State legislators from both parties gathered Monday at the General Assembly Building to launch the 2025 “Gotta Have Child Care” campaign, a bipartisan effort to address the growing gap in funding for affordable child care in Virginia.

During the press conference, state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, joined delegates, business leaders and community advocates to stress the urgency of increasing legislative funding for child care programs. They emphasized the long-term benefits of investing in accessible and affordable care for families across the state.

Currently, more than 10,000 children from working families across Virginia are on waitlists for child care services.

Additionally, an estimated 165,000 children under age 6 statewide — spanning early learners to kindergartners — qualify for publicly funded child care based on household income and parental workforce participation, highlighting a significant gap between available resources and growing demand.

“These are working families that qualify for services based on their household income. However, there are not enough slots to meet demand,” Lucas said. “As a result, families are making hard decisions whether or not to work a job, work one that doesn’t cover the child care or stay at home and try to provide for the child care on their own.”

Not only is there a long waitlist for children, but child care has become increasingly unaffordable statewide in recent years, especially for low-income families, as federal relief funds for post-pandemic economic and workforce recovery depleted.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) reported in an October 2023 data summary that full-time child care costs an average of $100 to $440 per week, per child, in addition to providers’ tuition fees. JLARC also reported that for single-parent or two-parent households, child care costs surpass 10% of the median income, which exceeds what the federal government considers unaffordable.

As a result of these concerns, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed a $448 million budget for the 2025-2026 biannual fiscal year on Virginia’s early learning and child care programs, including $25 million to develop partnerships with the private sector on child care needs.

In addition, state legislators have proposed numerous bills such as House Bill 407 from Delegate Phil Hernandez, D-Norfolk, which provides families with government assistance to qualify for the Child Care Subsidy Program.

Though Virginia has made progress in expanding funds toward child care, Delegate Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, said those temporary funds will end in the coming months.

“Every dollar we spend comes back to us for long-term investments. It’s a short-term investment in our youngest learners, for a long-term investment in families and businesses across Virginia,” she said. “But, to reap those long-term rewards, we have work to do right now.”

The “Gotta Have Childcare” campaign outlined solutions to address parental demand, including raising the benchmark cap for eligible families from 42% to 50% by the 2026 fiscal year, establishing a predictable funding formula for state agencies, and creating a dedicated fund to optimize child care investments.

The campaign also is proposing further partnerships with the private sector to incentivize contributors and revenue streams to increase the supply of child care services such as tax incentives, capital and economic incentive funds and zoning.

While the campaign’s solutions aim to promote equity, Coyner, cautioned that they could unintentionally place additional burdens on child care providers. The Virginia Secretary of Education’s Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education has explored options such as compensating providers based on children’s attendance or enrollment.

“It’s just really important that when you look at one side of a solution, you think about the consequences,” Coyner said. “Then, you try to balance that and build in place ways to positively move us forward while not negatively impacting our families that are currently receiving services.”