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Washington, DC, May 11, 2026 — Today the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) published its anticipated final rule for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which rescinds the 2024 final rule. This includes removing requirements to:

• limit family copayment to 7 percent of a family’s income;
• provide some direct services through grants and contracts for specific populations; and
• pay providers prospectively and based on enrollment.

In response to this final rule, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)’s Executive Director, Wendy Chun-Hoon, issued the following statement:

“CLASP opposed these recissions in our comment submitted in February, and we remain firm in our opposition today. As so many families across the country grapple with the affordability crisis, rolling back the 2024 provisions will only weaken the child care sector, make it more difficult for committed educators to remain in the field, and make child care more expensive for families.

At a moment when the child care sector is significantly challenged and under-resourced and families are struggling to find and afford care, we need real investments and real solutions that will lift people up and meet their needs—not tear them down and make what is hard even harder. We need significant investments in child care and policies that recognize and support the value of children, families, and child care providers.

This final rule enacts policies that will further destabilize an already fragile child care system, jeopardizing both families and providers. This is not what our nation needs. Instead, we need robust federal investments in a child care system that values and pays providers well and makes access to care simple for families—along with states that center the needs of children, families, and providers in decision-making.”

By Shira Small, Stephanie Schmit, and Rachel Wilensky

As Congress negotiates the fiscal year (FY) 2027 appropriations package, CLASP is calling to double the discretionary funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), which provides child care assistance for families with low incomes and increases the quality of child care for all families. Only 15 percent of eligible children had access to child care assistance through CCDBG and other federal sources in 2021, the most recent year with available data. Increasing the total discretionary funding to $17.66 billion would expand subsidy access to more than 870,000 additional children, based on CLASP analysis. This added funding would be crucial to better reach and support families with low incomes, who have never been able to fully utilize the program as the result of decades of insufficient funding.

In addition to limiting access for eligible families not yet accessing the program, years of inadequate and stagnant funding for CCDBG mean that children currently accessing the program are at risk of losing assistance due to increasing costs. Recent actions by the administration to freeze or delay funding for child care, paired with limited increases in funding and the expiration of child care COVID relief resources, have only undermined the child care and early education sector further. These actions include:

• The most recent $85 million increase for CCDBG in FY26 did not keep pace with inflation, falling over $160 million short of what’s necessary to ensure there are enough resources to serve all children currently accessing care through CCDBG.
• The July 2025 reconciliation package made dramatic cuts to public benefits programs, putting further financial strain on states that were already struggling to meet the demand for eligible families in their states.
• The expiration of COVID relief funds left many states without the funding necessary to continue serving the number of children and child care providers they were able to support during the pandemic.
• The Trump Administration has attempted to freeze states’ child care funding, spread misinformation about fraud in the child care sector, and proposed regulations that would weaken provider compensation and reduce families’ affordability protections.

As Congress engages in the FY27 appropriations process, it is essential that they protect programs families rely on and fight for investments that align with need, like urgent investments in child care. Concerns about economic stability, rising inflation, and attacks from the Trump Administration make sustained increases in annual discretionary funding a necessary support. The table below estimates the total per-state allocation from doubling current CCDBG funding and how many more children would be able to access care with the increased funds.

>>Download the full report

Suma Setty and Kaelin Rapport appeared on MomsRising’s Breaking Through Podcast to discuss their new reports documenting the effects of immigration policy and enforcement on children in immigrant families and the care providers who support them.

Listen below (and tune in to the segment at about 15:00):

The Power of Age-Appropriate Sex Ed, Immigration Policies and Our Children, Maternal Mental Health Month, & MomsRising Mother’s Day Actions in DC

 

 

 

MEDIA CONTACTS: 

Melissa Stek, Communications Consultant, melissa@mountgem.com 

Tom Salyers, Director of Communications, tsalyers@clasp.org 

Washington, D.C., April 16, 2026—Today, directly impacted educators and lead researchers released two new reports authored by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) highlighting the impacts of the Trump Administration’s 2025 immigration policies on young children and early care and education providers in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington. The research reveals profound threats to children’s development and well-being, the mental health of caregivers, and the child care and early education industry. 

