For the first time since April 2024, Massachusetts is reopening its child care financial assistance to income-eligible families, expanding access to early childhood education.
The Advisory Council for Early Education and Care announced the expansion on Tuesday during the council’s first-ever meeting.
Tyreese Nicolas, deputy commissioner for family access and engagement, at the meeting that the $31.2 million to pay for the program comes from the Fair Share Supplemental Budget, which is funded through the so-called “millionaire’s tax” on incomes higher than $1 million.
“This allows us to expand vouchers and contracted seats, including dedicating funding for early education and care staff,” said Nicolas.
Child Care Financial Assistance programs, commonly known as CCFA, provides financial assistance for those with a household income at or below 85% the state median income with access to early education, care and out-of-school time programs so they can work or attend a job training or educational program.
Families can apply for assistance online through MyChildCareMA.
Nicolas said CCFA typically serves “priority populations,” including families experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, their early education and care staff, parents under 24-years-old, and children with disabilities.
The program is funded through a combination of state investments and federal funding, including the Child Care Development Fund.
Nicolas said for the year that ended in June 2026, roughly 49% of the budget for the Department of Early Education and Care, commonly known as EEC, was either directly federally funded, or tied to some federal funding through the Child Care Development Fund.
The remaining 51% of that money came through state investments.
“Unlike other public benefit safety programs, income-eligible child care financial assistance is tied to available funding,” she said. “So when a family is eligible, access isn’t always immediate, and families may have to wait for assistance. This is why this investment is so important and so significant.”
With these investments, the state can reopen two kinds of CCFA assistance: vouchers and contracted seats.
Vouchers are “portable” because families are able to use them at any program that accepts CCFA. But access to vouchers is usually subject to funding availability for income eligible families.
Contracted seats act as a direct care contract at a center-based site or family child care system for a specific number of seats but are dedicated specifically for CCFA capacity.
“This investment isn’t just about reopening the vouchers or just about adding contracts,” said Nicolas. “It’s about expanding both pathways, giving families more opportunities to access different types of care, increasing capacity within our provider system, and providing additional resources to support the workforce.”
Eric Hansson, CFO of the state Department of Early Education and Care, said as of July 2026, there were 31,724 children on the income eligible waitlist. That’s up from roughly 21,000 in July 2023.
“There’s about 38,000 currently in care, and the need is significant, nearly equal to those children that we have in care now, where we don’t yet have the resources to move all of these children on the waitlist into care,” said Hansson. “But making meaningful progress with the funding and resources we have. will be significant.”
Nicolas said despite the new funding, the need continues to be greater than the resources that are available.
“This investment will not allow us to reach every family that is waiting today, but it allows us to open the door, to reopen the door again, and after two and a half years, that is meaningful progress,” she said.
