The Administration recently announced plans to freeze or delay federal child care funding across the country in response to unfounded fraud allegations in Minnesota. It also leveraged these allegations to justify a plan to roll back 2024 field-informed regulations requiring states to improve payment practices for providers serving families receiving child care subsidies.  

In response to these escalating actions, NAEYC CEO Michelle Kang issued the following statement:  

“This decision to freeze or delay federal funds has the potential to devastate child care access for working families and disrupt operations for countless child care programs. Early childhood educators working to support the healthy development of young children cannot sustain operations without reliable funding. These programs already operate on razor-thin margins, and delays in federal funding could force program closures, leaving working parents without care and educators without jobs. 

Fraud is harmful, and must be investigated and addressed where it exists. But penalizing entire states—and the families and educators within them—over unproven allegations in a single state, is not oversight. It risks far greater harm. 

We urge the Administration to work to support states in implementing and improving existing oversight and safeguards without disrupting payments that support access to child care and to reverse course of actions that could negatively impact working families and educators who are using federal dollars as intended. Our nation’s children, families, and educators need more support from policymakers, not added challenges.” 

NAEYC will continue to monitor these actions and share updates and opportunities for advocates to engage in the coming days and weeks.