Child care is one of the hottest topics in public discourse today, and for good reason. The sector is finally (if a bit slowly) getting the attention it deserves, and several universal truths have emerged:

1. The ROI for early childhood investment is staggering. From a purely economic standpoint, few investments pay off as strongly or as consistently as early childhood. The National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs estimates returns between $4 and $9 per every $1 invested in high-quality early childhood programs.
2. Child care is a bipartisan issue. Although specific strategies and priorities may differ from right to left, all of society benefits from well-funded and well-functioning early care and education systems.
3. Child care is ripe for modernization. We’re not going to see sustainable gains by pouring more money into the old way of doing things. Better data and technology infrastructure can reduce barriers to entry, improve efficiencies, and give policymakers the data they need to make informed decisions.

June 2026 Updates

The Child Care Modernization Act is So Back

On June 9, Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pennsylvania), Susie Lee (D-Nevada), Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), and Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Michigan) introduced the Child Care Modernization Act in the House. The Act, which had most recently been introduced in the Senate last September, includes the following provisions: 

• New grants for child care supply building and the construction and improvement of child care facilities
• The introduction of cost estimation models for calculating provider reimbursement rates more closely aligned with the true cost of care
• Additional technical assistance to in-home and rural child care providers
• Flexibility for states to expand eligibility for CCDBG-funded programs
• The removal of regulatory burdens for rural providers
• Continued support for mixed delivery systems and family choice

The Act is, in many ways, a big step toward aligning CCDBG (last reauthorized in 2014) with the needs of today and delivering some semblance of future-readiness to the program. It is supported by a laundry list of who’s who in ECE and has repeatedly been shown to have strong public support from voters across party lines. Now is the time to act!

Read: First Five Things to Know About: The Child Care Modernization Act (First Five Years Fund)

Military Child Care Receives an Informative Review

The U.S. military child care system has long been looked to as a model framework for both employer-sponsored child care initiatives—the Department of Defense (DoD) operates the largest such program in the country—and workforce development efforts targeting its 19,000 child care workers. This month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued two reports shining a light on two potential sticking points for military families in need of care: provider eligibility challenges and workforce recruitment and retention difficulties. 

On the topic of supply, GAO found that community-based child care providers reported significant obstacles related to their eligibility to participate in the DoD’s fee assistance program. These challenges, many of which mirror the barriers posed by state licensing and quality program requirements throughout the country, include difficulty navigating program requirements, costly and time-consuming administrative burden related to accreditation, and a lack of clear communication related to ineligibility reasons and next steps. GAO’s recommendation was for DoD to provide more information to providers regarding eligibility-related decisions. 

On the workforce front, the report acknowledged ongoing difficulties recruiting and retaining workers for their child care programs. It includes a breakdown of where our military services are investing in recruitment bonuses and retention allowances (shout out to the Navy, which didn’t have the data to differentiate between the two). Not surprisingly, one of the most impactful benefits from a retention standpoint was the program’s child care fee discounts, which include free child care for the first child enrolled at a DoD child development center. This aligns with what is rapidly becoming a best practice at the state level. 

Read: Before They Can Serve Our Country, Many Military Parents Need Child Care (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Updates From the States

Maryland’s new Early Care and Education Coalition will seek to “come together to create stronger alignment and coordination and overall strengthened implementation of Maryland’s childhood system.” The coalition, led by many of Maryland’s most influential players in the ECE space will initially be focused on improving the state’s ECE workforce infrastructure, including a workforce registry and career lattice. Read: Newly formed early childcare coalition aims to drive home importance of work (The Baltimore Sun)

Nebraska celebrated a big win for its families when Governor Jim Pillen ceremoniously signed LB 304 into law at Omaha’s Kids Can Community Center alongside Senators Wendy DeBoer and Brad von Gillern, marking the culmination of a lengthy bipartisan effort. The bill permanently extended higher eligibility limits for the state’s childcare subsidy program that had previously been due to sunset in October of this year. The higher threshold represents a nearly $20,000 per year income cap raise from $42,000 to $61,050 for a typical family of four. Read: Gov. Pillen, Senators, and Childcare Advocates Celebrate Signing of LB 304 (Nebraska Office of the Governor)

