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Fact Sheet

The Unmet Need for Child Care Remains Staggeringly High

February 2025 | By Laura Pryor and Kristin Schumacher

While building at the block table, the young girl gives her unrecognizable teacher a big smile.

Child care and development programs administered by the California Department of Social Services are critical for supporting California’s families with affording child care that meets their needs. Funding for child care programs has increased since the Great Recession. Given this increase, a greater proportion of children eligible for subsidized child care are being served. In 2023,14% of eligible children were enrolled in subsidized child care programs, up from 11% in 2022.

Although state investments in child care have increased enrollment in subsidized programs, the data in this chart highlights a persistent gap between supply and demand. As a result, many families still struggle to find the care they need — underscoring the urgency for state leaders to continue working to expand child care access.

  • Only one in seven children eligible for subsidized care receive services. The gap between the number of children eligible for subsidized care and the number enrolled remains far too large. Given the high cost of child care, this gap means that thousands of families unable to access affordable care struggle even more to make ends meet. 
  • The lack of supply disproportionately impacts families of color. Namely, 55% of Black children and 48% of Latinx children in California are eligible for subsidized child care. Therefore, when there is an inadequate supply of subsidized child care, California’s families of color are disproportionately impacted. 
  • The demand for subsidized child care spans age groups. Namely, only ten percent of school-age children (ages 6-12) eligible for subsidized child care are enrolled. And, only 19 percent of eligible infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children are enrolled. While enrollment varies across age groups, the tremendous need for more subsidized child care slots spans ages zero to twelve.

Throughout the next several years, the administration has committed to adding approximately 77,000 more slots to fulfill his commitment of 200,000 new slots by 2027-28. However, 77,000 is insufficient for addressing the demand for subsidized child care in California, leaving families in impossible situations. Additional state and federal dollars will be necessary to fully meet the child care needs of families with low incomes.

Kristin Schumacher, a former analyst at the California Budget & Policy Center, now contributes to the organization as a consultant on various research projects.

Child Care & Preschool

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Federal funds have long supported vital public services in California — from health care and food assistance to child care and higher education. These services are now in jeopardy due to threatened federal budget cuts and policy rollbacks, putting the health and well-being of millions of Californians at risk.

President Trump and congressional Republicans are seeking deep cuts to federal funding to help offset the cost of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. The Trump administration has already tried to cut spending through its unconstitutional funding freeze, which faces legal challenges. Additional spending cuts are being planned in the Republican-controlled Congress for adoption as soon as this spring.

As highlighted in the table below, federal funding reductions could target a broad range of public services and systems, with substantial human and financial impacts at the state and local levels. The funding cuts under consideration would:

  • Destabilize California’s state budget. Federal funds make up over one-third of the state budget — totaling $170 billion under current state estimates. Most of these federal dollars support Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program), which provides health coverage to more than 14 million Californians. Republican proposals to slash support for Medicaid could reduce annual federal funding for California by $10-$20 billion or more. Cuts of this magnitude would create a massive budget hole that would force state leaders to make painful spending cuts — cuts that would jeopardize Californians’ access to health care through Medi-Cal as well as threaten other state services and systems.
  • Devastate vital services that help vulnerable Californians make ends meet. In addition to the Medicaid program, federal policymakers could target SNAP food assistance (CalFresh in California), cash assistance for older adults and people with disabilities (SSI), housing supports, child care, and other safety net programs that together support millions of Californians. This includes immigrant communities, Californians with disabilities, low-income families with young children, older adults living on fixed incomes, and many more.
  • Undermine K-12 schools and higher education. Public education could face cuts to federal grant programs and/or a shift of federal funds to private schools. The Trump administration has already announced billions of dollars in cuts to research institutions across the country, and higher education “remains particularly vulnerable to the consequences” of the federal funding freeze.
  • Erode critical funding for California’s local jurisdictions. Counties, cities, and special districts rely on federal funding to support the services that they deliver to their residents. Counties, for example, operate health and safety net programs on behalf of the state, with federal funding making up a large share of the funds that counties receive for this purpose. County officials are particularly concerned about Trump’s unconstitutional funding freeze, which they have called “an evolving situation with potentially significant impacts to funding that counties utilize to serve communities.”

