DeLauro on the Issues | Legislation

Legislation Introduced by Congresswoman DeLauro

107th Congress | 106th Congress | Search for Legislation

107th Congress

Currently, because of a lack of funding, only fifty percent of eligible children are served by Head Start.  For many children, the ability to succeed in school has been severely limited by the lack of a nurturing environment during the earliest years of life – whether it be at home with a parent, in child care, or in an early learning setting.

By combining education reform with pro-family policies that ensure a 'right start' in life for every child, Congresswoman DeLauro has begun to find a legislative solution to this problem.  On January 30, 2001, DeLauro introduced the "Right Start Act of 2001" in the House of Representatives.  This legislation is the first in a series of bills to improve the lives of children and their families in Connecticut and across the nation.

The “Right Start” Act would expand and improve Head Start, child care, early learning opportunities, family choice in child care, and family and medical leave. This is a giant step for our nation as we move towards the day when all chidlren arrive at school ready to learn.

On January 22, 2001 similar legisation was also  introduced in the Senate by Senator Tom Daschle, Senator Chris Dodd and sixteen other Senators.

Specifically this legislation includes the following provisions:

• Currently, because of a lack of funding, only fifty percent of eligible children are served by Head Start. The Right Start Act  would reach full funding for Head Start by 2006.

• Doubles the number of children served by the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) initiative, originally authored and enacted by Dodd in 1990, from 1.8 million to 3.75 million children.
  
  
• Encourages states to make needed improvements to the quality of child care, including conducting background checks on child care providers, improving training and education of child care providers as well as better compensation, and ensuring the availability of care for children or infants with special needs and care during non-standard hours.

• Expands the current child care tax credit for low and middle-income families. A family earning $35,000 would see their tax credit more than double from $480 to $1080.
  
  
• Makes the credit refundable so that working families with little or no tax liability (those earning less than $25,000) can receive assistance with child care expenses.
  
  
• Gives a tax credit for the first time to stay-at-home parents with children under the age of 1.
  
  
• Provides a tax credit to employers for operating child care centers.

• Provides new funding to communities to improve early literacy, expands access to parenting education, links child care to health and other community services, improves the training of early learning providers, and improves access to early learning opportunities for children with special needs.

• Extends the Family and Medical Leave Act, also authored by Dodd, to workers in businesses with 25 to 50 employees. This provision will protect an additional 13 million working Americans and their families and provide coverage for 71 percent of the private workforce –– an increase of 14 percent.
  
  
• Works toward making Family and Medical Leave more affordable by funding demonstration projects that test different mechanisms for giving parents full or partial wage replacement after the birth or adoption of a child. Currently, nearly three quarters of employees who do not take a needed family or medical leave report that it is because they cannot afford to do so.

Status of H.R.265

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