New Mexico Child Care Assistance Program doubles eligibility

More families may be able to qualify for free child care after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced an expansion to New Mexico’s Child Care Assistance Program on July 1.

This program will increase eligibility to families that make up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level on Aug. 1 and will allow families to remain in the program if they make up to 400 percent. The New Mexico’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) currently offers subsidies that cover the cost of child care for families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $53,000 a year for a family of four.

The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department said the goal of the change was to reduce or eliminate out-of-pocket child care costs for middle class families and to open the program to those whose income was too high to qualify for assistance but still too low to comfortably afford it.

“This is the single largest eligibility expansion in the history of our child care assistance program,” said Lujan Grisham.

“And this change establishes virtually universal free or reduced-cost child care in New Mexico for at least the next two years as our economy recovers and New Mexicans get back to work. Using federal emergency funds to close the affordability gap for both parents and providers will be a game changer for early childhood education, working families and the broader New Mexico economy. This is one of the most significant policy changes we can make to help New Mexico working families—and we’ll keep looking at ways to push the envelope even farther.”

The program will use funds from the American Rescue Plan to cover the costs of the increase according to the news release.

“Today, we are closing gaps, reforming broken systems and finding a balance that has eluded our early childhood education system for so long,” said Early Childhood Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky.

“We still have much work to do, but right-sizing our child care assistance program for parents and providers is an important landmark on our journey towards creating a true cradle-to-career education system that helps all New Mexicans thrive.”

Claudia Silva is a reporting fellow from the UNM Local Reporting Fellowship. She can be reached at csilva2@currentargus.com or (575) 628-5506.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: New Mexico Child Care Assistance Program doubles eligibility

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