In recent months, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has said he would address the child care affordability crisis by ensuring federal programs give families “more choice.” He’s falsely claimed federal funds that support child care “only go to one kind of child care model” and can’t be used for religious-based child care. He’s also suggested child care providers are required to get “a six-year college degree” and “ridiculous certifications” that are unrelated to caring for children—neither claim is true.

These comments misrepresent the issues underlying the child care crisis. Across the country, child care costs are beyond the reach of many families. To meet the needs of the families they serve, child care providers are pressured to keep their prices low, often by paying their staff low wages, which undercuts the quality of care. Combined with the pandemic upheaval in the labor market, this has resulted in staff turnover and child care supply shortages as child care workers choose jobs with more pay and benefits.

To address the child care affordability crisis, policymakers should invest more in federal programs that help parents pay for care, which can stabilize the supply of care options by allowing providers to pay their staff competitive wages and provide quality care. Research has shown that increased federal investment in child care assistance would reduce child poverty in the US, allow more parents to work, and help more families afford higher-quality care, ultimately setting children up for success.

Current federal child care funds allow parents to choose the child care model that works best for their family 

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the federal-state program that helps families with low incomes across the US pay for child care so parents can work or go to school.

Authorized under the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the CCDF is designed specifically to help parents afford a range of child care options. The CCDF allows states to help parents pay for child care not only in child care centers and family child care homes, but also with faith-based providers and relative caregivers. In 2019, 35 states reported paying for at least some relatives, and nationwide, almost 30 percent of the providers being paid by CCDF were relatives. 

Each state sets their own requirements for child care staff 

Each state determines the requirements child care staff need to meet to work in licensed child care programs in the state. A recent review finds several states have little to no training requirements for staff working at licensed programs, with some states only requiring a high school diploma.

Further, the federal government doesn’t set any education requirements for child care staff, including those working for providers that receive federal CCDF funds. However, it does require states to ensure child care providers receiving CCDF funds meet the state’s health and safety standards. This includes basic first aid and CPR training—core skills that help protect children’s health and safety. States also have the option to exempt relative caregivers from these health and safety requirements if they choose.

How policymakers can help more families access affordable child care 

Helping parents pay for care is an important step that could increase access to affordable care. However, current CCDF funding levels are inadequate to meet the child care needs of most potentially eligible families. And many families who can’t afford child care have too high an income to qualify for subsidies. 

In the 2020 fiscal year, only 10.9 million children younger than 13 (PDF) were eligible for CCDF under federal guidelines out of the estimated 52 million children younger than 13 nationwide. And because states often set lower eligibility levels than the federal guidelines, even fewer children are eligible under state rules (roughly 7.5 million). However, the program only had enough funding to serve 2 million children (PDF).

Parents also face a shortage of affordable quality child care providers, which often affects their ability to work. Recent job reports show the share of workers who were absent from work because of problems accessing child care is at an all-time high.

To ensure parents can access the child care they want for their children, policymakers should invest significantly more in CCDF to help families with low incomes pay for care. Policymakers could also raise CCDF’s income eligibility levels, which—along with increased investments—would provide support to more families with low and moderate incomes who can’t afford care. Increased funding would also enable more child care providers to pay their staff competitive wages and provide high-quality care.

By investing more in child care, policymakers could help more parents work without having to worry about their children, support children’s healthy development (PDF), help employers maintain their workforce, and work toward a healthier economy (PDF).