New Hampshire closed out its legislative session with a mixed bag of results in ECE. The state passed bills giving retired kinship caregivers access to the state childcare scholarship program, continuing a ratio waiver program, creating a new child care tax credit for businesses, and simplifying zoning laws. Not making it across the finish line were multiple proposals that would have injected new funding into the child care scholarship program, one to upgrade its technology infrastructure and reduce lag time for parents and providers, and one that would have increased the program’s income eligibility threshold. A governor-endorsed on-site child care tax credit for businesses also failed to make it out of the Senate. Read: The childcare bills that failed to make it across the finish line in 2026 (New Hampshire Bulletin)

South Carolina’s required three-year audit of DSS programs focused on the department’s oversight of child care providers this year. The resulting report called out gaps in ongoing monitoring of providers that have appealed a revoked license, inconsistencies, long turnaround times, and outdated infrastructure in the licensing process, and unclear communication to providers about the state’s ABC Quality rating program. In the wake of the report, DSS Chief External Affairs Officer, Connelly Anne Ragley, noted that implementation of the audit’s recommendations will require additional funding appropriations. Read: Families pay $10K for child care in SC, audit finds. Is access key to lower cost? (The State)

Virginia became the latest state to embark on a public-private partnership journey with Governor Abigail Spanberger signing the new Employee Child Care Assistance Program into law. This Tri-Share-like approach, to be administered by the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, will match funds from employers contributing to the child care costs of their employees. Read: Governor Spanberger Signs Bipartisan Legislation Lowering Childcare Costs for Parents (Official Virginia Governor Website)

The clock strikes midnight this month in Wisconsin, where a massive child care supply crisis is about to get much worse. Despite years of drum-banging and a temporary reprieve in 2025, child care stabilization funding for providers ends on June 30, putting the future of as many as one in four centers in jeopardy. To make matters worse, there does not appear to be any avenue for hope between now and the passage of the 2027 state budget, “which will be hammered out by a new governor and a new state Legislature.” Read: Childcare providers are about to lose a safety net (News From The States)

Trending Original Research and Reports

Brittany Walsh at the Bipartisan Policy Center analyzed the child care workforce to give us some eye-opening statistics on the demographics, experience, compensation, and education of early childhood professionals in the United States today. Explore: Who Cares for Our Kids? Understanding the Child Care Workforce

Child Care Aware of America released its Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply report in late May. The report offers a comprehensive and aesthetically pleasing look at “a system under strain,” with limited progress in supply building and a continuing trend of rising prices for families. Explore: Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply

New America published the results of a “largest-of-its-kind, point-in-time” national survey of U.S. parents with young children under age six. The results reflect a parenting landscape in which families want more time with their children and more flexibility in care and employment options. Explore: What Parents of Young Kids Want: Insights from the 2026 National Parent Survey

Rebecca Gale’s self-labeled “research novella” for New America on Vermont’s long and winding path toward the 2023 landmark child care legislation known as Act 76 is a masterclass in long-form journalism. The piece serves both as a blueprint for meaningful change at the state level and as an emotional, engaging examination of the need for strong leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and the flexibility to pivot at a moment’s notice. This was my favorite read of the month. Read: Vermont Needed Child Care; Here’s How They Got It

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University published a deep-dive study on the supply of center- and home-based child care in greater Davidson County, Nashville, Tennessee. The findings, presented across an executive summary and five separate research briefs, are being used “to inform expansion planning, resource allocation, and policy and funding advocacy.” It’s a terrific example of data-driven decision making at the local level, and an approach we hope will expand to more communities. Explore: Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study 

Sara Mickelson, writing for Vox, made the rounds this month with her piece examining how ongoing supply issues have hampered the implementation of New Mexico’s “universal childcare” system. Read: How to screw up universal childcare (Paywall)

ICYMI: May 2026 Updates

Trying Times for the ECE Workforce

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) both recently took aim at the ECE workforce with notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would increase barriers to entry for the profession and exacerbate the financial hardships on those who care for and teach young children, making experienced educators even less likely to remain in the field than they already are. 

