The following are the increases in the U.S. Senate Committee mark-up:
Child Care and Development Block Grant — $2.438 billion; a $160 million increase. Of this increase, $90 million is targeted to improving the quality of the early childhood care and education workforce and will support training, education, and other professional development opportunities. The remaining $70 million will be used to increase the number of families served, subsidy rates, and reimbursement rates to providers.
Head Start — $8.039 billion; a $70 million increase. In fiscal year 2012, HHS began implementing new regulations that will require Head Start grantees that do not meet certain performance standards to re-compete for funding.
Race to the Top — $600 million; a $51 million increase. A significant portion of fiscal year 2013 funds will be used for Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge.
Promise Neighborhood — $80 million; a more than $20 million increase over the fiscal year 2012 level.
Title I —$14.616 billion; an increase of $100 million for title I grants to local education agencies for improving education for low-income students.
Pell Grants — $4,860 (maximum discretionary award level) maintained for the 2013–2014 school year. Combined with mandatory funding, the total maximum award will rise by $85 to $5,635 (the first increase since the 2010-2011 school year).
Education for Individuals With Disabilities — $11.678 billion; an increase of $100 million, under section 611 of part B grants to States for educating students with disabilities between the age of 3 and 21. The bill also includes $463 million, an increase of $20 million, to support statewide systems of coordinated and early intervention services for children with disabilities two years old and younger, as well as their families.
What’s Next?
The House Subcommittee on Labor/HHS/Education is expected to mark-up its funding numbers the week of July 9th (they are on recess this week for the holiday). Both the House and Senate have yet to take their numbers to the floor. Once they have agreed on funding level numbers respectively, they will go into conference in order to agree upon a final number for each program. We will keep you posted on this process in the upcoming weeks.
Have a happy holiday!
