Built collaboratively with Child Care for WA partner organizations, our 2025 legislative priorities lay the foundation for our north star of ensuring that all Washington families have access to high-quality affordable child care and early educators are fairly compensated for the essential work they do.
Learn more about our long-term priorities by reading our Policy Platform.
While we are working toward solving the child care crisis for the future, Washington’s providers and families are shouldering the high costs of child care today. Our 2025 priorities are fighting to make sure children, providers and families aren’t left behind the cycle of budget gaps, while making progress toward child care that works for providers, families, and the economy as a whole. Washington must:
1. Maintain the promise of the Fair Start for Kids Act – operating budget
The legislature passed the Fair Start for Kids Act in 2021. This historic piece of legislation provided scheduled increases to provider rates and family eligibility over time. But with Washington facing budget shortfalls and competing priorities, that promise to providers and families is in jeopardy of not being funded this year. Washington must fully implement and fund these modest increases to ensure that providers can continue to care for families with subsidized child care.
Washington must:
Increase eligibility for families to the Working Connections Child Care subsidy program to 75% of state median income.
Washington currently ranks as the 11th least-affordable state for child care. Many families are forced into impossible decisions to make child care work, including families caught in the middle ground of not making enough to pay the full cost of their child care, but still not qualifying for child care subsidies.
Expanding eligibility to our state’s child care subsidy program from 60% to 75% of state median income will help nearly 8,000 more families afford high quality care – which will impact an estimated 13,500 children. With these changes, a family of four making ~$98,200/year will now be able to access these essential supports – lowering their monthly child care costs to a $215 copayment.
Child Care for WA’s vision is that all families can access and afford high quality care, but we also know that impactful change will take time. Increasing eligibility for families to 75% of the state median income in 2025 will ensure Washington has a stronger base to build off in the future, while also providing financial support for families who are currently most burdened by the high costs of care.
Learn more about qualifying for financial supports for care here.
Increase Working Connections Child Care rates to the 85th percentile of the most recent market rate survey.
Federal law says that every three years the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) must update its Market Rate Survey to find out how much providers are charging for care. With that information, DCYF sets the rates that providers will receive for subsidy slots, at the 85th percentile of the most recent market rate survey. For 2025, DCYF estimates that providers accepting subsidy to care for families will see an average rate increase of 27% state wide. Region–specific estimates on the change in rates can be found in the 2024 DCYF Cost of Quality Child Care and Market Rate Study.
As we move toward reimbursing providers at the true cost of delivering care, this modest rate increase is a critical interim step. Without it, some providers may no longer be able to continue offer the Working Connections Child Care subsidy program and keep operating their businesses at a sustainable level.
Honor the commitment to ECEAP expansion.
The Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) is our state-funded preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds from families furthest from opportunities. As our state works towards making this program available to all eligible lower-income families who want it, investing in this program now will ensure Washington’s children have a solid path forward.
Washington should invest in meaningful rate increases and add 2,600 new slots in 2025, while responding to the current needs heard from the field by delaying the full implementation of ECEAP entitlement, currently set for 2026.
2. Ensure that Working Connections Child Care rates reflect the true cost for providing high-quality child care – legislation
The way the state currently sets subsidy rates, basing them on the market rate for private pay families, is broken – it reflects only what overburdened families are able to pay for care, not the true cost to providers to deliver that care. It doesn’t give providers the resources needed to pay living wages to their hardworking staff and offer benefits like health care and sick time. Child care providers and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families came together to find a better way. Read about this new Cost of Quality Care Rate Model here. By establishing in law that the state must use the Cost of Quality Care Rate model to set subsidy rates, we can move towards ensuring all child care workers can thrive in this critical industry.
3. Increase capacity for child care by investing $50 million into the Early Learning Facilities (ELF) Fund and $8.6 million into the ELF Public School District Program- capital budget
High-quality child care for our children depends on safe, high-quality facilities. Opening and maintaining these spaces is prohibitively expensive for many child care programs to do on their own, especially those serving children from families with low incomes.
The Department of Commerce operates a grant program to support the industry to grow physically. Providing additional investment to the Early Learning Facilities Fund will help programs who serve children from low-income families cover the costs of adding, remodeling, or expanding safe and high-quality facilities.
We need parents, providers, and advocates across the state to help pass these priorities in 2025 – Join us in fighting for a future where child care can work for everyone.