Capsule Collection: Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)

What is CCDBG?

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is a federal program that helps parents with low incomes afford child care while they work or attend school. It is the largest federal funding source for child care assistance, serving children under age 13. Most funding supports children 6 and younger, with the rest going toward out-of-school care for older children.

In a Nutshell

• CCDBG funds provide families with vouchers to pay providers that accept them.
• Each month, about 1.4 million children benefit from CCDBG subsidies.
• Families receiving assistance pay an average of $217 per month. Without CCDBG, child care costs exceed $13,000 a year.
• States have flexibility in how they use CCDBG funds, within broad federal rules on eligibility and quality.
• With greater investment, CCDBG funds could reach more families and children. Each month, nearly 7 million eligible children under age 6 go unserved because of limited funding.
• CCDBG gives parents the right to choose the best early educational setting for their children, whether it be public, private, faith-based, or home-based.

How It Works

CCDBG is the primary federal grant program that allows states to provide child care assistance to low-income working families with children under age 13. These subsidies help parents access child care in a setting of their choice.

To receive CCDBG funds, Lead Agencies must establish child care licensing requirements that ensure children are cared for in safe, high-quality environments. These requirements vary by state. Lead Agencies may establish different rules depending on the setting (e.g., center-based, home-based) and may exempt some providers from licensing requirements (e.g., faith-based programs).

• Beyond lowering the cost of care, states can use CCDBG funds to:
  
  • Recruit and retain a qualified, fairly paid workforce
    
  • Support continuous quality improvement
    
  • Expand care options for parents working nontraditional hours

CCDBG is the largest source of federal funding for child care and is funded each year through the Appropriations process. Congress sets the funding levels, then states have flexibility in how they use these funds to support early learning and care systems to best meet the needs of children, parents, and child care providers in their communities.

Tools You Can Use

• For a basic overview, here are the First 5 Things To Know about how CCDBG helps working families and kids.
• See FFYF’s CCDBG overview here. 
• FY2026 Dear Colleague letters calling for prioritizing funding for CCDBG
• See how CCDBG impacts your state with FFYF’s CCDBG State Fact Sheets.
• Side-by-side: Read this comparison of the Child Care & Development Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 2025 to Current Law
• Read our analysis of how CCDBG funding impacts states across the country. 
• Use this toolkit to urge Congress to protect and prioritize CCDBG funding and help build support on social media 

Support

• A 2025 poll from First Five Years Fund found that 67% of voters (including 69% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats) support increasing federal funding to states to expand current programs that directly help low-income children (also known as the Child Care & Development Block Grant, or CCDBG) 

Active Legislation

FFYF is tracking relevant federal legislation, including:

• S.2295: Child Care for Working Families Act, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). This bill revises the CCDBG Act to expand subsidy eligibility for children under 13 from families earning no more than 85% of state median income (SMI) to those earning no more than 150% of SMI; establishes a sliding scale for parent copayments based on a family’s income (the maximum copayment would be 7% of family income) ; provides additional funding to enable Head Start agencies to provide access to a full school year and full school day of services; and expands state pre-K programs. The bill would also create the Building an Affordable System for Early Education (BASE) grant program, which aims to make child care more accessible for traditionally underserved families and better support providers.
• S. 1285  and H.R. 2595: Building Child Care for a Better Future Act, introduced by U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),  and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL-7). This bill would amend the Social Security Act to increase annual funding for the Child Care Entitlement to States (CCES) to $10 billion per year. It would also appropriate $5 billion to the CCES annually for grants to improve child care supply, quality, and access in areas of particular need.