Indiana will begin offering families help with child care costs again in May after a 15-month freeze on Child Care and Development Funds, a program that provides subsidies for income-eligible families.
The Family and Social Services Administration will be able to process around 3,000 new child care vouchers per month, its representatives told lawmakers on the State Budget Committee, who reviewed the agency’s request for $200 million more in funding for the program and approved it Thursday.
Republican Gov. Mike Braun announced the additional funding on Tuesday in order to add around 14,000 more children to the program, for a total enrollment of around 57,000.
The move seeks to address the freeze on the program and the waitlist implemented by the state after the end of pandemic aid. Early learning advocates say these moves have contributed to the closure of hundreds of child care providers in the state, exacerbating families’ challenges with accessing and paying for care.
Around 20,000 children will remain on the waitlist even with the additional funding, though not all of those children will end up being eligible for the program, FSSA officials said. But more families may apply when they hear that the program has reopened, meaning the full demand for child care subsidies is not clear.
To fund child care vouchers for all children enrolled and on the waitlist would cost the state approximately $350 million per year, said Mitch Roob, FSSA secretary.
The additional $200 million will last one year. FSSA officials told committee lawmakers Thursday that they will ask for the additional funding to continue in the next biennial state budget, for a total request of around $239 million.
But it’s not a sure thing that the budget will include this funding, creating uncertainty for providers and families.
“The parents and the providers are … prone to think of this as a long-term benefit, and so we’re going to have to decide if they’re right to expect a long-term program that’s a real benefit or not,” said Democratic Rep. Ed DeLaney of Indianapolis.
Priority for new vouchers will go to the siblings of children currently in the program, as well as infants. There are just three infants in the program because the program has been frozen for so long, Roob said. Next priority will go to toddlers and preschool-aged children, with money set aside for children with disabilities, children in foster care, and other groups.
The additional funds will not address the cuts to the rates paid to child care providers — another step FSSA took last year to cut costs.
“There are other ways we could execute this, this is the one we chose,” Adam Alson, the director of Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning at the FSSA, told lawmakers on the budget committee.
During Thursday’s committee meeting, Republican Sen. Chris Garten asked a philosophical question: Why fund the program at all?
Roob cited the historical context of federal aid to mothers and children, which shifted to prioritize child care for workers instead.
“We as a society concluded that work was important and we should be paying for child care to get people to work,” said Roob.
More information about applying for a CCDF voucher.
This article was written by Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Aleksandra Appleton.