We need Bold, Robust Federal Support for Child Care & Head Start TAKE ACTION

Dear Friend,

Fall is here which means the leaves are falling, the pumpkin spice lattes are warming, and many of our nation’s littlest learners just had their very first day of school. This time of year highlights the importance of supporting our nation's little learners through quality, affordable and accessible child care. Early investment in our nation’s children gives them a strong start on their educational journey, from the first days onward!

*CLICK HERE to urge your member of Congress to ‘fall into fall’ by supporting child care that works for us all!

Your voice is needed! Even though it’s sweater weather, the current (and past) state of child care has been anything but warm and fuzzy. The child care system has long been in crisis mode, failing to meet the needs of families, providers, and businesses by continuing to be unaffordable, inaccessible and unattainable for families. Just this year, Department of Labor data revealed that U.S. families spend between 8.9% and 16.0% of their median income on full-day care for ONE child [1], and even more infuriating is that the cost of child care has been steadily increasing. Child care prices have gone up by nearly 30 percent since 2020 [2], rising 5.7 percent in just the past year! [3]

This complete lack of affordability not only forces an unnecessary economic burden on countless families, it also disproportionately hurts mothers. 71% of moms with kids under 18 are in the workforce [4] and too often end up facing the impossible choice between working in much-needed jobs and paying for child care.

SIGN NOW to tell Congress: Children and families need bold, robust federal support for child care!

What does bold federal support look like? It looks like Congress demonstrating true leadership by supporting bills that help provide solutions to this child care disaster, bills such as:

• The Child Care for Working Families Act, which would provide states with the robust funding necessary to truly meet the needs of families with young children across the country by reducing child care costs, increasing access to child care slots, investing in the early educator workforce, and making quality improvements that will set children up for success in the future.

• The Child Care for Every Community Act, a bill that establishes a network of federally-supported, locally-administered child care options. These high-quality, affordable child care and early learning options will provide every child in America with a fair opportunity to reach their full potential and will improve economic, child development, and employment outcomes for children and families.

• The Head Start for America’s Children Act, sweeping legislation which would expand Head Start to ensure that more than 11 million young children from working class families can access high-quality early education and comprehensive services, while also ensuring Head Start educators earn the wages they deserve.

Supporting these critical pieces of legislation will help bridge the massive discrepancy between the care families need and the care they can actually access, let alone afford. Plus, these policies will also boost our economy. Currently, 14.85 million children age five and under in the U.S. have all available parents in the workforce, yet federal and state early learning and care programs currently serve just 4.4 million children.[5] Bills like these play a critical role in finally addressing long-running and worsening gaps in care.

This is why we need YOU to take action to keep up the drumbeat on child care by signing onto our letter to Congress NOW.

Thank you for always showing up and taking action to make a positive difference for moms, families and children!

- Nadia, Lauren, Nina, Hanna, Donna, Kristin, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team

P.S. – Share your child care story with us today!

[1] NEW DATA: Childcare costs remain an almost prohibitive expense
[2] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
[3] 2024 Child Care Affordability
[4] Labor force participation of mothers and fathers little changed in 2021, remains lower than in 2019
[5] ANALYSIS: FFYF’s 2025 State Fact Sheets

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