Suma Setty, Senior Policy Analyst, CLASP:  “We met over 100 people across the country who are experiencing the cruelty of harsh immigration policies. It is clear that these policies, along with attacks on early care and education programs, are tearing families apart and weakening our systems of support for all families with young children. Babies and toddlers have no concept of their parents’ immigration status, and yet it is being used to rob them of what they need to thrive. All children deserve the protection of adults, to live and grow in safety with their loving caregivers without fear. Policymakers have an opportunity to intervene and limit immigration enforcement’s harm on children and strengthen the tenuous scaffolding that keeps families with young children engaged in our society. Intervening now will have cascading benefits throughout the lives of young children and for our nation’s future.”

Kaelin Rapport, Ph.D., Policy Analyst, CLASP:  “Immigrant communities and the early educators and caregivers who support them are struggling immensely. Current immigration policies and enforcement practices are leaving parents, providers, and children stressed, traumatized, and sometimes too afraid to leave the house—even to get basic necessities. Workplaces are being raided, people are being stopped in the street for speaking languages other than English, and children are seeing guns drawn on their parents while they’re on the playground. No child should have to worry about whether their parent will make it home from work or running errands. Caregivers and early educators should not have to worry about their own safety while preparing the next generation for a healthy future. Without immediate action from lawmakers to protect our children and immigrant communities, these policies will have rippling consequences that reach across American communities and national borders for generations.” 

Elizabeth Gonzalez, Community Organizer, Congress of Communities in Detroit, MI: “Increased immigration operations have brought nothing but fear and harm to children, families, and care providers in Southwest Detroit. As director of Informal Childcaregivers Cohort, I’ve had to educate immigrant child care providers on their rights and how to remain calm if they encounter immigration agents. Over the past year, we’ve seen significant drops in enrollment in our programs and Head Start because families are scared. My own grandson now worries that his loved ones will be taken after his classmate’s parent was taken by ICE. When he sees a law enforcement officer, he asks, ‘is that a good guy or a bad guy?’ and I’ve honestly had to tell him that I don’t know. With our communities under attack, this country no longer feels like the United States of America—we’re just states. But to assure our children and staff at our centers, we say, ‘estamos unidos para proteger a nuestros niños,’ or ‘we are united to protect our children.’ We call on our elected leaders to unite with us to protect our early educators and the children in their care.” 

Leah Cates, Executive Director, Second Street Youth Center in Plainfield, NJ: “Immigration enforcement doesn’t just stay out in the streets, it walks into our children’s classrooms. The impacts of this show up in children’s behavior, in their fear, and in their silence. We’re seeing increased anxiety, withdrawal, aggression, difficulty focusing, and developmental regression. Early childhood centers like ours have become more than just places of education. We have become safe havens, emotional support systems, and stabilizing forces. We are doing everything we can to ensure our families know that they can trust us and that they and their children are safe here. We are creating trauma-informed classrooms, providing Know Your Rights workshops, supporting families, and reassuring children they are safe, all while working to educate the youngest minds. But trust is always fragile when fear is constant. We cannot separate immigration policy from childhood development. Our lawmakers must take action now to enact policies that protect all children.”

Wendy Cervantes, Director of Immigration and Immigrant Families at CLASP and Director of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN): “The reports released today build off the research that CLASP published in 2018 and demonstrate how the Trump Administration’s immigration policies are once again undermining the well-being of our children and those who care for them. But this time, the scope of the harm is unlike anything we have ever seen, largely due to the historic increases in ICE funding to double down on detention and deportation, and the onslaught of policies to deny immigrant families the ability to meet their basic needs. Anti-immigrant policies that threaten our nation’s early educators, including the nearly 20 percent who are immigrants, further weaken the early care and education infrastructure that the administration has also attacked. Our policymakers must do everything in their power to halt the anti-child attacks, implement policies that will repair the harm, and protect the well-being of the youngest among us.”

Background: For this qualitative research project, the CLASP team conducted focus groups between June and December 2025 with 56 at-risk immigrant parents and family caregivers of 74 children ages six and under, and interviews with 67 early educators and child care providers, WIC staff, home visitors, health care workers, and community advocates in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington.

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The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national, nonpartisan, anti-poverty organization advancing policy solutions for people with low incomes, with a focus on addressing systemic racism as the primary cause of poverty for communities of color.

The Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) is a national network of children’s advocacy organizations and service providers committed to protecting and defending children in immigrant families, guided by policy principles to ensure that immigration policies safeguard children’s health, safety, and well-being. Since 2020, CTAN has urged federal and state officials to advance the “best interest of the child” in all policies and to reject policies that put children in harm’s way and undermine their safety.

