AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 71, Chapter 3, relative to child care.
SB0902 creates two new child care-related programs within Tennessee’s human services law. First, it directs the commissioner of human services to develop and implement, by January 1, 2026, a Child Care WAGE$ Tennessee program that provides supplemental payments to full- and part-time child care workers based on years of service. To qualify, a worker must be employed at a licensed child care program, earn $20 per hour or less, have at least six months of service in the same program, work at least 10 classroom hours per week with children birth through age five, and remain employed when funding is available and final confirmation is completed. The bill also requires annual inflation adjustments to these payments using the consumer price index and allows the child care improvement fund to help support the program.
Second, the bill creates a child care payment assistance program for early childhood educators who are Tennessee residents and parents of a child attending the educator’s own licensed child care facility or another licensed facility in the state. Eligible educators must work at least 20 hours per week at a licensed child care center, family child care home, or group child care home, and the facility must accept child care assistance payments. The bill requires the department to disregard all of the educator’s income when determining eligibility for these assistance payments, and it bars child care agencies from placing the educator’s dependent child behind non-educator applicants on a wait list, except where other statutory priority rules apply.
The bill’s impact on state law is to add new sections to Tennessee Code Annotated Title 71, Chapter 3, Part 5, establishing a new workforce retention subsidy and a child care assistance benefit targeted to child care employees. It also directs the commissioner to seek inclusion of the educator eligibility requirements in the next available federal Child Care Development Fund grant application, authorizes rulemaking, and makes the act effective immediately upon becoming law. In practical terms, the measure would expand state-administered support for child care workers and early childhood educators while potentially affecting licensing, subsidy administration, and wait-list practices at participating child care agencies.
The overall sentiment reflected in the bill text is strongly supportive of child care workers and early childhood educators. The findings emphasize that child care is an essential service, that costs are burdensome for families, and that workers are underpaid relative to the value of their work. The bill is framed as a workforce improvement and retention measure, modeled on the Child Care WAGE$ program, with the stated goal of rewarding longevity in the profession.
Because there are no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, there is no documented opposition or debate in the supplied materials. The main potential points of contention apparent from the text are fiscal and administrative: the bill creates ongoing supplemental payments, requires annual inflation indexing, and may require the department to use existing child care improvement funds or federal grant resources to support the programs. The eligibility rules and the wait-list preference for educators’ children could also raise questions about program administration and fairness among applicants.
SB0902 amends Tennessee child care law by adding two new statutory programs: a wage supplement program for qualifying low-wage child care workers and a child care assistance program for eligible early childhood educators. It also authorizes the Department of Human Services to adopt rules, requires annual CPI-based payment adjustments, and allows use of the child care improvement fund to support the programs. The bill could affect licensed child care centers, family child care homes, group child care homes, child care workers, early childhood educators, and families seeking child care assistance.
The bill is presented in a strongly pro-child-care-worker and pro-family-support posture. Its findings describe child care as essential, highlight affordability pressures on families, and emphasize that child care workers are undercompensated. No votes or committee testimony were provided, so there is no recorded opposition or divided sentiment in the supplied materials.
No committee discussion or vote record was provided, so no explicit objections are documented. Based on the text, likely areas of contention include the cost of creating and sustaining the supplemental payment and assistance programs, the administrative burden on the Department of Human Services, the use of child care improvement funds and federal grant applications to finance the programs, and the special wait-list treatment for educators’ children, which could be viewed as preferential relative to other applicants.