Every year, Congress must make decisions about funding for discretionary programs, including many important child care and early learning programs through the annual appropriations process. As part of that process, the president submits a budget request to Congress, laying out spending and policy priorities for the next fiscal year. The president’s budget is just a set of recommendations; however it does offer important insights into the administration's priorities and seeks to influence Congress’s decision-making. As such, it’s important for advocates to understand what the president’s budget proposes and what the implications of those proposals would be if signed into law. 

As NAEYC stated when the White House released a slimmed down version of its budget in early May, if Congress were to enact the president’s FY26 budget, it would be breaking a precedent of years of bipartisan support around investing in child care and early learning and cause real harms for educators, families and young children across the country.

2026 Budget Proposals

No Support for Improving Access to High-Quality and Early Learning Opportunities

The President’s budget includes no significant cuts to the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start, the two largest federally-financed programs that support access to early childhood education for children and families; however, with strong bipartisan support in Congress for both programs, rising costs for programs and families, and insufficient levels of current funding, flat funding is not enough, especially considering cuts in other areas of the budget. It is also worth noting that on Head Start, specifically, the president’s budget alludes to unspecified policy reforms that could shift the program’s mission.   

Eliminates Important State Systems Funding by Cutting Preschool Development Grants B-5 (PDG)

The budget proposes completely eliminating PDG, which provides states support in enhancing their early childhood systems to improve access to high-quality early learning opportunities. States have leveraged these funds for a variety of purposes including professional development, increasing compensation, and improving access to benefits. Rhode Island’s PDG dollars helped create a teacher apprenticeship program to address the ECE workforce shortage by expanding educational opportunities for educators and increasing compensation. While Louisiana launched the Healthy Navigators program to increase access to health insurance coverage for early educators by offering affordable options. 

Makes it Harder for Student Parents to Access Child Care to Stay in School

The budget proposes eliminating the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) program, which supports access to necessary care and education for children of student parents while they work toward their degrees. Without CCAMPIS, early educators with young children would not be able to further their education to increase their chances of success.

“CCAMPIS has been a decades long unique source of support for student parents with very young children. This child care directly supports access for student parent veterans and first-generation students pursuing their goals of a post-secondary degree. Providing high quality ECE is a difficult financial endeavor, and CCAMPIS funds are, and continue to be, a distinct and critical source of funding for student parents to achieve graduation.” 

- Amy Luhn, Family Resource Center Director, Oregon State University  

Threatens Access to Special Education for Preschoolers with Disabilities

The budget proposes consolidating all programs funded under IDEA Part B and Part D into a single formula grant to states to meet the needs of children with disabilities, including IDEA Part B (619), Preschool Special Education. While preschool special education would remain an allowable use of funds, states would no longer be required to support these programs as they are now. Without a dedicated preschool grant, communities may struggle to meet children’s developmental and behavioral needs during a time where prevention and intervention is most impactful. 

Guts Federal Funding for K-12 Education

The budget includes deep, harmful cuts to education programs designed to improve education for disadvantaged children and improve schools for students. Many of these cuts come in the form of a consolidation of existing programs that support teacher professional development, out-of-school-time education, education for at-risk students, literacy instruction, rural schools, and students experiencing homelessness, among others, into a single funding stream. Allowable uses of the new program reflect the activities of the existing programs. However, the budget does not reflect current funding needs as it would cut total funding for these programs from $6.5 billion to $2 billion. The budget also proposes gutting funding for educational innovation and research, including cutting the budget for the Institute for Educational Sciences by nearly 70% and eliminating funding for research in special education.  

Makes it Harder for Early Childhood Educators to Access Higher Education

The budget proposes more than $2 billion in cuts to higher education that would impact programs that make college more accessible for educators. These include Federal –Work-Study, which would be decreased by $980 million, and Pell Grant programs, which would experience a 23% reduction in the maximum award for qualified students. The budget also proposes the elimination of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), TRIO, and Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) programs, which would make college education harder to reach for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and create additional barriers to their success. Early educators will have fewer opportunities to gain high-quality teacher preparation if the proposed elimination of the Teacher Quality Partnership program comes to fruition. 

Take action today

If adopted by Congress, the funding cuts and policy changes in the president’s proposal would be devastating to early educators, children, and families. We need action from congressional leaders to ensure these proposed and harmful cuts are not reflected in the FY26 budget they pass. Congress must instead continue its bipartisan record of supporting ECE and provide robust and sustained investments that help parents access affordable, quality care and education and provide educators access to the resources they need to thrive.  

Tell Congress to make investments that help kids rather than cut critical programs that benefit young children, families, and early educators. 

Send a message to your member of Congress