Trump Administration Rule Raises Child Care Costs Amid Escalating Attacks on Early Educators and Families
Washington, DC — The Trump administration today announced plans to repeal a Biden-era child care rule that protects families from excessive costs and provides greater financial stability for child care programs, a move that could significantly raise child care expenses while further destabilizing an already overburdened and underfunded system.
The Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is proposing to eliminate a rule that capped child care copayments at 7 percent of a family’s income. Without this cap, families could be forced to pay even more for the child care that they need.
The proposed rule would also roll back a federal requirement that ensures that early educators are paid based on a child care program’s enrollment rather than its daily attendance. Enrollment-based payments—standard practice in the private child care market—offer providers predictable revenue, allowing them to pay staff consistently, plan budgets, and remain open. Attendance-based payments, by contrast, create unpredictability that can threaten providers’ finances and ability to stay afloat.
This action comes amid broader attacks on the child care system, including the Trump administration’s recent threat to freeze federal child care funding in Minnesota based on racially charged and unsubstantiated allegations of fraud. The administration’s reliance on a right-wing influencer with a history of spreading misinformation not only harms families, but also creates a dangerous environment for providers and children by encouraging extremists to show up at child care programs, demanding to be let in.
“The Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to our already fragile child care system,” said Amy Matsui, vice president of child care and income security at the National Women’s Law Center. “With this rule change, families may be forced to pay more for child care, straining their budgets and potentially pushing more women out of the workforce, while increasing financial uncertainty for child care providers. Combined with its unproven and racist attacks on child care programs in Minnesota, this administration has shown it is not interested in supporting families or early educators, only in advancing its backwards, authoritarian agenda.”
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