Hundreds of Thousands of Kids Wait for Childcare Aid

An exclusive analysis by The Associated Press has found that hundreds of thousands of eligible children were sitting on childcare assistance waitlists in 23 states and the District of Columbia as of spring 2026. In three additional states, many eligible families who applied were simply turned away. The findings underscore a widening gap between federal funding commitments and the actual delivery of childcare support to families in need.

The waitlists have ballooned dramatically since 2023, when only eight states maintained them, according to the AP analysis, which collected waitlist and enrollment data from 47 states and the District of Columbia. Nearly 37,000 children were waiting for assistance in Indiana alone by spring 2026.

The Funding Cliff

Many of the waitlists first emerged after $28 billion in pandemic aid expired in the fall of 2024, when the Republican-led Congress declined to extend the extra money. The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the federal government’s main source of funding to help families pay for childcare, serves over 1.6 million children across the U.S. in a typical month. But the program reaches only about 22 percent of families who qualify under their state’s rules, making it one of the lowest participation rates among federal safety net programs.

The scale of the problem has grown steadily. As NPR reported, data from the National Women’s Law Center shows there were an estimated 400,000 children on waitlists for childcare assistance programs across the U.S. in the second half of 2025 — more than triple the roughly 118,800 kids on waitlists in early 2024. Seventeen states had waitlists or had stopped taking new applications for childcare assistance in 2025, up from 13 in 2024.

“A range of factors are pulling at states,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state childcare policy at the National Women’s Law Center. “So you have more families needing help but a strain on resources that provide that help.”

Families Caught in the Gap

The human toll of these waitlists is evident in communities across the country. In Indiana, Meygan Maloney, a mother of two and foster parent in rural Hartford City, said her family has fallen behind on bills while waiting for childcare vouchers. Her husband works seven days a week as a tire technician and delivery driver, yet the family still struggles financially.

“I felt useless as a stay-at-home mom,” Maloney told AP, her voice cracking. “I felt like I wasn’t contributing to our household. We’re trying to get out. But for us to get out, we need the assistance.”

Indiana started its waitlist in December 2024, a few months after pandemic aid ran out. Until May 2026, it put virtually everyone who applied on the waitlist — including foster parents. Malinda Cox, an Indianapolis foster mother who took in a newborn last year, said she was forced to dip into her family’s savings to pay for the baby boy’s childcare so she could return to work. At one point, she considered giving up custody because her family could not afford his childcare bill.

“We started to feel, like, guilty,” Cox said. “He should be home with his mom, but (because of) this massive system upset, he’s not.”

In Minnesota, Deaira Gresham’s 1-year-old daughter has been on the waitlist for childcare assistance since birth. Gresham, who works as an in-home health aide and takes a full load of classes at a chiropractic school, was often forced to bring her daughter to class and to her clients’ homes — a juggling act that took a toll on her studies.

“Parents are in desperate need,” Gresham said. “We need that break. We need to be able to go to school, go to work and know that our kids are in good hands.”

State-Level Responses Vary Widely

States have taken divergent approaches to the childcare funding crunch. In April 2026, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun announced the state would send $200 million in surplus funds to the state’s childcare assistance program, which would allow it to move roughly 8,000 children off the waitlist. WFYI Public Media reported that despite the infusion, the state’s waitlist still stood at approximately 35,000 children as of July, with Braun vowing to do more.

“If there’s a wait list, we’ve got a lot of room to improve,” Braun said during a visit to a childcare center in Indianapolis. “And it’s an important area, so it would be a high priority.”

Oregon has taken a different approach, establishing a statewide waitlist in 2023 that currently has around 26,000 children waiting. The state has chosen to prioritize quality by paying providers well and keeping co-payments low at 2 to 4 percent of family income — well below the 7 percent maximum allowed under a previous federal rule.

“Oregon really has chosen to focus on maintaining that quality of programming that works well for providers and families by keeping those copays low, paying providers well,” said Alyssa Chatterjee, director of Oregon’s Department of Early Learning and Care. “That means we have to serve fewer families with the resources available.”

In Arizona, the childcare assistance waitlist has grown to more than 13,500 children — a 575 percent increase since it was reinstated in August 2024, according to the Arizona Capitol Times. The average annual cost for childcare in Arizona exceeds $16,000, and advocates say more than $160 million would be needed to eliminate the waitlist entirely.

A Political Fault Line

The childcare funding crisis has become a political battleground. President Donald Trump said during his campaign that he could make childcare more affordable using tariff revenue, but this spring told a White House audience that paying for childcare should be up to the states.

“We’re fighting wars,” Trump said at an Easter luncheon. “We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too.”

His administration has largely focused on allegations of fraud in the program. At one point, it halted funding to five Democratic-led states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York — before a judge ordered the administration to restart the funding. The Guardian reported that experts warned the freeze could be “absolutely catastrophic” for hundreds of thousands of families.

The administration also reversed Biden-era CCDF rules, including the 7 percent cap on family co-payments, citing in part the potential for fraud by childcare providers. Meanwhile, 40 congressional Republicans called for robust funding of the federal program that underwrites childcare assistance in 2026, but it received the same money as the year before.

A Systemically Underfunded Program

Experts say the current crisis is the culmination of decades of underinvestment. Ruth Friedman, who headed the Office of Child Care under President Biden, traced the funding shortfall to cultural assumptions about childcare.

“For decades, childcare was the responsibility of the family,” Friedman said. “The system is fundamentally broken, and if the government doesn’t help fix the system, it will not be affordable for families.”

The economic stakes are significant. Childcare costs increased 29 percent between 2020 and 2024, according to Child Care Aware of America. In Arizona, a report from the Center for the Future of Arizona estimated the state could see more than $12 billion in economic output if childcare were fully funded, resulting in 115,000 additional jobs and $465 million in state and local tax revenue.

Childcare providers are also feeling the strain. RB Fast, founder of Westwood Academy, a childcare program in Denver, told The 74 that she is opening a second location that will not accept childcare subsidies. “It doesn’t feel worth it to me,” she said.

What’s Next

As the waitlists continue to grow, the question of how to fund childcare assistance remains unresolved at the federal level. While some states have stepped in with one-time infusions of surplus funds, advocates argue that a sustainable solution requires a fundamental rethinking of how the nation invests in early care and education.

“We have public funding for our schools because we recognize it as a public good that is important for our economy, for the well-being and future success of young people,” Schulman said. “We don’t fund our childcare system like that.”

For families like Meygan Maloney’s in Indiana, the wait continues — with each passing month bringing new financial pressures and difficult choices. As Maloney put it: “We’re trying to get out. But for us to get out, we need the assistance.”