Priya Pandey appeared on this episode of Growing Up in America: The Way it Is, Children at Risk’s podcast series. Priya examined how immigration policies can affect immigrant families’ access to Head Start, child care assistance, and other early learning services. Her segment starts at 42:00 below:
This is the third blog in a series exploring a shared vision for universal child care and CLASP’s efforts, alongside partners, to turn this vision into a reality. The full series can be found here.
By Stephanie Schmit
Despite chronic underinvestment and the Trump Administration’s efforts to weaken the child care system, the case for universal child care has never been stronger. The challenges families and providers are facing make it increasingly clear that incremental fixes are no longer enough. A universal child care system that guarantees free, high-quality care for every family while ensuring providers earn meaningful compensation, including wages and benefits, is an achievable solution, and the conditions to advance that vision are coming to fruition.
| A universal child care system is one where every family who needs child care can access it. To create the supply needed to make care universal, providers must be adequately compensated and supported to stay in the field and provide high-quality care. Through fully funded public investment, a universal system ensures cohesive and clear availability and accessibility to care and learning for all families with children, regardless of race, immigration status, income, disability, geography, and other factors that have historically impeded access. A universal system also ensures that the child care workforce is well-paid; provided with benefits like health care and retirement; and has access to training or higher/continuing education if desired, advancement opportunities, and more. To achieve this, the lived experience of the families and providers who rely on and sustain the system is centered in policy design and implementation. Ultimately, a universal system ensures that child care is a public good, not a family’s private responsibility. |
Many factors make the potential for universal child care viable, including:
The combination of an organized movement, state-level progress, growing Congressional support, and energized parents and grassroots advocates makes universal child care not simply an aspirational goal, but a viable federal policy agenda in the years ahead. The child care crisis has long been a major problem facing this country, but we now have the opportunity for federal investment in a system that will improve people’s lives.
On October 22, 2026, CLASP hosted an event exploring and discussing universal child care titled, “What if the Current Fight to Protect Child Care is also an Opportunity to Transform it?” To learn more about what it means to build a truly equitable universal child care system, please visit our recent Equity Matters event and resource page.
Excerpts:
“It’s the most anti-child agenda I have ever seen in my entire career,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy.
…
Cervantes said she can’t pinpoint which of Trump’s immigration tactics have hurt kids most.
“You can’t rank them,” she said. “Experts in child development say that in order for children to thrive and become healthy adults, they need access to their parents, access to healthcare, nutritious food, housing, childcare and a quality education. And these are all things that are very specifically being targeted.”
…
“Basically every aspect of a child’s well-being is being undermined by this web of different policies,” Cervantes said.
…
Repeated attacks on childcare workers — some targeting much-needed preschool teachers and aides, particularly through Head Start — also have left children increasingly unprotected, Cervantes said.
CLASP and the National Women’s Law Center submitted a public comment opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed Head Start rule that would destabilize the program by overhauling the regulations that underpin Head Start’s effective, high-quality, wraparound services model. On top of eliminating approximately 90 percent of the performance standards that make Head Start strong, the rule introduces an English-only instruction requirement that would harm immigrant families, dual language learners, and Head Start staff.
By Stephanie Schmit
This blog is part of a series exploring a shared vision for universal child care and CLASP’s efforts, alongside partners, to turn this vision into a reality. The full series can be found here.
Every vision needs a strong foundation. That is why CLASP has engaged with partners through the Child Care for Every Family Network for many years to develop a strong foundation for universal child care rooted in a commitment to learning from one another’s perspectives and expertise, supporting all families, centering those with diverse lived experiences, and designed in a meaningful way.
This intentional effort created the shared policy principles that ground all our joint efforts: equity, access, guaranteed care, support for a thriving workforce, culturally and linguistically responsive, financially stable, well-governed, quality, and designed by those most impacted.
