After Hours Child Care Act

After-hours child care grants for parents

If enacted, this bill would create a pilot grant program at HHS to expand child care for parents who work nontraditional hours. The Secretary would have to start the pilot within 90 days and run competitive grants. Grants would last five years, would not be renewable, and would range from $25,000 to $500,000. Grantees would provide a 25% non‑Federal match. Eligible applicants would include child care providers or partnerships with providers and groups like businesses, child care resource and referral organizations, community lenders, or staffed family child care networks. Grants could pay for staff, facility and equipment improvements, curriculum, licensure and safety work, and SIDS/safe‑sleep training. The law would define nontraditional hours as schedules where at least 25% of work hours are before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. on weekdays, on Saturdays or Sundays, or scheduled within seven days before required attendance. Existing programs expanded must have been operating by January 1, 2027. The Secretary would report to Congress at least every two years on children served, parents' employment status, and outcome data. Congress could appropriate $10 million for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 to carry out the pilot.