Sponsors (5)
The bill targets expansion and quality improvements for child care serving nontraditional-hour workers through competitive grants, but its small funding level, local match requirement, temporary awards, and regulatory exemptions limit scale, equity, and long-term sustainability.
Parents who work nontraditional hours (evenings, nights, weekends) gain new subsidized child care options tailored to their schedules through competitive grants that also help cover startup and capacity costs.
Children served by grant-funded programs receive improved safety and quality supports (e.g., curriculum improvements, licensing assistance, SIDS/safe-sleep training), raising care standards for participating sites.
Employers and small businesses can more readily develop onsite or partner-based child care, which may boost employee retention and productivity for workers with nontraditional schedules.
The program is funded at only $10 million over five years, a small amount unlikely to meet national demand for nontraditional-hour care and therefore will serve a limited number of families.
Recipients must provide a 25% non‑Federal match, which may exclude cash‑strapped providers or communities (including rural and low‑resource areas) from participating.
Grants are one‑time, nonrenewable five‑year awards, creating a risk that successful programs face a funding cliff after the award period ends and cannot sustain services.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a 5-year competitive grant pilot to expand child care for parents working nontraditional hours and authorizes $10,000,000 for FY2027–FY2031.
Official title: Establish and expand child care programs for parents who work nontraditional hours, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 11, 2026 by Todd Young · Last progress February 11, 2026
Creates a five-year competitive pilot grant program to expand child care for parents who work nontraditional hours. The program, run through the Child Care and Development Innovation Fund in HHS, will award one-time grants ($25,000–$500,000) to projects that expand capacity, support staffing, improve facilities or onsite workplace care, and provide licensing/quality supports; it requires a 25% non‑Federal match and authorizes $10,000,000 for FY2027–FY2031. The Secretary must set up the pilot within 90 days, run grants for five years, provide biennial reports to Congress, and the new authority is exempted from most existing subchapter requirements except one cross-reference provision.