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Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Participation in 2021 and 2022

Two new briefs, which are part of CLASP's Child Care Assistance Spending and Participation series ([link removed]), analyze the number of children and families served by the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and the number of providers participating in FY2021 and FY2022.

CCDF is the primary federal funding source to support families with low incomes in accessing child care. It is a vital support for many families across the country but has never been funded adequately enough to serve all eligible children.

2021 and 2022 saw a record investment of over $50 billion in pandemic relief funding for child care. This led to an increase in participation in CCDF in 2022 despite the ways the pandemic impacted the sector.

Key findings in CCDF participation in FY2021 include ([link removed]):
- In 2021, 1,326,700 children received subsidies for child care, a decrease of 11 percent from FY2020. Compared to 2006, the year with the largest number of children served, 443,400 fewer children received CCDF-funded assistance.
- An all-time low of 214,869 providers accepted children with CCDF subsidies in FY2021, a 7 percent decrease from FY2020. Since 2006, the number of providers accepting CCDF subsidies has decreased by 69 percent.

Key findings in CCDF participation in FY2022 include([link removed]):
- In 2022, 1,434,900 children received subsidies for childcare, an increase of 8 percent from FY2021. Compared to 2006, the year with the largest number of children served, 335,200 fewer children received CCDF-funded assistance.
- 225,204 providers accepted children with CCDF subsidies in FY2022, a 5 percent increase from FY2021. Since 2006, the number of providers accepting CCDF subsidies has decreased by 68 percent.

Despite the increase in resources because of short-term COVID-19 relief dollars, CCDF has still never matched or exceeded its peak participation in 2006. This means that despite higher funding levels, hundreds of thousands of fewer children and their families had access to CCDF-funded assistance in 2021 and 2022 compared to 2006, and there were thousands fewer providers available to serve those that did have the assistance to receive care.

Since COVID-19 relief funding expired in September 2024, the need for significant, permanent resources for CCDF is more critical than ever to truly make a difference for those who both utilize and sustain the child care sector.

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