It was already strained.
The child care system put in place since women first began joining the workforce was never going to be strong enough. The structure has become too overwhelmed as needs have risen, and without resources to sustain a robust system, many of today’s families are being left behind.
Those lucky enough to find and afford care are able to support their children, allowing them to grow into their best selves, educated and nurtured into thriving members of our society. Their parents are able to be successful contributors to the economy.
Available seats, though, are hard to come by.
Indiana’s capacity for children estimated to be in need of care compared to children ages 0-5 likely needing care stood at only 62.3% in 2024, according to Early Learning Indiana. At that time, 27 counties had moderate access to care (scores between 60-80) and no counties had adequate access (scores higher than 80). Vigo County fell even below the state capacity at 59.2%.
The resources caregivers have been able to cobble together to date only go so far.
Recently, some state supports were pulled out from under child care centers — and ultimately, families.
Toward the end of 2024, major changes were brewing in Indiana.
Extra federal dollars meant to prop up child care centers during Covid expired. Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration faced a shortfall caused by the discontinuation of this aid.
The state’s flimsy child care structure couldn’t sustain such a loss.
Indiana is one of just six states that allocate no funding for child care beyond the required matches to receive federal dollars, according to Child Care Aware of America, as reported by CNHI state reporter Carson Gerber. That leaves 40% of Hoosiers who need such services without access to programs, according to a 2024 survey by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
Instead of producing a plan to improve the state’s standing, in December 2024 Indiana stopped issuing new vouchers to help low-income families pay for child care. The vouchers were backed by the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). Lawmakers followed that by cutting the amount the existing vouchers paid to child care providers, meaning that those facilities, to cover their expenses, had to charge low-income families more.
It took less than a year for these actions to be felt. Since then, early learning centers have been closing in droves across Indiana.
New data tells a dire story. Actions by the state have led in part to the closure of more than 620 child care businesses, the FSSA reported.
“The destruction is happening right now because of the CCDF crisis. I think it is going to be very hard for the state if we don’t fix this problem immediately,” Hanan Osman, executive director of the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children, told Gerber.
Combined with the wait list, Indiana is currently facing the most severe setback for child care funding in the state’s history, noted Anne Gabbert, program resource manager for Child Care Answers, an Indiana advocacy group.
Immediate change is unlikely. Budget items won’t be addressed in the current legislative session. Despite this, more than a handful of bills to curb the crisis have been introduced only to fail; one, to expand tax credits to businesses that offer child care for workers, is still alive.
Some good news came when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would allow $300 million in the state’s Financial Responsibility and Opportunity Growth Fund to go toward CCDF vouchers, Gerber reported.
That funding, however, will do little to stop the bleeding, according to child care experts and advocates. And the damage is already done as those centers which have already closed will likely not reopen.
Calling the current state of child care in Indiana a “crisis” seems too weak of a term when Hoosier families were already facing steep costs and lack of access to quality care.
Keeping quality caregivers makes the problem even more acute. The median hourly wage of an Indiana child care worker is $14.26, according to researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Research also shows child care is necessary for parents to work and 23% of adults in Indiana have young children. That’s approximately 590,000 people.
Indiana’s supermajority of Republicans doesn’t seem to understand this desperate need or the dangerous impact to the state’s future.
Not only does the Legislature need to act fast during the current session to relieve any strain on child care centers, it needs to prioritize child care in its next budget-writing session in 2027. Without action, Indiana will fall even further behind the nation in caring for its families and future leaders will face an even more desperate, perhaps unsolvable situation.
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