Indiana will pay for day care and preschool for about 14,000 out of the 35,000 children still on a state waitlist for vouchers, after the State Budget Committee approved a request from Gov. Mike Braun for additional money.
The $200 million infusion is one-time emergency aid meant to help ease a crisis in the child care industry after Indiana froze enrollment in a state and federally funded program to help low-income working parents pay for child care.
The committee, which includes four lawmakers and the state budget director, approved the funding Thursday.
But state officials acknowledged that the influx is temporary. Long-term funding for the Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF, hinges on winning support from skeptical Republican lawmakers.
Braun asked for increased funding during the last session after federal pandemic aid ran out. Instead lawmakers offered a far smaller, short-term budget increase.
After the approval, the state expects to begin enrolling new children into the CCDF program by late May.
Rep. Ed Delaney (D-Indianapolis) pressed state officials about whether parents and child care providers should expect the state to sustain the increase in the future.
“Can I bet on that?” Delaney asked.
Chad Ranney, the state budget director, said the governor will ask lawmakers to boost child care funding in the next two-year budget. Lawmakers start working on the spending plan in January 2027.
“Can providers bet on this? I think we've got another branch of government we'll look to and work with to make sure that, you know, we can continue this funding,” Ranney said. “But the governor’s certainly committed to continuing this.”
The surge in state support won’t be enough to make up for cuts over the last two years. The state expanded the program with help from federal pandemic aid and when that money ran out, Indiana froze vouchers and reduced reimbursement rates for children who are already in the program.
The new money won’t be used to increase reimbursement rates, said Adam Alson, director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. Instead, his office will focus the money on increasing enrollment.
“Who benefits from that? That's a child, right? That's family. That is a child care business,” Alson said.
Lawmakers laid the groundwork for the $200 million infusion in child care this session with a new law that allows the state to tap into the Financial Responsibility and Opportunity Growth Fund, or FROG fund, to help pay for child care vouchers. The fund was previously restricted to state prisons, Medicaid and the Department of Child Services.
As of February, 35,397 children were on the waitlist for vouchers, according to a state dashboard.
Contact WFYI Education Reporter Dylan Peers McCoy at dmccoy@wfyi.org.
