Office of Governor Tony Evers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 13, 2026
Contact: [email protected] 
 
Gov. Evers, DCF Announce Launch of $65 Million “Get Kids Ready” School Readiness Program
Thanks to Gov. Evers’ budget investments, Wisconsin’s first-ever entirely state-funded child care program to provide direct payments to providers, free programming for families to get kids ready for school 
MADISON — Gov. Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), today announced the launch of the state’s first-ever entirely state-funded child care program, “Get Kids Ready,” which is free for families and will provide $65 million in direct payments to child care providers who are providing school readiness programming to four-year-olds during the 2026-27 school year and in subsequent years. This investment was made possible through the more than $360 million investment that Gov. Evers fought for and secured in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget to help stabilize Wisconsin’s child care industry, bolster child care providers, and lower the cost of child care for working families.

“Thanks to the investments I fought hard to secure in the bipartisan, pro-kid budget I signed last summer, we’re helping to stabilize our child care industry, support child care providers, and make child care more affordable and accessible for working families now and into the future—and our new Get Kids Ready program is a critical part of our work to do just that,” said Gov. Evers. “I’m proud of our work to get this program up and running so that, as a state, we can continue to directly support Wisconsin’s child care providers and help kids get a head start on their education at no extra cost to families.”

As part of the $360 million in child care investments Gov. Evers secured in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, the “Get Kids Ready” initiative is the first-ever entirely state-funded child care program in Wisconsin state history and will support child care providers serving four-year-olds to help prepare Wisconsin’s kids for kindergarten and get an earlier jump start on learning at a critical time in development. According to DCF, through Get Kids Ready, qualified child care providers will focus on developing the academic, physical, social-emotional, and self-help skills that kids need to succeed in school. The state pays child care providers for the time kids spend in Get Kids Ready programming, making that part of the day free for families.

In addition, the new, first-of-its-kind program in Wisconsin is also designed to help ensure the state’s child care industry will receive sustainable, ongoing state investments into the future.

Wisconsin child care providers who wish to participate in the 2026-27 school year will need to submit an Intent to Participate in Get Kids Ready by Feb. 1, 2026. Child care providers can find more information on how to apply, the verification process, and important dates on DCF’s Get Kids Ready for Providers webpage. 

“Child care teachers and parents partner to help kids unlock their potential. But in many parts of the state, there are not enough spots and costs are too high for many families,” said DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl. “The Get Kids Ready program is working to change that by ensuring Wisconsin families have the options, resources, and supports necessary to ensure the first day of kindergarten is a gateway of opportunity.”

A list of all child care providers that intend to participate in “Get Kids Ready” will be posted on DCF’s public website by Feb. 15, 2026. Families with children who will be four years old on or before Sept. 1, 2026, and are interested in having their child participate in “Get Kids Ready” are encouraged to visit DCF’s Get Kids Ready for Parents and Caregivers webpage for more information on the program and application process.

GOV. EVERS’ EFFORTS TO STABILIZE WISCONSIN’S CHILD CARE INDUSTRY, BOLSTER PROVIDERS, AND LOWER CHILD CARE COSTS FOR WORKING FAMILIES

According to a 2025 survey, 90 percent of Wisconsinites, including those without kids, say finding affordable, high-quality child care in Wisconsin is a problem, and over three-quarters of Wisconsinites support an increase in state funding to fix it. In response to this critical issue, Gov. Evers has made investing in the state’s child care industry to help fill available child care slots, cut child care wait lists, and lower the cost of care for working families a top priority of his administration. After months of negotiations with legislative leaders, Gov. Evers secured a more than $360 million investment in child care in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, including delivering on the governor’s promise to secure direct payments for child care providers—a bright line the governor previously signaled would force him to veto the budget if Republicans failed to pass a budget without it.

Soon after Gov. Evers signed the 2025-27 Biennial Budget in July, the governor and his administration worked quickly to launch the Child Care Bridge Payment Program, which provides $110 million in monthly direct payments to Wisconsin child care providers through June 2026. The Child Care Bridge Payments Program is similar to the wildly successful Child Care Counts Program, which was launched by Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration in 2020 and that helped more than 5,700 child care providers keep their doors open, ensuring the employment of more than 75,000 child care professionals and allowing providers to continue care for more than 430,000 kids. The Child Care Bridge Payments Program provides the financial stability providers need to stay open, to recruit and retain qualified staff, and to continue providing high-quality care for Wisconsin’s kids. The quick work of the Evers Administration and DCF ensured there were no gaps in direct funding for child care providers caused by the winding down of the Child Care Counts Program. In 2025, Child Care Bridge Payment ensured employment of nearly 34,000 child care professionals and allowed providers to continue care for more than 177,000 kids through over $54 million in direct payments to providers.”

In addition to the $110 million in direct payments to child care providers, the $360 million investment secured by Gov. Evers in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget included $65 million to fund the new “Get Kids Ready” initiative and over $123 million to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program to help lower out-of-pocket child care costs for working families across the state.

Thanks to the $123 million budget investment to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program, Gov. Evers, together with DCF, announced in October that Wisconsin Shares families will see an increase in their subsidy amount. With this investment, the maximum Wisconsin Shares subsidy rate will be at or above the price of 75 percent of child care slots. The increase impacted roughly 15,000 Wisconsin Shares families, with the average savings per family being around $174 per month.

In November, Gov. Evers and DCF also announced the launch of new online tools to help Wisconsinites interested in starting a licensed or certified child care program navigate the regulation process, cutting license processing times nearly in half and helping to bolster the child care industry by making licensure and certification more accessible and more straightforward for interested applicants.

In addition to the $65 million to fund the “Get Kids Ready” initiative, as well as the $110 million investment in direct payments to child care providers and $123 million in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program, the governor’s budget also includes:
  • $2 million to Wonderschool designed to help child care providers across the state build capacity to be able to cut child care wait lists and ensure more kids and families have access to affordable child care;  
    • The grant will expand access to high-quality child care in the state, including launching an online software platform that is linked to the department’s website to connect child care providers with child care workers.       
  • $2 million intended to help bolster Wisconsin’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, which help parents find child care locally and provide training and technical assistance opportunities to child care providers;       
  • $28.5 million for a pilot program to help support expanding capacity across Wisconsin’s child care industry to ensure more families with infants and toddlers can access quality, affordable child care.  
    • The proposal will increase payments to providers caring for infants and toddlers across the state through the Wisconsin Shares program.  
    • Under the plan, providers would receive payments of $200 per month for every infant under 18 months and $100 per month for every toddler between 18 months and 30 months. 
Gov. Evers also exercised his broad, constitutional veto authority to partially veto aspects of the budget that were outside of the bipartisan budget negotiations. More information about the bipartisan pro-kid budget signed by Gov. Evers is available here. More information on Gov. Evers’ efforts to do what’s best for kids in 2025 The Year of the Kid is available here.  
 
An online version of this release is available here.
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