Documenting the Impact of Harmful Immigration Policies During the Trump Administration’s Second Term

Between June and December 2025, CLASP researchers conducted interviews and focus groups with 56 immigrant parents who have children ages six and under, and 67 people who provide services to immigrant families with young children, the majority of whom are child care and early care education providers. Through these interviews and focus groups, which involved parents and providers from Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, a clear picture emerged of just how dangerous the administration’s relentless attacks on immigrants are for individual families, entire communities, job sectors, and local and state economies.

CLASP’s two new reports, “Even the Playground Isn’t Safe: How Immigration Policies are Harming Our Youngest Children” and “Caregiving in Crisis: How Immigration Policies are Undermining Early Care and Education Programs,” offer sharp insights into and put human faces on the damage of these attacks. They also build on CLASP’s numerous reports on the harm of immigration policies during the first Trump Administration, while demonstrating how much more severely immigrant families are feeling the impact of these more punitive and draconian policies.

CLASP’s reports that documented the harm of immigration policies from 2017-2020, “Our Children’s Fear,” “Immigration Policy’s Harmful Impacts on Early Care and Education,” “The Day That ICE Came,” and “How the Trump Administration has Harmed Immigrant Families and Children,” brought human faces to the impact of these actions on children, families, and early care and education programs.

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“Even the Playground Isn’t Safe” focuses on the pervasive fear and uncertainty immigrant parents and their young children have been living with since the beginning of Trump’s second term.

“Caregiving in Crisis: How Immigration Policies are Undermining Early Care and Education Programs” looks at the extent to which the Trump Administration’s policies and executive orders have destabilized the early education and child care sector since January 2025, putting providers in a position where they feel like they must do more for their clients with fewer resources than in previous years while also navigating increased burnout and stress.

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The people who educate, care, and advocate for the nation’s youngest children are directly feeling the effects of federal immigration policies. “Caregiving in Crisis” details the findings from interviews with people who serve immigrant families with children ages five and younger in early care and education and related settings. 

CLASP researchers conducted semi-structured interviews between June and December 2025 with 67 center and home-based early educators and child care providers, WIC staff, home visitors, health care workers, and community advocates in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington. While the majority of those interviewed work in early care and education, all of the interviewees provide vital services for and/or advocate on behalf of families. 

Many people of those interviewed have parents, friends, or employees who have been arrested, detained, or deported. These arrests have happened just steps from providers; they have experienced uncertainty and threats to their livelihoods; and they have witnessed firsthand how young children are struggling with the stress of the adults who care for them. Their work undergirds the economy and the healthy development of over half of all children ages five and younger in the U.S. It is critical to the greater economy and the mental, physical, and emotional health of young children and their families that policymakers and funders take action to support early care and education services as well as the people who care for our youngest children.

By Suma Setty, Kaelin Rapport, and Emily Rodriguez

The people who educate, care, and advocate for the nation’s youngest children are directly feeling the effects of federal immigration policies. “Caregiving in Crisis” details the findings from interviews with people who serve immigrant families with children ages five and younger in early care and education and related settings.

CLASP researchers conducted semi-structured interviews between June and December 2025 with 67 center and home-based early educators and child care providers, WIC staff, home visitors, health care workers, and community advocates in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington. While the majority of those interviewed work in early care and education, all of the interviewees provide vital services for and/or advocate on behalf of families.

Many people of those interviewed have parents, friends, or employees who have been arrested, detained, or deported. These arrests have happened just steps from providers; they have experienced uncertainty and threats to their livelihoods; and they have witnessed firsthand how young children are struggling with the stress of the adults who care for them. Their work undergirds the economy and the healthy development of over half of all children ages five and younger in the U.S. It is critical to the greater economy and the mental, physical, and emotional health of young children and their families that policymakers and funders take action to support early care and education services as well as the people who care for our youngest children.

A companion report, “Even the Playground Isn’t Safe: How Immigration Policies are Harming Our Youngest Children,” focuses on findings from eight focus groups held in the same states with immigrant parents of children ages six and under. Together, these reports paint a comprehensive picture of the fear and terror that children in immigrant families, child care and early education providers, and the larger community are all living with.