One thing is clear: These Republican-proposed cuts would harm millions of Californians, all to bankroll tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, who are already thriving.

Erik Saucedo contributed to this publication.

Federal Policy

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Access to affordable health care, housing, and nutritious food is necessary for all Californians to thrive. But Republican federal budget proposals would pave the way for deep and harmful cuts that would take health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essentials away from millions of Californians who are already struggling to make ends meet in the face of persistently high inflation and the high cost of living. These cuts would increase poverty and hardship, widen race and ethnic inequities, and make it harder for workers to maintain their jobs in exchange for funding huge tax giveaways for the wealthy. 

This fact sheet shows how many residents in California’s 41st Congressional District, represented by Representative Ken Calvert, benefit from vital programs at risk of being cut. The data illustrate the potentially wide-reaching impact cuts could have in the community.

Health Care

Medi-Cal saves lives. It’s a lifeline that provides free or low-cost health coverage for nearly 15 million Californians — over one-third of the state’s population — including children, pregnant individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities. Cutting Medi-Cal funding would mean taking critical care away from residents in California’s 41st Congressional District who need it the most. Without access to health coverage, Californians will face impossible choices that put their health and economic security at risk while also driving up long-term costs for the state.

Nutrition

CalFresh nutrition assistance helps over 5 million Californians each month, including workers with low-paying jobs, buy the food they need to support their households. It brings billions of federal dollars into the state each year that Californians spend in their communities helping to boost local businesses and jobs. In early 2023, CalFresh kept 1.1 million state residents out of poverty, reducing California’s poverty rate by 3 percentage points, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting CalFresh funding would increase poverty and hunger, making it harder for residents in California’s 41st Congressional District to maintain their jobs, and hurting local businesses as families spend less on groceries. Cuts could also reduce students’ access to free meals at school, putting additional pressure on family budgets.

Income

Income supports like CalWORKs and SSI help Californians with very low incomes, including people who are blind and individuals with disabilities, pay the rent and buy essentials for their families, like diapers and school supplies. These and other safety net supports lifted 3.2 million Californians out of poverty in early 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting vital income supports would increase poverty and hardship among residents of CA-41, including low-income families with children, seniors, and disabled children and adults. Cuts would also reduce the spending power of residents in California’s 41st Congressional District hurting local businesses and the local economy.

Housing and Homelessness

Housing is core to dignity, health, and economic stability. Yet, 60% of renters in CA-41 face unaffordable housing costs — the primary driver of housing insecurity and homelessness. In 2023 alone, 4,050 Californians experiencing homelessness engaged with service providers in CA-41. Key programs like the Continuum of Care Program are vital regional initiatives working to end and prevent homelessness in every congressional district. Housing Choice Vouchers — though significantly oversubscribed — help ensure residents can secure, afford, and maintain stable housing. Cutting these programs would mean the families, children, individuals, and seniors who rely on these essential supports would not be able to stay in their homes, increasing the risk of homelessness for many Californians.

Refundable Income Tax Credits

Credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) are proven tools for improving economic security among Californians with low and moderate incomes, and they’ve been linked to long-term benefits for children, including better health and school achievement. Cutting these credits would take away income that families in CA-41 count on to make ends meet, reducing their spending power and hurting local businesses and the economy.

District Context

Deep cuts to health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essential supports would harm residents throughout CA-41, making it harder for families and individuals to afford health care and food and increasing poverty and hardship. Instead of making deep cuts to vital services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, Congress should instead pass a budget that broadens opportunity, cuts costs for families, and invests in people so that residents in California’s 41st Congressional District can thrive in their communities.

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Access to affordable health care, housing, and nutritious food is necessary for all Californians to thrive. But Republican federal budget proposals would pave the way for deep and harmful cuts that would take health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essentials away from millions of Californians who are already struggling to make ends meet in the face of persistently high inflation and the high cost of living. These cuts would increase poverty and hardship, widen race and ethnic inequities, and make it harder for workers to maintain their jobs in exchange for funding huge tax giveaways for the wealthy. 

