Tell Your Member of Congress: Child Care is Critical!

Members of Congress are home for the last time before the September funding deadline — and this is our moment to speak up. Child care is one of the biggest expenses working families face, and federal funding is a lifeline for families, children, and our economy.

Federal programs like Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) support millions of families across the country.

• Head Start delivers high-quality early learning, nutrition, and medical care for young children, while giving parents the ability to work.
  
• CCDBG is the nation’s largest federal child care program, helping families afford care they otherwise couldn’t.

These programs help provide options for parents, support local businesses, and make care more affordable. But without strong federal funding, families, providers, and employers are left with impossible choices.

What you can do:

✅ Email your Member of Congress — urge them to protect and increase child care and early learning funding
✅ Invite your member to visit your local child care center. Learn how to reach out to their district office here. 
✅ Submit a Letter to the Editor to raise visibility in your community
✅ Share this Head Start map to show how federal investments impact real families

📣 Or, just use our Action Center to contact your lawmakers in minutes — all you need is your ZIP code.

Then, help us spread the word on social media. Just copy, paste, and post using the tweets and graphics below!

Tweets

1. 🚨 Child care is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. With Congress home before the Sept funding deadline, now’s the time to speak up. Tell your lawmakers: Protect & prioritize child care funding.
   
   📲https://www.ffyf.org/take-action/
   
2. Without federal investment, families face impossible choices—and our economy pays the price.
   
   ✅ Support Head Start
   ✅ Fund CCDBG
   ✅ Invest in families
   
   Tell Congress how important this is! https://www.ffyf.org/take-action/
   
3. Members of Congress are home for the last time before key funding decisions. Let’s make sure they hear loud & clear:
   
   Child care must be a top priority.
   
   📢 Contact your lawmakers: https://www.ffyf.org/take-action/

LTE Draft

As Congress returns to Washington to finalize this year’s funding package, they must prioritize what working families in [STATE] urgently need: strong, sustained federal investments in child care. For families in [Your Town/State], access to affordable, reliable child care is what allows parents to work, children to thrive, and our economy to function. But right now, the system is under strain, and families are paying the price.

Federal programs like the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Head Start are lifelines for working families. They help parents afford care that would otherwise be out of reach, give young children a strong start, and support small businesses and child care providers who are vital to our communities.

But without strong, sustained federal funding, the child care workforce shrinks, waitlists grow, and families are left with no good options. LAWMAKER, one of the best ways you can help your community is by protecting and expanding the investments that working families depend on every day.

Please tell your colleagues that they must act to protect and prioritize child care funding in this year’s appropriations process. Child care isn’t a luxury. It’s what keeps families, communities, and our economy running.