Child care is a significant expense for families and limited access strains families’ ability to meet their household needs. That is one reason why Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) leadership including Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Michael Olenick, CCRC President Donna Sneeringer, Senior Director, Strategy and Innovation, Becca Patton, and Government Relations Manager, Patrick MacFarlane joined over 120 business leaders across Los Angeles in the nation’s capital to advocate for critical policies that strengthen California.
“This annual Access D.C. trip brings organizations across Los Angeles region together to advocate on a number of issues, and it’s important for CCRC to be in those meetings fighting for child care funding and policies that will help the children and families we serve,” said CCRC Government Relations Manager, Patrick MacFarlane.
The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce organizes this trip to help ensure that leaders in the worlds of business, advocacy, early education, and health care get access to congressional staffers and legislators and discuss policies that will benefit Los Angeles and California families.
This year’s main themes focused on 1) Rebuilding Los Angeles, 2) Welcoming Global Sporting Events, and 3) Stimulating Economic Growth.
All of which – at their core – would benefit with a strong child care infrastructure.
“CCRC has a role to play in working with our community to understand the importance of child care. It’s important for us to engage and partner with the chamber and all of the other business entities that attend,” said CCRC President, Donna Sneeringer. “It’s wonderful to really think about child care in the context of everything else happening in our community whether it’s transportation, major events, heath care, or all the other things that happen in Los Angeles. Child care is part of the economic infrastructure that makes business happen.”
Child Care Is Important and Everyone Benefits
Parents who have access to quality, affordable child care, are able to get a job, maintain employment, secure a promotion with additional certification, and ultimately contribute to the local economy with additional purchasing power.
Child care providers, the unsung heroes of this industry, are small business owners who benefit as well. They can hire more staff, care for more children, and contribute back into the community.
Business leaders benefit because their employees are less likely to call out unexpectedly and are often more productive at work. For those companies who include child care as a benefit, it is a way for them to retain and attract talent.
“We need to let all the national folks know that [child care] is important and that our families and our kids are important,” said CCRC Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Michael Olenick. “We’ve gone from serving 17,000 children to now serving 60,000. If we got more funding, we would be able to increase the number of children that we serve.”
In the fourth largest economy, California is still only serving 1 in 10 children.
“I think we need a really large and sustained investment in child care. There are many families who are eligible, but on the waitlist because there’s not enough space or families don’t qualify but still can’t afford child care.” Speaking on the importance of additional funding, Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation, Becca Patton, talks about how additional funding could help families. “The idea that families could just not worry about child care and know that their child is somewhere safe.”
A Unified Message
More child care funding would create financial security for families and support a child’s early learning and development. Two of the policies discussed included
- Funding for the Child Care Development Block Grant which is the primary federal funding stream supporting child care subsidies for working families. An increase in funding would help the child care infrastructure. Without funding growth, parents cannot work, and employers cannot hire.
- Head Start and Early Head Start provides comprehensive early education, health, and family support services to children. It strengthens school readiness, family stability, and offers long-term economic outcomes.
What’s Next?
On the final day, CCRC hosted an Early Childhood Education Senate Briefing Breakfast, featuring staffers Colin Kruse (Senator Schiff) and Adrienne Epstein (Senator Padilla) who dedicated their morning to meet with our ECE partners and discuss ways to continue to advocate for the whole child and whole family
“The work that we do to make sure we’re elevating those stories, to ensure that we keep families stable is really why we do this work. Every dollar counts. Every investment is really critical to the well-being of our families and our overall community.” Justin Blakely, Public Policy Manager at Crystal Stairs, “It’s important for us to figure out how we can collaboratively work with all partners and be innovative to make sure that there’s a continuity of care in all ways for families.”
CCRC will continue to connect with legislators, be a resource, share data, and help tell the stories of American families who are making it work and how many more families we could reach with additional funding.
Child Care Changes Lives
If you’re a family, or a child care provider, who has benefitted from child care financial assistance programs, we’d like to hear from you. Share your story!
We’d like to thank the following representatives and legislators for their leadership and making the time to meet with us, ask us questions, and hear about these critical policies.
Office of Representatives: Pete Agular (D-CA-34), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA-10), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA-34), Sara Jacobs (D-CA-51), Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), Mike Levin (D-CA-49), Ted Lieu (D-CA-36), Zoey Lofgren (D-CA-18), Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15), Scott Peters (D-CA-50), Luz Rivas (D-CA-29), Lateefa Simon (D-CA-12), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA-14)
Committee Staff from the: House Education & Workforce, Senate Appropriations Labor- Health and Human Services – Education, Senate Finance, as well as Senate Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions.
Senator Adam Schiff and Staffer Colin Kruse, Senator Alex Padilla and Staffer Adrienne Epstein, along with Senator Nancy Pelosi.
If you would like to learn more about our advocacy efforts, please visit our Legislative Corner or email [email protected].