This fact sheet shows how many residents in California’s 22nd Congressional District, represented by Representative David Valadao, benefit from vital programs at risk of being cut. The data illustrate the potentially wide-reaching impact cuts could have in the community.

Health Care

Medi-Cal saves lives. It’s a lifeline that provides free or low-cost health coverage for nearly 15 million Californians — over one-third of the state’s population — including children, pregnant individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities. Cutting Medi-Cal funding would mean taking critical care away from residents in California’s 22nd Congressional District who need it the most. Without access to health coverage, Californians will face impossible choices that put their health and economic security at risk while also driving up long-term costs for the state.

Nutrition

CalFresh nutrition assistance helps over 5 million Californians each month, including workers with low-paying jobs, buy the food they need to support their households. It brings billions of federal dollars into the state each year that Californians spend in their communities helping to boost local businesses and jobs. In early 2023, CalFresh kept 1.1 million state residents out of poverty, reducing California’s poverty rate by 3 percentage points, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting CalFresh funding would increase poverty and hunger, making it harder for residents in California’s 22nd Congressional District to maintain their jobs, and hurting local businesses as families spend less on groceries. Cuts could also reduce students’ access to free meals at school, putting additional pressure on family budgets.

Income

Income supports like CalWORKs and SSI help Californians with very low incomes, including people who are blind and individuals with disabilities, pay the rent and buy essentials for their families, like diapers and school supplies. These and other safety net supports lifted 3.2 million Californians out of poverty in early 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting vital income supports would increase poverty and hardship among residents of CA-22, including low-income families with children, seniors, and disabled children and adults. Cuts would also reduce the spending power of residents in California’s 22nd Congressional District hurting local businesses and the local economy.

Housing & Homelessness

Housing is core to dignity, health, and economic stability. Yet, 56% of renters in CA-22 face unaffordable housing costs — the primary driver of housing insecurity and homelessness. In 2023 alone, 6,611 Californians experiencing homelessness engaged with service providers in CA-22. Key programs like the Continuum of Care Program are vital regional initiatives working to end and prevent homelessness in every congressional district. Housing Choice Vouchers — though significantly oversubscribed — help ensure residents can secure, afford, and maintain stable housing. Cutting these programs would mean the families, children, individuals, and seniors who rely on these essential supports would not be able to stay in their homes, increasing the risk of homelessness for many Californians.

Refundable Income Tax Credits

Credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) are proven tools for improving economic security among Californians with low and moderate incomes, and they’ve been linked to long-term benefits for children, including better health and school achievement. Cutting these credits would take away income that families in CA-22 count on to make ends meet, reducing their spending power and hurting local businesses and the economy.

District Context

Deep cuts to health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essential supports would harm residents throughout CA-22, making it harder for families and individuals to afford health care and food and increasing poverty and hardship. Instead of making deep cuts to vital services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, Congress should instead pass a budget that broadens opportunity, cuts costs for families, and invests in people so that residents in California’s 22nd Congressional District can thrive in their communities.

Federal Policy

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Access to affordable health care, housing, and nutritious food is necessary for all Californians to thrive. But Republican federal budget proposals would pave the way for deep and harmful cuts that would take health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essentials away from millions of Californians who are already struggling to make ends meet in the face of persistently high inflation and the high cost of living. These cuts would increase poverty and hardship, widen race and ethnic inequities, and make it harder for workers to maintain their jobs in exchange for funding huge tax giveaways for the wealthy.

This fact sheet shows how many residents in California’s 40th Congressional District, represented by Representative Young Kim, benefit from vital programs at risk of being cut. The data illustrate the potentially wide-reaching impact cuts could have in the community.

Health Care

Medi-Cal saves lives. It’s a lifeline that provides free or low-cost health coverage for nearly 15 million Californians — over one-third of the state’s population — including children, pregnant individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities. Cutting Medi-Cal funding would mean taking critical care away from residents in California’s 40th Congressional District who need it the most. Without access to health coverage, Californians will face impossible choices that put their health and economic security at risk while also driving up long-term costs for the state.

