In November 2025, New Mexico became the first state to establish universal child care. With funding from taxes on oil and gas revenue, New Mexico is making child care effectively free for all New Mexico families through two policies:

1. Removing income eligibility requirements from the state’s child care assistance program. This policy built on earlier efforts to expand eligibility, including a 2022 change that made child care assistance available to families with household incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
2. Waiving family copayments and thus covering the full cost of child care for families who are working or going to school and have children under the age of 13, regardless of household size or income.

In March 2026, New Mexico also codified universal child care in state law through the Child Care Assistance Program Act.

Since announcing this first-in-the-nation investment, New Mexico has drawn significant interest from policymakers, journalists, and researchers. How and to what effect New Mexico implements universal child care will have implications for future child care affordability innovations nationwide.

In partnership with the New Mexico Early Childhood Education & Care Department (ECECD), we are conducting two studies that address the need for new evidence on universal child care:

• First, we are conducting an implementation study to examine the early application, outreach, and engagement processes used to implement universal child care, as well as the conditions under which New Mexico introduced the initiative. Interviews with key program implementers will generate insights on how existing policies and infrastructure supported or hindered implementation, especially for families facing historic and ongoing barriers to high-quality child care.
• Second, we are conducting an analysis of who participates in universal child care—including which families take up the opportunity to receive free child care, and which providers choose to enroll families using child care assistance. Analyses of child care assistance and licensing data will focus on the first year of implementation and document changes before and after universal child care.

These studies are designed to document implementation, identify strengths, and highlight opportunities for New Mexico policymakers to make midcourse adjustments. Outside of New Mexico, the high cost of child care remains one of the biggest affordability challenges facing US families with young children, so these studies are also intended to inform other state and local leaders considering similar investments.

The project launched in March 2026, and research is ongoing.

This project is funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts.