Senator Murray Continues Fight for Child Care, Announces Nearly $900K in Child Care Funds for Washington State Parents Pursuing Higher Ed

Senator Murray: “A key part of that fight is ensuring that student parents get the child care support they need to complete their degrees, and that’s exactly what this critical funding will help do for college students across Washington state.”

(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced nearly $900,000 to help student parents at five Washington state colleges and universities get the child care they need to continue pursuing a higher education. A long-time child care champion, Senator Murray is leading the charge in the Senate to ensure families can find and afford child care—because child care is unaffordable for parents across the country. This fight includes her non-stop efforts to ensure student parents—the over 4 million, or 1 in 5, higher education students raising children—get the child care support they need to help complete their degrees since child care is all too often an insurmountable barrier.

The critical resources headed to Washington state colleges come from the Department of Education’s Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS)—which Senator Murray is leading the fight to expand and improve. In 2017, Senator Murray led her colleagues in introducing a bill to reauthorize CCAMPIS, and since then, she has worked to secure more funding for the program—including a historic funding increase in 2018 to help meet demand. Senator Murray secured an increase of $10 million in funding for CCAMPIS in this year’s government funding package, and she is pushing to invest $30 million more in next year’s funding bill.

“Right now, parents across Washington state are struggling to find and afford child care—and I know for too many people it means they have to leave a job, skip a promotion, or put their higher education dreams on pause. It’s clear to me the child care system just isn’t working for working families—that’s why I go to work each and every day focused on how we can do more to help parents find and afford the child care they need,” said Senator Murray. 

“A key part of that fight is ensuring that student parents get the child care support they need to complete their degrees, and that’s exactly what this critical funding will help do for college students across Washington state. Investing in child care not only lifts up working families and student parents–it also strengthens our entire economy. That’s why I will continue to fight to invest in programs like CCAMPIS—and keep fighting to make progress in solving the child care crisis that is holding families, businesses, and our nation back,” continued Senator Murray.

A former pre-school teacher, Senator Murray is leading the fight in Congress to build a child care system that works for working families. Senator Murray has been creative—and persistent—in her fight to ensure working parents can find and afford child care. In 2018, Senator Murray delivered a historic increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the main source of federal child care support, and she has proposed investing an additional $1 billion in funding for the program in next year’s funding bill. She also secured historic child care relief via the American Rescue Plan, saving thousands of child care programs and preserving care for millions of children. Senator Murray’s Child Care for Working Families Act became the basis for President Biden’s child care plan. This year, she also  championed a child care proposal alongside Senator Tim Kaine as part of her continued fight to deliver child care reform that ensures working parents can find and afford child care, and supports child care workers.

In 2019, Senator Murray also teamed up with Senator Duckworth to release a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) outlining how more information could help student parents across the country access federal student aid that could help them complete their degree.

Below is a list of the institutions receiving funding: 

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