Child Care Subsidies

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Child Care Subsidies

Child care subsidy programs provide financial assistance to make care more affordable for families with low incomes. Subsidy programs aim to support parent participation in work and education and support the supply and enrollment of children in high-quality care—and subsequently improve child development. Both federal and state governments contribute funding, but states administer the programs.

Featured Resources

2025 Roadmap Profile: Child Care Subsidies

Child care subsidies increase access to needed services including the use of single, formal care arrangements, support maternal employment, and increase earnings.

Evidence Review: Child Care Subsidies

States have considerable flexibility in setting rules on program policies and administration (e.g., eligibility requirements, application procedures, family copayment levels, and provider policies), resulting in substantial state variation in subsidy policy.

State Policy Lever Checklist: Child Care Subsidies

This checklist covers the following policy levers states may consider to increase access and affordability of child care subsidies: eligibility requirement, provider reimbursement, family contribution, and funding.

Related Resources

New Vanderbilt Study Finds Nashville Child Care System Faces Interconnected Challenges in Supply, Workforce, and Affordability

As families across the country navigate the pressures of finding and affording child care, new research from Vanderbilt University’s Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center examines what that landscape looks like in greater Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, Tennessee

Brief 5: Estimating the True Cost of High-Quality Home-Based Care – Insights from True-Cost Modeling

Home-based child care plays a small but vital role in greater Davidson County, Tennessee, offering families flexibility, affordability, and culturally aligned care, particularly for infants and toddlers. This brief uses a cost estimation model to examine the true cost of providing high-quality home-based child care in the region, where providers often serve simultaneously as educator, owner, and director.

Brief 4: What High-Quality Center-Based Child Care Really Costs, and Why No One is Paying It – Insights from True-Cost Modeling

The market price of child care reflects what families can afford to pay, not what it actually costs programs to provide high-quality care with a well-compensated workforce. This brief uses a cost estimation model to examine the true cost of providing center-based child care for children under age 5 across greater Davidson County, Tennessee.

Brief 1: Early Education for the Next Generation – Understanding Child Care Supply

Child care access shapes whether families with young children can work and whether children receive the nurturing, structured environments that support healthy development. This brief examines center-based child care supply across greater Davidson County, Tennessee, drawing on survey data from 116 child care programs to build a more complete picture of what families can realistically access.

Why Do We Focus on the Prenatal-to-3 Age Period?: Understanding the Importance of the Earliest Years

The most rapid period of growth for the human brain occurs in the earliest years of life. Our health and wellbeing prenatally and during the first 3 years of life affect all future learning, behavior, and health.

How Did We Get Here? The History of Child Care Subsidies

Child care subsidies have long been difficult to access for families with low incomes. Learn how decades of inequitable policy choices shaped today's challenges.