{"id":143394,"date":"2025-06-25T19:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143394"},"modified":"2025-06-25T19:35:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:35:26","slug":"mcneill-applauds-passage-of-legislation-to-strengthen-the-child-care-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143394","title":{"rendered":"McNeill applauds passage of legislation to strengthen the child care workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>McNeill applauds passage of legislation to strengthen the child care workforce<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>HARRISBURG, June 25 \u2013&nbsp;<\/strong>State Rep. Jeanne McNeill is heralding the final passage of legislation she wrote to support the childcare workforce for childcare providers participating in the Child Care Works program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cToo many parents in Pennsylvania are forced to reduce their hours or leave the workforce altogether because they can\u2019t find affordable, reliable, and quality childcare,\u201d said McNeill. \u201cThere is a persistent shortage of childcare workers, driven in large part by low wages that make it difficult for providers to recruit and retain staff. I am proud of my colleagues to have voted in support of my legislation that would help solve this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;House Bill 506 would utilize funding proposed by the governor in the 2025-26 budget to support the childcare workforce through recruitment and retention bonuses for licensed childcare providers participation in the Child Care Works program. On average, those bonuses would result in an additional $1,000 per teacher annually, providing a meaningful resource to help childcare providers raise wages and stabilize the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cThis investment would not only help stabilize our childcare workforce and provide quality care and education to our youngest learners, but it will also support the broader workforce and strengthen Pennsylvania\u2019s economy by keeping parents from leaving their jobs due to high costs or lack of childcare,\u201d said McNeill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\">House Bill 506 now goes to the state Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Information provided to TVL:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Declan Shaffer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McNeill applauds passage of legislation to strengthen the child care workforce &nbsp; HARRISBURG, June 25 \u2013&nbsp;State Rep. Jeanne McNeill is heralding the final passage of legislation she wrote to support &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143394\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">McNeill applauds passage of legislation to strengthen the child care workforce<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rep-Jeanne-McNeill.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}