Together we envisioned a publicly funded universal child care system that:
| A universal child care system is one where every family who needs child care can access it. To create the supply needed to make care universal, providers must be adequately compensated and supported to stay in the field and provide high-quality care. Through fully funded public investment, a universal system ensures cohesive and clear availability and accessibility to care and learning for all families with children, regardless of race, immigration status, income, disability, geography, and other factors that have historically impeded access. A universal system also ensures that the child care workforce is well-paid, provided with benefits like health care and retirement, and has access to training or higher/continuing education if desired, advancement opportunities, and more. To achieve this vision, the lived experience of the families and providers who rely on and sustain the system is centered in policy design and implementation. Ultimately, a universal system ensures that child care is a public good, not a family’s private responsibility. |
The story of these principles is about the “what,” of course, but it’s also about the “how.” These principles were built in partnership with diverse perspectives and people who are directly impacted, including parents and providers, and have guided the Network’s collective efforts across partners. CLASP helped to draft these principles, but also strives to live in them in our day-to-day work as we create and analyze policy porposals and continue to build trusted relationships with those closest to the challenges of the sector.
These principles and the intentional design of the Network have built momentum for a very exciting moment. CLASP is proud to stand with our partners in the Child Care for Every Family Network to launch the Child Care for All campaign.
This campaign is a national movement of partners from across the country who have come together to win free, universal child care for everyone. We are working to create a world where every family has access to the care that they need, when and where they need it. It is an effort that will benefit everyone: families, child care providers, employers, and the economy.
All of the work that CLASP is engaging in to fight back against attacks at the federal level and push progress forward at the state level is in service of the universal child care vision we are trying to achieve and to help us to build the power and foundation for what’s necessary to make Child Care for All a reality.
Join us in this important effort!
On October 22, 2026, CLASP hosted an event exploring and discussing universal child care titled, “What if the Current Fight to Protect Child Care is also an Opportunity to Transform it?” To learn more about what it means to build a truly equitable universal child care system, please visit our recent Equity Matters event and resource page.
By Wendy Chun-Hoon
Excerpt from op-ed:
Earlier this month, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report on the nation’s poverty rate. At first glance, the announcement tells a rosy story: Real median household income is up, and the official poverty rate fell a half a percentage point. What the 2025 numbers reflect, however, is the status quo ante before President Donald Trump re-entered the White House. What the “official” numbers omit are the catastrophic impacts of his administration’s policies on low-income families, and immigrant households in particular.
By Alyssa Fortner
This is the first blog in a series exploring a shared vision for universal child care and CLASP’s efforts, alongside partners, to turn this vision into a reality. The full series can be found here.
The need for a stronger, universal child care system is clearer than ever as the Trump Administration is actively working to dismantle it. The administration has laid off over half of the Office of Child Care and Office of Head Start staff; illegally moved to freeze child care funding for states they consider political opponents; peddled unfounded fraud allegations that attack the integrity of child care providers and the state administrators that help families access care; and released regulations that destabilize the child care and early education sector further when it is in need of critical support.
At the same time, our child care system has continued to be shaped by racial, gender, and economic inequities and decades of underinvestment. Despite the immense value of child care, from supporting children’s development to sustaining a strong economy, it remains inaccessible and unaffordable for many families. Per the most recent data, only 1 in 7 eligible children had access to a subsidy through the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the primary federal funding source created to provide child care assistance for families with low incomes. And the child care workforce remains deeply underpaid and undervalued, earning less than 97 percent of other professions and frequently lacking benefits like health insurance and retirement. The harm is even more pronounced for Black and Latina early educators, who despite holding equivalent educational credentials, earn thousands less than white early educators.
