Thanks to Vermont’s historic Act 76, child care subsidies are now available to more families than ever before. Providers also benefit, receiving higher reimbursement for subsidized care and grants to increase capacity and sustainability. A new research brief shows that Vermont’s Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) is helping families find and afford the care they need and supporting providers in building capacity to care for Vermont’s children.
To better understand how the new CCFAP policies help families and providers, Child Trends conducted focus groups with 26 administrators in early childhood education and 34 parents/caregivers of young children in August and September of 2024. This group included center directors, family child care owners/operators, and families who both do and do not currently participate in CCFAP.
For Families: More Access, Less Stress
- Families shared that using CCFAP makes care more affordable and accessible and eases other financial burdens. For example, one parent said, “When I was paying the full amount for child care a year, I couldn’t really do anything else. I didn’t have savings or anything, it was just making sure I had enough every month. Having subsidy is good.”
- Families can now enroll more children or switch from part-time to full-time care more easily, easing daily logistics.
- Family eligibility for child care assistance has increased through state funding, making child care more accessible to more families.
For Providers: Stability and Growth
- Changes to CCFAP have allowed providers to increase salaries and provide benefits with additional, and more reliable, funding. One provider shared, “[Changes to CCFAP] helped allow us to offer health and dental insurance and allowed us to increase staff wages. We are also able to hire more licensed teachers.”
- Having a source of stable funding is critical to building capacity and sustainability in child care programming across Vermont.
Actions in Progress
Vermont’s Child Development Division is already taking action to address remaining barriers and support continued progress by:
- Launching an online CCFAP application
- Creating a digital toolkit to promote the program
- Running a multi-channel communications campaign
- Updating policies to support self-employed families
- Introducing incentives for improving program quality
Learn More
For more information, see the Understanding Changes to Child Care Policies in Vermont webpage, or read the research brief summarizing the findings from family and provider interviews.
