Washington, DC — The Trump administration finalized plans to reverse a Biden-era child care rule that helped protect families from excessive costs and provided greater financial stability for child care programs. The new rule could impact families and providers by driving up costs and further destabilizing an already overburdened and underfunded child care system.

The Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has finalized changes to a rule for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program that eliminate capping child care copayments at 7 percent of a family’s income for families receiving CCDF assistance. Without this cap, families could be forced to pay more than they can afford for the child care they need.

The final rule also rolls back federal requirements that ensure early educators participating in the CCDF program are paid based on a child care program’s enrollment rather than its daily attendance, and that providers receive prospective payments. Payments based on enrollment — standard practice in the private child care market — help provide child care programs with predictable revenue, allowing them to pay staff and expenses, plan budgets, and remain open. Attendance-based payments, by contrast, create unpredictability that can threaten providers’ finances and ability to run their businesses.

“Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, this administration has attacked the child care system and worked to destabilize this already fragile sector. The administration’s final rule strikes yet another devastating blow to families, early educators, and child care providers,” said Amy Matsui, vice president of child care and income security at the National Women’s Law Center.

“Families are already struggling to afford child care, providers are barely staying afloat, and early educators remain severely underpaid. With this final rule, the administration is stripping away protections that helped keep child care more affordable and programs more financially stable. States can — and should — opt to limit copayments for families receiving CCDF assistance and implement fair payment practices for the providers serving them in their state.”

The National Women’s Law Center released a resource recently that details all the ways that the Trump administration is attacking the child care system through funding freezes and other administrative action.

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