The DOE got things started at the end of April with an NPRM that “essentially requires that every program in institutions that participate in the (federal) Direct Loan Program demonstrate that its graduates make more than those who hold solely a high school diploma (for undergraduate programs) or who hole solely a baccalaureate degree (for graduate programs).” Source: NAEYC Public Comment Guide for the Do No Harm (DNH) Provision. The changes would limit access to federal student loans for aspiring ECE professionals and very likely result in the closure of ECE higher ed programs that would inevitably struggle to meet the earnings premium thresholds. 

The ACF’s Office of Head Start followed up just three weeks later with an NPRM titled Restoring Flexibility to Support Head Start Program Access that will largely undo the wage and benefits requirements of the 2024 Head Start rule. Per the First Five Years Fund State of Play: Rules and Regulations primer, this includes rollbacks of the following initiatives: 

• Developing or updating formal pay scales for all staff
• Paying education staff wages comparable to public preschool teachers
• Providing salaries sufficient to cover basic living costs
• Promoting wage comparability between Head Start Preschool and Early Head Start staff
• Health insurance and paid leave benefits
• Behavioral health supports
• Access to child care subsidies and student loan forgiveness
• Periodic reassessment of benefits packages

ACF’s messaging approach has been to position these items as “costly requirements,” and framing this rollback as a way to “restore flexibility” and “improve access.” What it's really going to do is shift even more of the burden of an underfunded system onto those who are already barely holding on. We urge our readers to provide comments prior to the June 11 deadline. 

Bipartisan Bills of Note

The Rural Child Care Facility Expansion Act was introduced by Reps. April McClain Delaney (D-Maryland) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa). This bill would create a low-interest loan program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for “rural child care providers to renovate, retrofit, expand, or adapt existing buildings to increase childcare capacity.” 

The Supporting Newborn Parents Act of 2026 was introduced by Reps. David Valadao (R-California), Tom Suozzi (D-New York), Blake Moore (R-Utah), and Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan). The bill would provide a tax credit of up to $2,000 per newborn to “help families cover the immediate costs that come with welcoming a child into the world.” Low- and middle-income working parents would qualify for the credit, which would be available as part of their annual tax refund or an advance payment shortly after a child is born. 

The Creating Early Childhood Leaders Act of 2026 was introduced by Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colorado) and Jahana Hayes (D-Connecticut) in the House and by Sens. Ben Ray Lujan (R-New Mexico) and Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) in the Senate. This bill would mandate “that school leadership programs receiving federal Teacher Quality Partnership grants incorporate training on early childhood development and effective instructional leadership from children from birth to age eight.” 

The bicameral Early Childhood Workforce Advancement Act was reintroduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and Reps. Lucy McBath (D-Georgia), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon), Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania), John Mannion (D-New York), Mike Lawler (R-New York), and Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia). The bill would make grants available to educational institutions for relevant workforce training programs and “establish, expand, or support career and technical education and career pathway programs of study in early childhood education.” 

Paid Family Leave Garners Momentum

Virginia became the 15th state to pass a paid family and medical leave program on April 22, when Governor Abigail Spanberger signed HB 1207/SB 2 into law. The state will now offer 80% of weekly wages up to 12 weeks for the birth of a new child, care of a family member with serious health conditions, or personal medical events. Employers will need to hold those jobs for participants when they return. Notably, this made Virginia the first state in the southern United States to enact a paid family leave policy, potentially opening the door for others to follow.

Virginia’s announcement came close on the heels of the introduction of Senate Bill 396 in Ohio, which would enact a similar program funded by employer and employee payroll contributions of .4%. While there is little optimism that Ohio’s bill will get passed in this session, it remains a notable indicator of growing bipartisan support for a critical pillar of early childhood policy. 

Pennsylvania is currently debating its own Family Care Act in the Senate after it passed the House in March. The bill has similar timelines (12 weeks) and triggering events as the others, but with a 90% wage replacement rate. It would also be funded by payroll contributions.

As child care access and affordability challenges continue to plague families throughout the country, the old adage that “paid family leave is child care” has never rang more true. 

Read: Virginia’s Paid Family Leave Law Signals Shift in the South (zero2eight)

Updates From the States

Colorado lawmakers in the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to postpone Senate Bill 180 indefinitely, essentially killing its chance of approval this year. The bill, which would have created “a new investment authority that could seek higher returns on certain pots of state money,” would have pursued modestly higher returns through more aggressive investments from certain pools of state money. Ultimately, the heightened financial risk and perceived conflicts with the state Constitution appear to have rendered the proposal untenable. SB 180 was the only bill that would have addressed any portion of the state’s $127 million CCCAP shortfall, meaning Colorado families will likely have to wait until next year to see any movement. 

