High-quality, nurturing, and affordable child care is essential to support children and their parents. A large body of evidence demonstrates the importance of high-quality early environments as critical determinants of school readiness, cognitive and social outcomes, and later educational and career success. Child care that meets the needs of families is also a key work and educational support for parents and caregivers.

However, many families across the income spectrum face interrelated barriers of cost, location, hours, and availability of high-quality child care.  Comprehensive investment in a child care system that responds to the realities of families is essential to  ensure every family has access to high-quality, affordable child care starting at birth and universal pre-K for 3 and 4 year-olds.

Policy Goals

• Provide universal access to high-quality child care beginning in infancy.
• Increase public investment in Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
• Secure and expand funding for the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) to offset provider costs, improve quality, and ensure that every eligible family can reliably access a child care subsidy. 
• Update child care subsidies to match the true cost of providing care.
• Limit co-payment fees for child care subsidies.

• Simplify the child care assistance application and recertification process to increase usage and continuity of care arrangements.
• Implement a more gradual decline in child care assistance benefits that avoids an abrupt reduction or loss of subsidy and provide a smooth off-ramp for families in the workforce.
• Make the child and dependent care tax credit (CDCTC) refundable to ensure it benefits families with the lowest incomes.