Nutrition

CalFresh nutrition assistance helps over 5 million Californians each month, including workers with low-paying jobs, buy the food they need to support their households. It brings billions of federal dollars into the state each year that Californians spend in their communities helping to boost local businesses and jobs. In early 2023, CalFresh kept 1.1 million state residents out of poverty, reducing California’s poverty rate by 3 percentage points, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting CalFresh funding would increase poverty and hunger, making it harder for residents in California’s 40th Congressional District to maintain their jobs, and hurting local businesses as families spend less on groceries. Cuts could also reduce students’ access to free meals at school, putting additional pressure on family budgets.

Income

Income supports like CalWORKs and SSI help Californians with very low incomes, including people who are blind and individuals with disabilities, pay the rent and buy essentials for their families, like diapers and school supplies. These and other safety net supports lifted 3.2 million Californians out of poverty in early 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Cutting vital income supports would increase poverty and hardship among residents of CA-40, including low-income families with children, seniors, and disabled children and adults. Cuts would also reduce the spending power of residents in California’s 40th Congressional District hurting local businesses and the local economy.

Housing & Homelessness

Housing is core to dignity, health, and economic stability. Yet, 61% of renters in CA-40 face unaffordable housing costs — the primary driver of housing insecurity and homelessness. In 2023 alone, 5,082 Californians experiencing homelessness engaged with service providers in CA-40. Key programs like the Continuum of Care Program are vital regional initiatives working to end and prevent homelessness in every congressional district. Housing Choice Vouchers — though significantly oversubscribed — help ensure residents can secure, afford, and maintain stable housing. Cutting these programs would mean the families, children, individuals, and seniors who rely on these essential supports would not be able to stay in their homes, increasing the risk of homelessness for many Californians.

Refundable Income Tax Credits

Credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) are proven tools for improving economic security among Californians with low and moderate incomes, and they’ve been linked to long-term benefits for children, including better health and school achievement. Cutting these credits would take away income that families in CA-40 count on to make ends meet, reducing their spending power and hurting local businesses and the economy.

District Context

Deep cuts to health coverage, nutrition assistance, and other essential supports would harm residents throughout CA-40, making it harder for families and individuals to afford health care and food and increasing poverty and hardship. Instead of making deep cuts to vital services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, Congress should instead pass a budget that broadens opportunity, cuts costs for families, and invests in people so that residents in California’s 40th Congressional District can thrive in their communities.

Federal Policy

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Every Californian deserves the dignity of a safe, affordable home — an attainable reality in a state as prosperous and resourceful as California. Yet state homelessness and affordable housing investments are approaching critical funding cliffs, with deeper cuts expected in 2025 if one-time allocations are discontinued and federal dollars face cuts under the Trump administration. Ensuring vital housing efforts continue will require sustained funding and new revenue to protect and uplift Californians and communities statewide.  

Noteable state investments in California’s homelessness response and affordable housing production began in 2019. Over the past six years, the combination of flexible federal dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, strong state revenues, and a growing urgency to address housing costs led to unprecedented state investments in affordable housing and other homelessness solutions — however, continuing this progress hinges on ongoing funding.

Core State Investments to Solve Homelessness Are Temporary

California homelessness-related spending reached a high of $6.8 billion in 2022-23, fueled by the surge in state revenue during the pandemic and flexible federal dollars. However, 2024-25 spending dropped to $2.5 billion, nearly half of which is not guaranteed in the next budget cycle. Although these investments have not fully met the scale needed to end homelessness, they have helped more Californians experiencing homelessness to access stable housing than ever before. These dollars, while designed as temporary, are also now core to California’s homelessness response systems statewide, making the potential loss of funding a significant threat to ongoing progress.

State Affordable Housing Investments Remain Low

Meaningful investments in affordable housing, particularly for individuals and families with the lowest incomes, can help solve the ongoing struggle of more Californians falling into homelessness and facing housing insecurity faster than they can be stably housed. Yet, despite the critical need, the 2024 Budget Act cut over $1 billion for various housing programs, while continuing some modest one-time augmentations. 

