Do you qualify for a child care subsidy?
Connecticut families can get help paying for care
If you’re using most of your paycheck on child care, you’re not alone. In Connecticut, child care can cost as much as college tuition. Parents with an infant and a preschooler are spending an average of $2,329 a month – far more than many families can afford.
The cost of everything is going up, and it’s estimated that a family of four in Connecticut needs at least $113,520 a year to survive. Half of the households in our state don’t make that.
Care 4 Kids, the state’s child care subsidy program, provides relief to families struggling to pay for care. The state uses your monthly income and number of children to decide if you qualify and how much you could get. The thresholds to qualify change every year, so even if you didn’t qualify before, you could now or in the future.
An online quiz will tell you if you more. It asks questions about your family size, income from a job, and if you’re receiving other income from alimony, workers’ compensation, unemployment, and other sources.
Generally, you could have child care fully subsidized if you are:
- A family of three making less than $24,503 a year
- A family of four making less than $29,170 a year
- A family of five making less than $33,837 a year
If you make more, you can still qualify for a subsidy that can cover the majority of the cost of child care.
Child care subsidies are a crucial way to support hardworking parents juggle the growing challenge of paying for quality early childhood education. But there isn’t enough outreach to families – many families don’t know they qualify for a subsidy – and there’s not nearly enough state funding for the program to meet the true need.
Right now, only about one-third of eligible families are receiving a subsidy, in part because 28% of parents who qualify don’t apply due to uncertainty about whether they meet the income requirements. That means long waitlists, or even parents being turned away because there isn’t enough funding for the program.
Subsidies help working parents and parents who are in school who have children under the age of 13 (or under the age of 19 if they have special needs). Without child care, parents often have to cut back on their work hours – hurting how much money they can bring home to pay for rent, bills, and food, and how much they can put aside for the future.
Unfortunately, right now the state isn’t funding Care 4 Kids enough to meet the need. The reality is that 87% of Connecticut families would spend more than 7% of their income to pay for full-time, year-round care in a child care center. The federal government defines “affordable” child care as costing 7% or less of your paycheck.
One in four families in Connecticut said their current child care situation wasn’t affordable – and that’s only parents who were able to find care. The situation is even more dire for single parents. About half are spending at least 25% of their paycheck on care.
The rising cost of care is preventing many parents from pursuing a better future for their families. It’s hard and time consuming to find affordable, quality child care. When it’s out of reach, parents are forced out of the workplace. That in turn makes it harder for companies to find qualified employees, hurting our economy and creating a greater need for other government services.
About 22,200 families received a Care 4 Kids subsidy during the 2023-24 fiscal year. Many more parents aren’t able to get the help they need to manage the increasing cost of living. That’s why the legislature needs to show that it respects the hardworking parents of our state by supporting child care subsidies.
Our lawmakers need to hear from hardworking parents about how subsidies help bridge the gap in paying for quality care. Take action today to tell the legislature to fund child care now and in the future.