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed into law an expansion of the state’s employer tax credits for child care. The move makes qualifying businesses eligible for a credit of up to 75% of all costs associated with provider assistance and/or child care programs for employees, along with referral services to connect employees with providers. It also ups the amount of credit for donations made to organizations that expand access to child care services. Total non-refundable credits can now add up to $100,000 annually and carry over for up to three years. 

Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz submitted his suggestions for the state’s 2026 tax bill, including an enhanced child and dependent care credit that would raise the maximum credit to $3,000 for one child under five and $6,000 for two or more, approximately three times the current rate. Children over five would see a similar increase to $1,500 and $3,000, respectively. 

Rounding out the tax credit parade, New Hampshire moved forward with its own governor-endorsed House Bill 1433, which would create the Child Day Care Creation Tax Credit Program, enabling businesses to claim credits of up to 50% for expanding licensed childcare capacity by at least 12 seats, either directly or through a third-party vendor. The program will be capped at $5 million annually. 

Child care has been a hot topic in North Carolina’s legislative session, including the recent introduction of House Bill 1066, which would reallocate nearly $400 million from North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, which paid for families to enroll children in private schools, to “be used to assist in reducing the waitlist for subsidized child care” in the state. House Bill 1086 was re-referred to the House Appropriations Committee. This proposal “would allocate approximately $17 million to support workforce training, mental and behavioral health services, and regulatory changes for child care providers.” This supply-side initiative would establish a pilot for child care workforce academies, add ten new local Smart Start partnerships, including one from each state region, and introduce a new provisional credential for 16- and 17-year-old aspiring ECE professionals.

Oklahoma will become the latest state to commission an Early Childhood Task Force with the goal of identifying opportunities for targeted investment and consolidation of services, which are currently spread out across 19 different programs in six different state agencies, per the bill’s author, Rep. Trish Ranson. The bill was signed into law by Governor Kevin Stitt on May 11. 

Trending Original Research and Reports

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) released its 23rd State of Preschool report. The headline this year was Georgia becoming the first Universal Pre-K state to meet all 10 preschool quality benchmarks while reaching more than half of four-year-olds. Alabama also excelled, meeting all 10 benchmarks for the 20th consecutive year. Their stories are a contrast to states that have “aggressively increased enrollment and spending without raising quality standards.” In general, the country appears to be making strong progress, with 27 percent of four-year-olds and nine percent of 3-year-olds enrolled in state-funded preschool and average state spending per child reaching record levels ($8,124).  Explore: State of Preschool 2025 Yearbook

Moms First published new research outlining “practical, proven solutions employers can implement today” to support caregiving employees. The report is based on a national survey of approximately 1,700 parents and includes case studies from Chobani, Hilton, JBS, Simple Modern, and UAMS. It aims to address the estimated $70 billion gap in workforce output for U.S. businesses due to child care challenges. Read: Child Care Disruptions Create Up to $70 Billion Opportunity for U.S. Businesses

CPR News launched a beautifully done multi-part series called Raising Colorado. The ongoing series examines the consequences of an inaccessible, unaffordable, and underfunded system in the Centennial State, with emotional stories and perspectives from families, providers, researchers, and state leaders. If you’re a fan of long-form journalism, you don’t want to miss this one. Read: Raising Colorado: The untold costs of a broken childcare system

zero2eight’s Emily Tate Sullivan authored an ominous piece about snowballing child care waitlists throughout the country, a number that has nearly quadrupled in just two years and shows no signs of subsiding. This was another good reminder that it’s well past time to sound the alarm. Read: With 400K Children on Childcare Assistance Waitlists, Families Are Left Scrambling

NAEYC's annual ECE Workforce Survey "demonstrates a clear crisis of affordability for the early childhood education field and the children and families they serve, and the need for stable, sustainable public investments to help ease their shared burdens." The state-by-state breakdown and combination of survey data and testimonials offers a helpful, relatable glimpse into the challenges facing the sector today. Explore: NAEYC's 2026 ECE Workforce Survey