Office of Management and Budget and considering State government perspectives, designate data exchange standards for necessary categories of information that the Child Care Information Network is required to electronically exchange with another agency under applicable Federal law.
The data exchange standards designated under clause
(i)shall, to the extent practicable, be nonproprietary and interoperable. In designating data exchange standards under this subparagraph, the Secretary shall, to the extent practicable, incorporate— interoperable standards developed and maintained by an international voluntary consensus standards body, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget; interoperable standards developed and maintained by intergovernmental partnerships, such as the National Information Exchange Model; and interoperable standards developed and maintained by Federal entities with authority over contracting and financial assistance. The Secretary shall, in consultation with an interagency work group established by the Office of Management and Budget, and considering State government perspectives, designate data exchange standards to govern Federal reporting and exchange requirements under applicable Federal law. The data exchange reporting standards required by clause
(i)shall, to the extent practicable— incorporate a widely accepted, nonproprietary, searchable, computer-readable format; be consistent with and implement applicable accounting principles; be implemented in a manner that is cost-effective and improves program efficiency and effectiveness; and be capable of being continually upgraded as necessary. In designating data exchange standards under this subparagraph, the Secretary shall, to the extent practicable, incorporate existing nonproprietary standards. Nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to require a change to existing data exchange standards for Federal reporting under this section if the Secretary finds the standards to be effective and efficient. A State meets the requirements of this paragraph with respect to a quarter if— during the quarter, the State has maintained an up-to-date, publicly available compilation of child care providers who are registered, licensed, or regulated by the State (in this section referred to as the State Child Care Information Network ), that includes, with respect to each such provider— where the provider is located, and a description of any fees imposed by the provider and the services offered by the provider; whether the provider is providing child care services that may be funded under section 418; the hours of operation of the provider; whether the provider offers child care to the general public, and if so, where an application for child care services from the provider may be obtained, or a direct link to such an application; the total number of children, by age group, for whom the provider is providing child care services, and how many openings are available with the provider by age group; whether the provider has a waiting list for child care services, and if so, the average length of time parents are on the waiting list before being offered child care services and how to join the list; the type of child care (such as family child care or center-based care) provided, differentiating between licensed and license-exempt child care providers; and information about the languages spoken by staff of the child care provider, and such other information as the Secretary may require to help parents determine whether the provider can meet their child care needs and the parents can enroll a child in care, such as quality indicators or accreditation status; the State Child Care Information Network— by grant or contract, has been maintained or jointly maintained by— a child care resource and referral agency that has operated in the last fiscal year; a local child care resource and referral agency that has operated in the most recently completed fiscal year and has applied to become a State Child Information Network; or the lead agency, the State licensing entity, or other appropriate entities; may have been maintained in coordination with, or jointly with, other federally funded systems, so long as there is no supplantation of funding; and has been made— publicly available, including through the Internet and by telephone, to families seeking information about obtaining child care services; and accessible to State, county, and other government staff involved in the provision of child care; the State requires each provider listed in the State Child Care Information Network (or, at the option of the provider, another entity designated by the provider) to update the information described in clauses
(v)and
(vi)of subparagraph
(A)on a weekly basis, and to update all other information described in subparagraph
(A)not less frequently than quarterly, and ensures that publicly available information in the State Child Care Information Network indicates when the slot availability information about the provider was most recently updated; and the State has submitted to the Secretary a plan that includes an estimate of the total capacity of licensed, regulated, and registered provider slots, and a description of the eligible expenditures the State will make in the quarter, which may be submitted with other plans required by the Secretary. For each fiscal year specified in subparagraph (C), the Secretary shall make grants to lead agencies to conduct activities related to the planning and implementation of State Child Care Information Networks, which may include scaling systems such as non-profit community-based referral registries, staffed Family Child Care Networks, and child care resource and referral systems. The Secretary shall distribute the grant funds to the States that are not territories in accordance with the formula referred to in section 418(a)(2)(B), and to the territories according to relative need. Out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated to the Secretary $200,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 and 2023 for grants under this paragraph. The Secretary shall pay to each State that meets the requirements of subsection (a)(4) with respect to a calendar quarter in any of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 an amount equal to 75 percent of the eligible expenditures of the State in the quarter, subject to subsection (d)(3). In this section, the term eligible expenditures means all of the following, but only to the extent supplementing, and not supplanting, funds made available under other law: Expenditures to carry out subsection (a)(4). Expenditures to establish an option, as indicated by the State in a plan describing planned eligible expenditures (which may be