The Trump administration is reportedly developing a policy that would open federal child care funds to married couples who choose to have one parent stay home to raise their children, according to a New York Times report published Saturday and citing people familiar with the matter.
The change would tap the Child Care and Development Fund, a $12 billion program run by the Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and Families. The fund was created during the Clinton administration to help low- to moderate-income parents afford child care so they could work or attend school, and it currently offsets care costs for about 1.3 million children up to age 13.
Under the draft rule described by the Times, parents who stay home with their children could become eligible for the program, which typically provides roughly $9,000 per child annually. That would mark a significant shift in how the money is distributed and, according to the Times, would create the first federal subsidy specifically paying parents to stay home and raise their children.
The Bipartisan Policy Center reports that families nationwide pay an average of more than $13,000 per child each year for care, meaning the subsidy would still cover only a portion of typical costs.
The Times report framed the proposal as one of the administration’s most significant efforts yet to use federal money to promote what it called a traditional view of families.
Background on child care policy
Child care costs have been a recurring political issue. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump rolled out childcare proposals and criticized opponent Hillary Clinton for having no childcare plan, according to Breitbart News reporting at the time. One of his proposals then was to rewrite the tax code so working parents could deduct childcare expenses for up to four children and elderly dependents from their income taxes.
More recently, in June 2024, Breitbart News reported that persistent inflation under President Joe Biden had made raising children more expensive, citing data from LendingTree.
Details of the current draft rule, including a timeline for implementation, were not specified in the report.