| A universal child care system is one where every family who needs child care can access it. To create the supply needed to make care universal, providers must be adequately compensated and supported to stay in the field and provide high-quality care. Through fully funded public investment, a universal system ensures cohesive and clear availability and accessibility to care and learning for all families with children, regardless of race, immigration status, income, disability, geography, and other factors that have historically impeded access. A universal system also ensures that the child care workforce is well-paid, provided with benefits like health care and retirement, and has access to training or higher/continuing education if desired, advancement opportunities, and more. To achieve this vision, the lived experience of the families and providers who rely on and sustain the system is centered in policy design and implementation. Ultimately, a universal system ensures that child care is a public good, not a family’s private responsibility. |
We can already see what’s possible: while the federal government is undermining the sector, states like New Mexico and New York are stepping up to move the work forward and deliver on the true needs of children and families. And while states should not carry this responsibility or financial burden alone, their transformational efforts offer exciting proof points for what is possible when child care is seen and valued as a public good. Building on significant investments during the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico has expanded free child care for all families regardless of income or immigration status, while New York is pursuing expanded access through investments in child care infrastructure and beginning to implement free “2-K” in New York City.
In the past, we’ve even seen congressional action in working toward universal child care, too. In 1971, Congress passed the bipartisan Comprehensive Child Development Act (CCDA). And in 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration’s proposed Build Back Better (BBB) plan would have made historic, robust investments in child care and pre-kindergarten to lay the groundwork for universal child care as well. Unfortunately, President Nixon’s veto of the CCDA and the failure of the Senate to pass BBB stalled both major federal efforts. However, current congressional interest, combined with many state actions, shows us that not only is universal child care possible, it is essential.
The lessons learned, strong partnerships with directly impacted people, and the positive proof points we are seeing at all levels of government, make it clear that we have an opportunity to leverage these efforts to preserve what exists to create a vision for the future of child care that is inclusive, comprehensive, and truly meets the needs of all who participate in it.
Now is the time to turn the defense of what we have into the power we need to work together to build the system children, families, and providers have always deserved.
On October 22, 2026, CLASP hosted an event exploring and discussing universal child care titled, “What if the Current Fight to Protect Child Care is also an Opportunity to Transform it?” To learn more about what it means to build a truly equitable universal child care system, please visit our recent Equity Matters event and resource page.
Wendy Chun-Hoon appeared on MomsRising Radio to discuss the affordability crisis. She used the 2025 poverty data from the U.S. Census Bureau to describe how bad public policy decisions created this crisis — and how good decisions could address it.
Listen to her appearance here:
By Mikayla Slaydon
On July 16, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new public charge rule that could impact immigrant families’ access to basic needs and education programs. The final rule, effective on September 18, 2026, makes changes to an immigration process used in some green card determinations known as public charge. It removes parameters established in 2022 around the types of programs that DHS officers can or cannot consider when determining whether a noncitizen is likely to become a “public charge,” creating confusion and uncertainty for green card applicants.
On August 18, DHS published guidance on how the final rule will be implemented. Here is what early childhood partners and the child advocacy community need to know:
DHS uses the public charge determination as one component of the green card application review process for some immigrants to determine the likelihood of the applicant to primarily depend on the government for support in the future. If an immigration officer determines that an applicant is likely to become a “public charge,” their application for admission to the United States or their application for lawful permanent resident status (green card) can be rejected.
The new policy and guidance take away clear rules for deciding whether someone could become a “public charge” and leaves the question about which benefits count toward someone being considered a “public charge.”
The “public charge inadmissibility test” only applies to people applying for a green card or a visa to enter the U.S., or to green card holders who leave the country for more than 180 days.
Public charge does not apply if you’re a U.S. citizen; you’re applying for or already have Temporary Protected Status, a “U” or “T” visa, asylum, refugee, or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status; you currently have no pathway to obtain a green card; or you do not plan to apply for a green card in the future. For more information on different immigration status categories and how public charge does or does not apply, see this resource.
The 2026 final rule and guidance defines what the word “receipt” means in the context of the application. Receipt only occurs when the immigrant applicant is listed as the beneficiary of the benefit. If, for example, an immigrant applicant applied for SNAP on behalf of their citizen child, the applicant would not be considered as the beneficiary. However, if the child or another person under the legal care of the applicant qualifies for the benefit because the applicant’s income falls below an eligibility threshold, guidance has stated that DHS may consider the applicant’s underlying financial circumstances. Therefore, an immigrant applicant’s low income can be a factor in the public charge assessment.