submitted with other plans required by the Secretary)— for a family to file an application for a subsidized child care certificate with a child care provider, for the provider to submit the application to the State for processing, or for the lead agency, a local child care resource and referral agency, or other entity under grant or contract to respond to the family; to establish a statewide common application for child care, which— allows an application with respect to a child to be submitted simultaneously to multiple child care providers; allows the application to be for a particular site and schedule; is considered an application directly to each such provider involved for purposes of any decision of the provider regarding a wait list or an open slot based on the application date; safeguards confidential information; and allows for such a provider to seek and collect information not on the common application so that the provider may determine the priority to be given to the applicant on any waiting list or for other specialized admission criteria such as disability services; or to enable child care providers to respond to families through other application methods. Expenditures for child care providers, lead agencies, and contractors to support system-building and system-implementation activities associated with the State Child Care Information Network, including data interoperability and the installation and maintenance of equipment and software needed to develop, implement, maintain, and provide electronic access to the State Child Care Information Network. Expenditures to provide financial incentives and support to child care providers for whom participating in the State Child Care Information Network would be costly or time consuming. In providing the incentives, a lead agency— shall take into account the differential burden on varying types of providers to ensure that the incentives are sufficient to encourage all types of providers, including family-based providers, to participate in the State Child Care Information Network; may coordinate with staffed Family Child Care Networks, child care resource and referral organizations, labor unions, labor-management partnerships, or other community-based organizations, to ensure that home-based providers are able to participate in the State Child Care Information Network; and may reimburse coordinating partners and other entities for expenses associated with helping providers participate in the Child Care Information Network and provide information required under subsection (a)(4)(A). Out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated to the Secretary for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 such sums as are necessary for grants under this paragraph. The Secretary shall— maintain current information on child care providers who are qualified to receive the HHS Participating Child Care Provider Certification for a calendar quarter, and historical information on child care providers who were so qualified for a prior calendar quarter, including a quarter in a prior year, (in this section referred to as the HHS Participating Child Care Provider Certification ) based on the information submitted by lead agencies; update the list of providers who are so qualified, 1 month before the end of each quarter, and electronically share with the Internal Revenue Service current and historical information on the providers who are so qualified; and at the end of each calendar year and on request of any provider listed in the HHS Participating Child Care Provider Certification who has qualified for the certification for an entire calendar quarter, provide the provider and the lead agency of the jurisdiction in which the provider is located written documentation of the quarters with respect to which the provider was so qualified. A child care provider is qualified to receive the HHS Participating Child Care Provider Certification for a calendar quarter if the provider— is licensed with a State as a provider of child care services, or is in a license-exempt category of providers that meets all health and safety standards and has zero unresolved violations; is providing child care services that may be funded under section 418; has submitted to the State Child Care Information Network, on a weekly basis, the information on all available child care slots with the provider required under subsection (a)(4)(A)(v), and the waiting list information required under subsection (a)(4)(A)(vi); makes child care slots available to the general public, when available, subject to any clearly explained priority system; and is in compliance with other requirements set by the State regarding applications for or inquiries about available child care slots; or was so qualified for the entire 3-month period preceding the most recent update made under paragraph (1)(B). The Secretary shall periodically conduct accuracy checks of randomly sampled child care providers participating in any State Child Care Information Network to determine whether the providers are updating their slot availability on a weekly basis, and if not, estimate the statewide rate at which the providers are doing so. The Secretary shall issue guidance regarding data interoperability (in accordance with the data exchange standards for interoperability) and the privacy and security of personally identifiable information in any State Child Care Information Network. The percentage specified in subsection (b)(2)(A) with respect to a State shall be 70 percent if— a check conducted under paragraph
(1)of this subsection reveals that the number of child care providers erroneously included or erroneously not included in the State Child Care Information Network is at least 10 percent of the number of providers included in the network; and the State has not submitted to the Secretary a report demonstrating that action has been taken to reduce that error rate to less than 10 percent. The Secretary shall issue guidance to States which specifies the expenditures that will be considered eligible expenditures for purposes of this section. Before issuing grant awards for fiscal year 2023 or a succeeding fiscal year, the Secretary, in consultation with the States, shall annually publish the amount of eligible expenditures of each State in the preceding fiscal year. Out of any funds in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, there is appropriated $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 for administrative expenses in carrying out subsections
(c)and (d). .
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- 42 USC 601–619
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Sec. 132001
Child care access
Cite42 USC 601–619
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