Assistant Speaker Clarks Celebrates $314 Million In Child Care Relief For Massachusetts, Supporting 202,400 Children & Families

In full transparency, the following is a press release from Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark’s office to SOURCE media. Clark is the congresswoman for this area. She is a Democrat. (file photo). 

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MALDEN  – Assistant Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Katherine Clark (MA-5) celebrated the transformational impact of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on child care providers and families in Massachusetts.

New data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that the American Rescue Plan’s historic investments provided Massachusetts with $314.4 million for its Child Care Stabilization Program, funding 6,530 centers caring for 202,400 children in the Commonwealth.

“Democrats know that child care is essential to families and the economy. We made a historic investment to keep care centers open, lower child care costs for families, and help parents return to work,” said Assistant Speaker Clark. “Additionally, the American Rescue Plan allowed child care providers to invest in their staff and tackle the ongoing workforce shortage that we face across the care sector. This law was critical to our recovery and ensured that the early education sector we all rely on survived the pandemic.”

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In Massachusetts, the ARPA child care stabilization funding provided critical aid to programs in every county within the Commonwealth, supporting 6,530 child care centers and impacting 202,400 children: 

1. Helping child care workers remain employed: 2,440 of the child care centers that received funding used the aid to cover personnel costs.
2. Maintaining access to quality child care for families: 4,090 child care family homes used the aid to pay for operating expenses.
3. Providing overdue assistance to providers: On average, centers received $95,500, and family homes received $12,800. 

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The ARPA Child Care Stabilization Program has provided vital relief for child care centers and families across the nation:

1. Allowing providers to remain open and reopen: The funding helped providers stay open and serve 9.5 million children and families. 
2. Helping working families afford child care: It provided the largest-ever increase in the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, making more families eligible for child care assistance. Additionally, 1 in 4 families in the United States used the ARPA’s Child Tax Credit to pay for child care. 
3. Got parents back to work: The employment rate for mothers with children under six has fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. 
4. Contributing to an equitable recovery: This program aided over 30,000 child care centers in rural areas and assisted those in persistently impoverished counties. It also provided funding to centers owned and operated by people of color in some of our country’s most racially diverse communities. It also helped child care providers cover basic operational costs like wages, benefits, rent, and program materials

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