WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, is sponsoring legislation that would help expand access to high-quality child care services at no cost to student parents enrolled in community colleges and minority-serving institutions.

Gillibrand’s legislation comes after a report revealed that one in five college students are raising a child under the age of five while in college and that many parents have trouble finding affordable and high-quality child care.

The Preparing and Resourcing Our Student Parents and Early Childhood Teachers Act (PROSPECT Act), would provide $9 billion in new grant programs to provide high-quality infant and toddler care at no cost to low-income parents attending community colleges and minority-serving institutions.

“Parents shouldn’t have to choose between getting a college degree and affording child care. However, many student parents have trouble finding and affording high-quality child care services, particularly for infants and toddlers,” Gillibrand said.

“That’s why I am pleased to cosponsor the Preparing and Resourcing Our Student Parents and Early Childhood Teachers Act, which would create $9 billion in new grant programs to increase access to child care for low-income student parents at community colleges and minority-serving institutions. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and help provide child care to student parents.”

Specifically, the PROSPECT Act would:

¯ Invest $9 billion over five years in three, new, competitive grant programs to help community colleges and MSIs provide free, high-quality child care to up to 500,000 children under the age of three with a parent enrolled in the institution; provide funding and technical support to infant and toddler care programs near community colleges and MSIs; and improve and increase the child care workforce by supporting early childhood education programs at these institutions to create a pipeline of infant and toddler care providers in the community;

¯ Expand the eligibility requirements for the Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG) childcare subsidy to low-income parents enrolled in an accredited institution of higher education;

¯ Increase federal government and state investment in the CCDBG program by increasing the federal match rate for childcare services for infants and toddlers to 90 percent;

¯ Require institutions of higher education to share with students information on the Dependent Care Allowance, which can provide many student parents with an additional $3,000 in subsidized federal student loans per year.