High-quality and reliable child care is a vital resource for families and communities, often determining parents’ ability to work or pursue education or training—all avenues that could help them provide for their families. However, the significant cost of child care and limited program access can force parents to postpone their goals or opt out of the workforce altogether, resulting in considerable effects on household and economic stability.
Our 2025 State Policy Roadmap identifies child care subsidy programs as one of several effective policies that can help infants, toddlers, and their families thrive.
In this brief, we summarize insights from the Roadmap’s analysis of states’ implementation of child care subsidy programs, highlighting their potential to stabilize households and strengthen the workforce.
Explore key policy levers to increase access to child care subsidies and get a snapshot of how these programs interact to impact families and child care providers.
Learn more about how child care subsidy policies vary across states.
The recently updated Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap provides insight into the core policy levers and further illustrates their interplay through vivid graphics, showcasing the variation in paid family and medical leave policies across states.
