The Trump administration is preparing a rule that would allow some married couples to receive federal child-care subsidies when one parent stays home to care for their children, a significant expansion of a program historically aimed at helping parents pay for outside care while they work or attend school.
The proposal, reported Saturday by The New York Times, would use money from the Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF, and is considered a priority for Vice President JD Vance. Under current federal rules, the program generally serves low-income families in which parents are working or participating in education or job training. Federal law allows states to serve families earning up to 85 percent of their state median income, though states can set lower limits.
A draft obtained by the Times says the proposal “creates the option for a new category of care, parent-based child care, that will allow one married parent to receive C.C.D.F. assistance to care for their own child, while a spouse works at least 35 hours per week.”
The change would apply only to married couples within specified income limits. Unmarried couples with a stay-at-home parent and single parents who remain home would not qualify under the draft. The existing subsidy averages roughly $9,000 per child annually, according to the Times.
The proposal could be implemented through the federal rulemaking process without separate legislation from Congress. It would first require White House review before being published for public comment and could be revised before becoming final. The draft reportedly incorporates ideas from legislation written by Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he served in the Senate.
The CCDF currently distributes billions of dollars through states, territories and tribes to subsidize child care for lower-income families, most commonly through vouchers or payments to child-care providers. HHS reported that the program served about 797,200 families and 1.31 million children in an average month in fiscal 2021, the most recent figures cited in its fiscal 2025 budget justification.
Expanding eligibility without a corresponding increase in funding could leave states dividing the same pool of money among more families. The Times reported that roughly 80 percent of current recipient families are headed by single working parents and that child-care advocates have warned the change could reduce assistance available to existing recipients and providers.
The proposal would mark a notable shift in federal child-care policy by treating care provided directly by a parent as subsidized child care. It also reflects the administration’s broader effort to support households in which one parent works and the other remains home with children.
Mothers continue to make up the overwhelming majority of stay-at-home parents. Pew Research Center found that fathers accounted for 18 percent of stay-at-home parents in 2021, meaning mothers represented about 82 percent.