>>Download Caregiving in Crisis

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By Suma Setty, Kaelin Rapport, Emily Rodriguez, and Renato Rocha

Between June and December 2025, CLASP researchers conducted interviews and focus groups with 56 immigrant parents who have children ages six and under, and 67 people who provide services to immigrant families with young children, the majority of whom are child care and early care education providers. Through these conversations, which involved parents and providers from Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, a clear picture emerged of just how dangerous the administration’s relentless attacks on immigrants are for individual families, entire communities, job sectors, and local and state economies.

“Even the Playground Isn’t Safe” focuses on the pervasive fear and uncertainty immigrant parents and their young children have been living with since the beginning of Trump’s second term.

>> Read “Even the Playground Isn’t Safe”

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This statement can be attributed to Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). 

Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026–The Trump Administration’s budget proposal predictably cuts support for children, families, and workers, at a time when families are already struggling to make ends meet. It’s the same tired story from this administration, asserting that within the proposed $8 trillion budget, our country must cut funding for the programs that help families get by so they can increase defense funding and underwrite their immigration enforcement that rips families and communities apart. 

CLASP documented the many ways the Trump Administration went out of its way to hurt families and communities in 2025, and this budget is another step in that direction. It would increase the number of people in poverty even further, on top of all of the other policies the administration has signed into law, like denying millions of people their health coverage and food assistance through H.R.1.  

The Trump Administration has proposed even more drastic cuts to vital programs that workers rely on for workforce development and access to jobs that pay living wages. On top of that, rising inflation and increased strain on state budgets from H.R. 1 mean that cuts and level funding to programs like Head Start, SNAP, and public health programs, which support mental and maternal and child health, along with grants that support child care and housing would further reduce access to essential services. All of this contributes to the administration’s attacks on affordability and the social safety net.

We know what we need to invest in to support families – health care, food assistance, housing, child care, worker development programs, education. But instead, this budget slashes funding to programs that support families while continuing to inflate the budget of immigration enforcement agents who are separating families and traumatizing communities. 

The President’s budget is unacceptable. Congress should reject it and work to pass a budget that actually reflects the needs of our communities. 

Guest Author: Ruth Friedman, Ph.D.

Program integrity and accountability policies are part of all federal social services programs. This brief provides an overview of the comprehensive monitoring and oversight of fiscal program integrity processes in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Program.

CCDF is the federal program that provides financial assistance to help families who are working or are participating in education or training to afford child care and supports the quality of care for all children. It is authorized by the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) and Section 418 of the Social Security Act, which allocate the funds to state governments by a formula based on the number of young children that reside in a state and the number of children receiving free and reduced school lunch there. Most families need child care to go to work, but with the average cost of care more than $13,000 per year for one child, stable child care arrangements can be difficult or impossible to afford.

CCDF is comprehensively monitored, with numerous oversight, reporting, and auditing requirements and systems that promote strong program accountability. Since CCDF is a federal block grant, monitoring and oversight is the responsibility of both the federal government and state governments that operate the program. HHS, which administers the program, is responsible for overseeing the state agencies that administer CCDF, including their compliance with the federal law and all relevant regulations and grant award terms and conditions. States are primarily responsible for overseeing participating families and providers and maintaining internal policies and systems that ensure program administration compliance with federal requirements. This includes requirements that states document and verify child eligibility and enrollment, regularly report spending to the federal government, track improper payments and reduce administrative errors, conduct annual audits, pursue and investigate fraud, and conduct regular provider inspections. There is no evidence of significant or widespread fraud in the CCDF program. Historically, ACF has paired program oversight with technical assistance and other supports to states to improve CCDF implementation and compliance and promote continuous improvement and best practices in states’ program administration and oversight. This partnership with states has been critical to strengthening state systems and performance, but these efforts to support state program administration have been curtailed in the past year due to significant staff reductions at ACF.

Program integrity is important in any public program, meaning strong adherence to the statutory and regulatory requirements of the program. For CCDF, program integrity would mean:

• Eligible families receive the child care assistance they need to sustain work, education, or training;
• Participating families with low incomes have equal access to child care as parents who are not eligible to participate in CCDF;
• Child care providers are paid with the same generally accepted payment practices private pay parents use for the services they provide to families receiving CCDF assistance;
• Child care program quality is supported and improved;
• All licensed and regulated child care meets minimum health and safety standards;
• Children are safe and their development is supported when in child care;
• CCDF funds are safeguarded to maximize benefits for eligible children and families; and
• Taxpayer dollars are spent as required by law.

Dr. Friedman is the former director of the Office of Child Care in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has helped author numerous federal laws and regulations on early care and education.

>>Download the full brief here.