An estimated 400,000 children were on waitlists for federal childcare assistance in the second half of 2025, according to a May 2026 report by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). This total is more than triple the 118,800 children reported on waitlists in early 2024.
The primary funding source for this aid is the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which serves approximately 1.6 million children in a typical month. According to childcare advocates and state officials, the growing queues are driven by a combination of rising childcare costs, increased applications from low-income families, and the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds.
States manage their own childcare programs and face differing budgetary pressures. Seventeen states currently have waitlists or have stopped accepting new applications. Oregon, for example, established a statewide waitlist in 2023 that now includes 26,000 children. State officials there noted that they chose to keep family co-payments low—between 2% and 4%—and pay providers higher rates, which limits the total number of families the state can serve with available resources.
Policy changes at the federal level have also shifted. The Trump administration recently reversed Biden-era rules that had capped family co-payments at 7% and required states to pay providers in advance based on enrollment. The Administration for Children and Families stated that removing the cap allows states to redirect funds toward reducing waitlists, though critics like the nonprofit Zero to Three expressed concern that the changes could destabilize the childcare system.
On a national scale, the $12.3 billion CCDF reaches only a fraction of those who are eligible. Data shows that just 22% of families who qualify under state rules receive assistance in a typical month. With childcare costs increasing by 29% between 2020 and 2024, the lack of immediate aid can leave families waiting for years during a child's critical developmental period between birth and age five.
The expiration of $39 billion in American Rescue Plan funding in September 2024 removed a temporary buffer that had stabilized the sector during the pandemic. Future accessibility depends on whether Congress increases CCDF appropriations or if states divert more money from other programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). While the Trump administration's policy reversal allows states to stop "costly implementation efforts," it remains to be seen how many states will maintain the previous caps or how quickly children will be moved off waitlists following these changes.