Essential Skills and Child Care for Health Professions Act
This bill, the Essential Skills and Child Care for Health Professions Act, would require health profession demonstration projects funded under the Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG) program to provide foundational educational supports and child care. Specifically, projects would must assess adult basic-skills and English-language proficiency, offer or connect participants to needed adult basic education (ABE) and English-language programs, and support ongoing skills development during and after training. The bill also guarantees access to affordable child care for project participants, with options including referrals to subsidized care, direct payments to providers when subsidies aren’t available, or assistance with co-pays and fees. It aims to reduce barriers for low-skilled or English-language-learner individuals to enter and complete health careers, by embedding foundational education and child care into HPOG demonstration projects. The amendments would take effect October 1, 2025.
Key Points
- 1Requires HPOG demonstration projects to assess adult basic skills and provide or facilitate ABE/ESL education to help participants enter and complete post-secondary health training.
- 2Establishes a multi-part approach to foundational education, including pre-training partnerships, ongoing skill advancement during training, and ongoing skill maintenance via post-graduation coaching.
- 3Guarantees child care support for participants, including referral/enrollment help in subsidized care, direct payments to providers when subsidies aren’t available, and coverage of co-pays or fees.
- 4Allows projects to assist with obtaining high school equivalency or completing ABE courses as needed to achieve success in the program and advance toward career goals.
- 5Amends the Social Security Act’s Health Profession Opportunity Grant program by adding new subdivision (c) (and renumbering subsequent sections), with an effective date of October 1, 2025.