The first time I talked to Amy Lee Funes, our conversation left me stunned.

In spite of the fact that she earned only $35,000 a year and lived in one of the most expensive cities in the world, Funes made too much to qualify for public assistance paying for child care. Her only option was to take a pay cut, a city official told her in late 2019. Funes, who had recently moved far away from her mother (a free source of child care) to escape an abusive relationship, desperately needed child care. She felt she had no choice but to quit her job to get that voucher.

I had reported on child care subsidies before, but hadn’t realized the magnitude to which state eligibility policies — including, in some states, income criteria that flew in the face of federal recommendations — were trapping families like Funes’ in poverty. As I reported more on Funes’ experience and these policies, I learned her situation is surprisingly common. Across the country, parents often quit jobs or turn down raises to qualify for child care assistance, a reality that has immense consequences on children and families.

“If you’re teetering on that line, then sometimes a dollar an hour raise can then prohibit you from getting $1,000 a month in child care,” said Crystal Henry, who manages a child care initiative in Kansas.

You can read the full story, which published in partnership with The 19th, by clicking below.

More on child care subsidies

In 2020, my former colleague Lillian Mongeau Hughes wrote about how child care programs funded mostly through subsidies struggle with staffing and quality because the subsidy amounts are so small.

This story by Susan Shain for High Country News looks at how New Mexico managed to make child care free for most families in the state by allowing families with higher incomes to qualify.

Research quick take

Access to high-quality pre-K is becoming an increasingly popular policy across the nation’s largest cities, according to a recently released report by CityHealth. In 2024, accessible, high-quality pre-K was one of the top two policy solutions approved by voters, state government or city officials in the country’s 75 largest cities, the report found. CityHealth is partnering with the National Institute for Early Education Research to track this progress here.

More early childhood news

“The Miracle of Universal Pre-K,” New York Magazine

“California district-college partnerships tackle teacher shortage for transitional kindergarten,” K-12 Dive

“Washington needs more early childhood educators. But the pay is a problem,” The Seattle Times

This story about child care assistance was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.