The final rule does not specify a list of benefits that will or will not be considered in a public charge determination, but says that means-tested benefits—that is, those where eligibility is based on income or resources—can be considered. Receipt of a means-tested benefit does not automatically mean that an applicant will be considered a public charge. Instead, officers make individualized determinations based on the totality of the applicant’s circumstances.
The preamble to the final rule discusses various public benefits that officers may consider in a public charge determination. However, this is not legally binding. DHS states in the preamble that it “will consider the participation in means-tested child care, child development, and child education programs, including Head Start, and [Early Intervention] services, funded by the government” when received by immigrant children who are themselves subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility.
DHS also addresses situations in which an immigrant parent is subject to a public charge determination and their child participates in a means-tested, government-funded program. DHS states in the preamble that it “will also consider the children’s receipt of such benefits as part of the parents’ assets, resources, and financial status, if the children’s eligibility for the benefits is based on the parents’ income falling below a certain threshold.” However, receipt of benefits by a family member does not need to be reported on the adjustment of status form. Parents’ employment and earnings are also important components of the totality of circumstances determination.
In both scenarios, DHS also clarified in the preamble and in subsequent guidance that it will only consider receipt of means-tested child care, child development, and child education programs funded by the government on or after the effective date of the final rule.
Partners who work with immigrant families will likely receive questions from parents who are concerned about their children’s use of benefits, or how accessing federally funded child care programs may affect their immigration status or citizenship application. To continue to serve as a trusted source of information, partners must be able to answer basic questions and point parents in the right direction for more complicated questions.
Share resources with parents and families. Our goal is to make sure people have accurate and timely information so they can make informed decisions, not decisions based on fear or rumors.
This resource was developed in partnership with our colleagues at NAEYC.
By Shira Small
The Trump Administration continues to harm a child care and early education sector in desperate need of support. Recent efforts to weaken the programs meant to make child care more affordable and accessible are not new; the administration has only built on their destabilizing early education policies from year one in office. Through harmful regulatory action, illegal funding freezes, and unfounded fraud allegations, the Trump Administration has spent its second year continuing to dismantle the early childhood education programs children and families need most.
The child care sector is already on shaky ground: the average annual cost of child care has risen to $13,184, while only 1 in 6 children eligible for child care subsidies are able to access them, per the most recently available data. The rising cost of living is straining both families and the child care workforce, whose woefully low compensation drives turnover and attrition—especially for providers participating in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the primary federal funding stream for child care assistance.
Working to increase funding, center family and provider needs, and engage state and local systems to expand access to care would all be critical steps in addressing the affordability crisis. Instead, here is how the administration has targeted the child care and early education sector in 2026 so far:
Conclusion
The legislative and regulatory attacks to CCDF from the Trump Administration make one thing clear: they have no real solutions to the child care crisis. Instead of using their power to address skyrocketing costs for families and support a strained child care workforce, this administration has attempted to divert attention from their policy failures by weakening the public’s faith in public services and the public servants who administer them. Deregulation, attacks to program integrity, and attempts to censor the role that racial inequity plays in this country’s economy and history only amount to a destabilized sector, with parents still struggling to afford care and providers still not earning enough to provide it.
These attacks have real consequences for vulnerable families and an already fragile sector. Child care centers have been raided as a result of the administration’s rhetoric, and immigrant communities are being targeted and attacked, on top of the dangerous immigration policy agenda the administration was already leading. The result is communities in crisis, with families afraid to access the supports for which they’re eligible and the provider workforce shrinking further as immigrant early educators are attacked.
The child care and early education sector needs stronger investment and good-faith engagement from leaders who want the best for children, families, and providers, not the best for their political agenda.