Indiana has issued 3,240 new childcare vouchers to families since April — the state's first wave of new approvals since it froze voucher enrollment in December 2024 due to a loss of pandemic-era funding.
Indiana used more than $1 billion in temporary federal pandemic aid to invest in childcare and expand vouchers under Gov. Eric Holcomb. Nearly 70,000 children were enrolled by November 2024.
When that federal money ran out, Gov. Mike Braun proposed substantially raising state funding for the vouchers.
Then in April, lawmakers approved an additional $200 million one-time emergency fund to help the state approve new vouchers for families over the next year.
Previously, the office leaders said that they hope to add about 14,000 new children from the waitlist due to the emergency funding, but as of July, total voucher enrollment had grown to 48,193 — up from about 41,000 to 44,000 earlier this year, but still roughly 8,800 vouchers short of that goal.
During a financial review Wednesday for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, leaders from the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning gave some updates on the latest numbers around families receiving the vouchers.
The office, or OECOSL, oversees the state’s two main childcare programs, known as the Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF, and On My Way Pre-K.
Since the increase in funding, OECOSL has been working through new applications since May, and said 9,000 children were invited to receive a CCDF voucher. Of that 9,000, 3,240 have been approved and another 3,000 are still in the application process. Another 2,430 applicants did not respond or properly complete the paperwork, and 270 applicants were found not eligible.
This update now means that the waitlist for CCDF and On My Way Pre-K is at around 29,800 children as of the end of July — the lowest it's been since September last year.
This influx of new enrollment for the vouchers is one of the biggest increases since the state had to freeze enrollments in December 2024 due to a loss of pandemic-era funding.
Most of the new children receiving vouchers are the siblings of children already using a voucher. Soon after OECOSOL received the $200 million, the office set out a list of priority groups for who would get the vouchers first. Siblings were at the top of the priority list, followed by infants.
Adam Alson, director of OECOSL, said that most of their enrollment efforts have been directed towards increasing the number of infants and toddlers who are getting a new voucher.
“We fully understand how important that these vouchers are, both for families, but also for the broader childcare space as well,” Alson said. “Which is one of the main reasons that we did target infants and then toddlers.”
Childcare capacity in the state decreased by 2% since this time last year. But compared with when voucher enrollment was frozen at the end of 2024, capacity has grown 3% because spots are available.
Alson said he was encouraged that CCDF voucher funding may be less closely tied to overall childcare capacity than the state believed a year and a half ago.
“And that's good because that means childcare businesses are doing the things they need to do to stay open and manage their own businesses to get to a point where they continue to be open,” he said.
As of June, the state had around 175,900 childcare seats at providers. The largest decrease in types of childcare is individual home programs, which has seen a 12% decrease since this time last year. The largest increase was at childcare centers, which saw a 0.8% increase from last year.
Braun has said he has told lawmakers that childcare is a top priority moving forward, but he wants to see buy-in from businesses.
Braun’s administration is also currently considering a change to childcare regulations that would reduce education and training requirements for administrators and lead caregivers.
Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org
