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Child care is a worthwhile investment for children, families, and our country’s future. However, most families struggle to find and afford quality child care that meets their needs. This struggle is exacerbated for families with low incomes—particularly those who also identify as families of color due to longstanding racial and economic inequity. Yet, these funds continue to fall short of meeting need, only reaching 1 in 7 eligible children nationally.
In a new fact sheet, CLASP provides detailed state-by-state analyses of the most recently available comprehensive data on child care spending and participation through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. This fact sheet details fiscal year (FY) 2019 federal funding available to states and identifies how they spent those funds, as well as the impact on children’s and providers’ child care assistance program participation.
Given the delay in the public release of data, these analyses do not reflect the devastating impacts that have rippled through the child care system more recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, these data provide a foundational understanding of how federal funding supported state spending and program participation leading up to one of the most devastating blows to the child care system. The analysis shows:
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Total combined spending on child care assistance—comprised of CCDBG and TANF-related funds—totaled $13.3 billion (9 percent increase from FY 2018).
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CCDBG expenditures totaled $10.3 billion (12 percent increase from FY 2018).
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States spent $1.4 billion in federal TANF funds directly on child care (9 percent decrease from FY 2018) and $1.6 billion in additional TANF Maintenance of Effort or MOE (spending that exceeded the reported amount spent on CCDBG MOE).
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1.4 million children received CCDBG-funded child care (6 percent increase from FY 2018).
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Only 244,055 providers accepted children with CCDBG subsides, an all-time low (6 percent decrease from 2018).
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