Indiana’s childcare office will begin enrolling new families into the state’s childcare voucher program starting in late May, after the state recently committed $200 million in one-time emergency funding.
Families have been waiting for months to possibly receive a voucher from the Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF, which helps low-income families pay for childcare, after the state froze new enrollments in December 2024.
During a quarterly financial review meeting for Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, leaders at the office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning gave an update on how enrollment priority will work for the new enrollees.
First, the office will set aside vouchers for specific groups:
- Foster and Kinship families — 1,500 vouchers
- Children with special needs — 1,000 vouchers
- Children who qualify for the Indiana Department of Child Services’ A Child in Need of Services support — 800 vouchers
- Homeless applicants — 300 vouchers
- Child care workers — 200 vouchers
- Referrals from Ivy Tech Community College — 100 vouchers
These set-aside vouchers will use about $29 million of the $200 million in new CCDF funding over the next year.
Who else qualifies?
For families that don’t fall within those groups, the office will enroll new children based on a list of priority groups on a first-in, first-out basis.
The first priority group will be children who are siblings of current voucher holders. The childcare office estimates that 4,000 children are on the waitlist who fall into that category.
Next will be children who are newborns to 12 months old and don't already have a sibling using a voucher. The office estimates that 1,460 of these children are on the waitlist.
Then there will be non-sibling children who are toddlers, or ages 1 to 2 years old. The office estimates that 8,342 of these kinds of children are on the waitlist.
The last priority group will be non-sibling children ages 3 to 5 years old. The office estimates there are 10,097 of these children on the waitlist.
Of these four priority groups, the childcare office estimates it will use about $171 million of the newly appropriated CCDF funds.
New funding only lasts for one year
Adam Alson, director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning, said the office prioritized infants as the second group because only 36 infants are currently using vouchers.
“Our goal with this entire structure is to say, all right, what is the best use of state appropriation and state dollars,” Alson said during the Tuesday meeting. “... From the priority group perspective, we took into account what is most needed in the space.”
Alson also said that the increase in voucher enrollment means childcare providers will need time to adjust staffing and facilities to accommodate the increased demand, which is why they plan to begin enrollment in late May.
He also expects to be pulling applicants off the waitlist by about 3,000 per month to provide a ramp-up period for providers.
Hundreds of childcare providers around the state closed in recent months, and some laid off staff due to the lack of families who could afford the care.
Overall, Alson estimates that around 14,000 new vouchers will be handed out with this new funding. But Alson also noted that the new funding enabling this increase in enrollment is only set to last until mid-2027.
“I think almost the most important point here is that the additional 14,000 vouchers that we are going to be enrolling here will have a longer life and become an obligation of longer length to the State of Indiana than what our existing funding is,” Alson said.
He said the average CCDF voucher is used for approximately two and a half years by a family before it is available again.
State lawmakers will consider a new two-year budget during the 2027 legislative session, and Alson says his office will request a budget that reflects a commitment to maintaining the same level of funding for CCDF vouchers.
Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org.
