by Camalot Todd, Nevada Current
The Biden administration’s request for $16 billion in child care funding would include $138 million for Nevada, helping an estimated 960 service providers and 102,300 children, according to a White House announcement.
The White House intends for the funding to be a one-year continuation of stabilization funds which helped keep child care programs afloat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic but expired without being reauthorized in September.
The fate of the administration’s funding request is uncertain in a divided Congress.
Nationally, access to child care helps increase maternal employment and lifetime earnings for women. For children, access to child care improves school readiness, socio-emotional development, future educational attainment, employment, and earnings. Improvements to child care also help address socioeconomic disparities for families of color, indigenous communities, rural communities, and families with children with disabilities.
In Nevada, not having access to child care is a major barrier for women living in domestic violence situations from fleeing — 44% of Nevadan women experience domestic violence in their lifetime — higher than the national average, according to a University of Nevada Las Vegas research brief.
The entire state of Nevada is classified as a “child care desert” with nearly 75% of children under 5 years not having access to a child care provider, according to a 2022 report by the First Five Years Fund, a bipartisan organization that focuses on policies benefit the developmental stage of childhood.
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