{"id":471201,"date":"2026-09-21T21:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471201\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T21:04:08","slug":"californias-children-need-affordable-child-care-regardless-of-family-composition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471201\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Children Need Affordable Child Care, Regardless of Family Composition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>key takeaway<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-gray-darkest-color has-text-color\">California\u2019s child care system already falls short of meeting families\u2019 needs, and a proposed change to federal child care funding could further limit access for one-parent families.<\/p>\n<p>Families and children need access to nurturing, affordable child care programs that best meet their needs. California\u2019s publicly funded child care programs provide access to child care at low-to-no cost across a variety of settings, including homes, centers, and schools for diverse families across California.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How do federal Child Care and Development Fund dollars support California\u2019s child care programs?<\/p>\n<p>The child care programs administered by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) are partially funded by the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). Specifically, CCDF funding comprises approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/calbudgetcenter.org\/resources\/federal-dollars-fund-child-care-across-all-california-congressional-districts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">one in five dollars<\/a> for these programs, reflecting a critical source of support for low-to-no cost child care for low- and middle-income families in California.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How might the proposal to expand the use of CCDF dollars impact California\u2019s families?<\/p>\n<p>The Trump Administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/05\/us\/politics\/stay-at-home-parents-subsidies.html?searchResultPosition=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">proposed to<\/a> use CCDF dollars to provide subsidies to married-couple families with stay-at-home spouses in certain income brackets to care for their children. In other words, children from one-parent families would not be eligible for this proposed subsidy, thus reducing CCDF funding for families who face <a href=\"https:\/\/calbudgetcenter.org\/app\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-Child-Care-Chart-Book-Designed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">unsustainably high child care costs<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/calbudgetcenter.org\/resources\/understanding-californias-1-8-million-gap-in-publicly-funded-child-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">limited access to publicly funded child care<\/a>. If the Trump administration implements this proposal without working with Congress to increase funding levels, families will have an even harder time accessing affordable child care.<\/p>\n<p>The unmet need for publicly funded child care remains alarmingly high due to a <a href=\"https:\/\/calbudgetcenter.org\/resources\/california-funding-trends-for-early-care-education-programs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">decades-long pattern of underfunding<\/a>. In California, the potential impact of this federal proposal would be significant given 55% of children in California eligible for publicly funded child care are in one-parent families. Additionally, among Californians utilizing CCDF dollars, <a href=\"https:\/\/acf.gov\/occ\/data\/fy-2023-preliminary-data-table-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">75% are one-parent families<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All children and families, regardless of household composition, deserve choices for accessing the affordable child care option that is best for them. Proposals to limit options and reduce access for one-parent families harm California\u2019s children and reverse <a href=\"https:\/\/calbudgetcenter.org\/resources\/california-families-need-a-variety-of-child-care-settings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">progress on expanding access<\/a> to the state\u2019s affordable child care programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"key takeaway California\u2019s child care system already falls short of meeting families\u2019 needs, and a proposed change to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-471201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}