This story was reported and written by VPM News.
For months, thousands of kids have been waiting to receive subsidized child care in Virginia. As of Jan. 1, over 12,000 kids were on a waitlist for the largest state program that provides full-day care: the Child Care Subsidy Program.
At least several thousand of them are likely to stay on the waitlist this year, as differing state budget proposals currently on the table pledge to open new slots for many, but not all of them.
Additionally, all three of the proposals — from the House of Delegates, state Senate and Gov. Glenn Youngkin — require many families to pay more for child care.
Youngkin’s budget proposal for FY26 (which runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026) purports to move roughly 7,000 students from the waitlist into subsidized slots through a variety of policy changes, including copay increases.
The governor’s proposal would raise copays for many families to 7% of gross income, the maximum allowable amount under federal regulations. That means those families would pay more than double what they currently do.
Meanwhile, those at or below the federal poverty level (around $32,000 for a family of four) wouldn’t pay more than $5 per month.
“These are really challenging trade-offs,” Jenna Conway, who’s in charge of early childhood care and education programs at the Virginia Department of Education, told VPM News. “On the one hand, how much can we ask families to contribute?”
On the other hand, Conway pointed to families living in poverty who have no access to any subsidized child care program right now because they’re on a waitlist. Many have to choose between paying the full cost of child care — around $12,000 a year or more — or opting out of the workforce to care for their children.
“What they’re likely doing is opting out of the workforce,” Conway said.
According to a 2022 state report, expanding this program “is the state’s best opportunity to improve access for families that are most likely to not work because of child care.”
The Senate’s budget would also raise copays to 7% of gross income, while the House version would raise them to 5%.
Both of these proposals would also leave over 5,000 families on a waitlist for care in the CCSP.
The Senate also wants more data to determine whether a child care provider shortage would keep children on the waitlist even if more funding were allocated.
Shemik Sellars, owner and operator of Legacy-House Preschool in Chesterfield County, said she has 18 families waiting for one subsidized slot in her program.
She said many of those families are caught in a difficult situation: They can’t afford not to work, but they can’t work if they don’t have access to child care.
“Some of them have jobs waiting for them. Some of them have said their jobs won't wait for them [to find child care],” Sellars said.
“So a lot of them are staying home. They're not going back to work because they have no one who can watch their child, and they really want to have them in a place that is regulated, that is of quality and also that is affordable.”
Bringing employers into the equation
Both the House and Senate budget proposals also include $25 million to fund a new pilot program in which participating employers would share the cost of child care with employees and the state.
Del. Adele McClure (D–Arlington) sponsored legislation to establish the pilot program. She said the program will prioritize small businesses who participate.
She said it’s important because it’s helping to expand “child care access and making it more affordable for the workforce.”
The House budget proposal claims this initiative will help provide child care for about 2,500 families on the CCSP waitlist. However, businesses will need to participate in order for it to be successful. And it’s not clear yet how much families would have to pay each month if their employers opt into the program — though they’d likely have to pay more than the CCSP requires.
Travis Staton, CEO of EO Companies, says his organization’s tri-share model was an inspiration for this pilot program. The Southwest Virginia nonprofit partnered with Ballad Health to create additional subsidized child care slots in the region.
He said getting an employer to help cover the cost of child care allows the state to help more families in need of subsidized care.
“I think it’s a beautiful model that I think can be explored, researched further,” Staton told VPM News.
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