[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2425 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2425

     To protect babies and young children in childcare settings by 
          strengthening transparency and safety requirements.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 27, 2025

Mr. Fallon (for himself, Mrs. Hayes, Ms. Van Duyne, Mr. Gooden, and Mr. 
    Nehls) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on Education and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To protect babies and young children in childcare settings by 
          strengthening transparency and safety requirements.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Kairo Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act:
            (1) The term ``certain child care provider'' means a 
        center-based child care provider, a family child care provider, 
        a sectarian child care provider, or other provider of child 
        care services for compensation that receives any amount of 
        Federal funding towards providing child care or early learning 
        programs, including but not limited to Child Care Development 
        Block Grants and Head Start funding.
            (2) The term ``Center-based child care provider'' means a 
        provider licensed or otherwise authorized to provide child care 
        services for fewer than 24 hours per day per child in a non-
        residential setting, unless care in excess of 24 hours is due 
        to the nature of the parent(s)' work.
            (3) The term ``family child care provider'' means one or 
        more individual(s) who provide child care services for fewer 
        than 24 hours per day per child, in a private residence other 
        than the child's residence, unless care in excess of 24 hours 
        is due to the nature of the parent(s)' work.
            (4) The term ``sectarian organization and sectarian child 
        care provider'' means a religious organization or religious 
        provider generally. The terms embrace any organization or 
        provider that engages in religious conduct or activity or that 
        seeks to maintain a religious identity in some or all of its 
        functions. There is no requirement that a sectarian 
        organization or provider be managed by clergy or have any 
        particular degree of religious management, control, or content.

SEC. 3. PARENTAL RIGHTS AS A CONDITION OF FUNDING.

    (a) Any provider receiving Federal funds towards providing child 
care or early learning programs, including but not limited to Child 
Care Development Block Grants or Head Start funding must develop a 
parent's bill of rights for child care that includes--
            (1) contact information for the state child abuse hotline 
        and agency responsible for investigating suspected abuse, 
        neglect, or exploitation in a child care operation;
            (2) information on how to access the State's electronic 
        database, if applicable, of child care monitoring and 
        inspection reports as described in section 658E(c)(2)D) of the 
        Child Care and Development Block Grant Act;
            (3) for Head Start and Early Head Start programs 
        information on how to access monitoring reports conducted by 
        the Office of Head Start;
            (4) access to review such child care facility's written 
        records concerning the such child;
            (5) receive from the child care facility, upon request, the 
        responsible state agency's inspection reports for the child 
        care facility and information about how to access the child 
        care facility's compliance history online;
            (6) compliance by the facility with a court order 
        preventing another parent or guardian of such child from 
        visiting or removing such child from such facility;
            (7) the contact information for the division responsible 
        for regulating the child care facility, including the 
        division's name, address, and phone number;
            (8) access, within 2 business days from time of written 
        request, to any video recording of an alleged incident of abuse 
        or neglect involving such child if--
                    (A) such a video recording of the alleged incident 
                is available;
                    (B) such parent or guardian is prohibited from 
                retaining any part of the video recording depicting a 
                child who is not the child of such parent or guardian;
                    (C) the parent or guardian of any other child 
                captured in such video recording receives written 
                notice from such provider of a request for access to 
                such video recording;
                    (D) a copy of the child care facility's policies 
                and procedures; access to review such provider's--
                            (i) staff training records; and
                            (ii) any in-house staff training curriculum 
                        used by such provider; and
                    (E) freedom from any retaliatory action by such a 
                provider for exercising any of the parent's or 
                guardian's rights under this Act.
    (b) A child care provider shall provide the parent or guardian of a 
child for whom it provides child care services a written copy of the 
rights listed in subsection (a) no later than 45 days after the 
effective date of this Act; or not later than the child's 1st day on 
which such services begin after such effective date.
    (c) This section does not affect the ability of a law enforcement 
agency or a local- or state-run child protective services agency to 
access a video recording as part of an investigation of an incident 
depicted in such video recording.

SEC. 4. NOTICE OF REQUIREMENT TO COMPLY.

    Not later than 30 days after the effective date of this Act, the 
Director of the Department of Health and Human Services will direct the 
Office of Child Care (OCC) and the Office of Head Start (OHS) to make 
all current and future potential recipients of Child Care Development 
Block Grants and Head Start funding aware of the new requirements.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall take effect 30 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the date of the enactment of this Act.
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