Diane Schilder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, prepared a written testimony with coauthor Justin Doromal, a senior research associate. They discuss how the proposed child care subsidy budget will impact DC parents, children, child care providers, and employers. The testimony focused on five key points:

• Research reveals robust child care subsidy funding produces benefits for working parents in terms of economic stability, for children in terms of school readiness, and for providers by stabilizing their businesses and educators.
• Subsidized child care providers serve over 7,000 children annually and rely on subsidies as well as funding from the Pay Equity Fund to provide high-quality child care to young children.
• The proposed subsidy budget may result in retaining a waitlist, which will delay access to affordable care for many DC families. States that have implemented child care subsidy waitlists have documented negative impacts on parental employment, children’s stable participation in child care and early education, providers’ finances, and employers in need of a stable and consistent workforce.
• A child care subsidy waitlist will disproportionately affect families living in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty, as well as families with infants and toddlers, with ripple effects that will last for years to come.
• For DC to be able to offer affordable child care for all families, a range of early childhood line items needs to be fully funded.