14. Department of Health and Human Services · Minor
Fund home-based childcare rather than universal day care
Printed page 486 14. Department of Health and Human Services
“Prioritize funding for home-based childcare, not universal day care. … Instead of providing universal day care, funding should go to parents either to offset the cost of staying home with a child or to pay for familial, in-home childcare.”
What has happened
- Not started
ACF's final rule Restoring Flexibility in the Child Care and Development Fund (effective 2026-07-13) rescinds the 7 percent family co-payment cap, the requirement to deliver some services through grants or contracts, prospective payment and enrollment-based payment. It loosens how states may spend CCDF money but it does not prioritize home-based or familial childcare, and it does not direct funding to parents who stay home. The words "home-based", "family child care" and "in-home" do not appear in the rule. Cluster negative search B (maternal, child and rural health programs) in the Chapter 14 log covers this item.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Full-text check: govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-05-12/html/2026-09382.htm read - 136 occurrences of “child care”, 0 of “home-based”, “family child care”, “in-home” or “license-exempt”, 3 of “relative” (none about relative care).
- Two further CCDF rulemakings are planned and unpublished: RIN 0970-AD29 Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden in the Child Care and Development Fund and RIN 0970-AD20. Neither abstract mentions home-based care.
- Action
- other
- Object
- federal childcare funding
- ID
- 1356