Despite the state's unprecedented recent investments in affordable housing, state General Fund dollars comprised less than 20% of funding that supported affordable housing and homeownership attainment between 2019 and 2023. The majority of non-General Fund dollars for affordable housing primarily reflects federal funds and private bonds that are likely threatened with the incoming Trump administration. Potential cuts to federal funding for affordable housing underscore the need for state leaders to amplify and continue efforts, particularly given that all of these investments are still a small share of the sustained funding needed to solve California’s housing shortage.

As California faces projected budget shortfalls and potential federal funding cuts to vital housing and safety net programs under the Trump administration, it’s more urgent than ever to sustain the programs that are building affordable housing and keeping Californians housed. Without robust new revenue streams and continuous funding, these successful efforts face dire cuts that will have devastating consequences for Californians who rely on them and communities across the state.

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Access to affordable child care remains a challenge for families with low incomes in California. Despite decades of effort, a large gap between supply and demand persists. In 2015, 85% of eligible children lacked access to subsidized child care, a figure that grew to 89% in 2017 and remained the same in 2022. This means that in 2022, only 1 in 9 children eligible for subsidized child care programs received services.

These statewide trends are mirrored at a more local level. County-level trends reflect the same disparity, as shown in the map below, which highlights the unmet need for child care across California.1The following counties are grouped together due to small sample sizes when calculating the number of eligible children: 1) Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, Tuolumne; 2) Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Siskiyou;  3) Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, Trinity; 4) Sierra, Nevada, Butte; 5) Lake, Mendocino; 6) San Benito, Monterey; 7) Sutter, Yuba. This analysis focuses on programs administered by the Department of Social Services for children 0 to 12 and excludes programs overseen by the California Department of Education — the California State Preschool Program and Transitional Kindergarten — due to changes in program structure and eligibility.

Unmet Need for Child Care Across California Counties

Statewide Policy Implications

While the supply of subsidized child care has increased since the dramatic cuts made during the Great Recession over a decade ago, California is still a long way away from meeting families’ child care needs. In the current context, state leaders must continue to prioritize increasing capacity in subsidized care. This includes following through on the promise of 200,000 additional child care spaces by 2027 and ensuring resources are available to work toward ensuring that every eligible child has access, particularly in regions where unmet need is higher. The state can also help address challenges counties face with utilizing available slots by streamlining paperwork, improving outreach to families, adjusting rigid eligibility requirements, and improving facilities.  Additionally, state leaders need to make robust investments in the child care workforce. This includes strengthening pathways into the child care field as well as ensuring providers are paid a fair wage so that the overall system thrives and is able to meet families’ child care needs. To achieve these goals, a comprehensive, sustained commitment from state leaders is essential to build a stronger, more equitable child care infrastructure for all California families.

Child Care & Preschool
  • 1
    The following counties are grouped together due to small sample sizes when calculating the number of eligible children: 1) Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, Tuolumne; 2) Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Siskiyou;  3) Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, Trinity; 4) Sierra, Nevada, Butte; 5) Lake, Mendocino; 6) San Benito, Monterey; 7) Sutter, Yuba.

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The most common way for Californians to shape state funding decisions and policy priorities is through the state budget process and the legislative (or policy bill) process.

The deadlines for the state budget process are established in California’s Constitution or in state law and rarely change.

In contrast, most of the deadlines for the legislative process are jointly set by the leadership of the state Senate and Assembly. These deadlines are adjusted annually to reflect the amount of time the Legislature has to complete its business. Specifically:

  • In non-election (odd-numbered) years, the deadline for the Legislature to pass bills is typically set in September — on a date determined jointly by the Assembly and Senate.
  • In election (even-numbered) years, the Legislature generally must pass bills by August 31 — a deadline established in the state Constitution. There are a few exceptions to this deadline. For example, after August 31 the Legislature may pass bills calling for elections, bills that would increase or reduce state taxes, and bills that would take effect immediately (“urgency statutes”).

The dates in the table below reflect deadlines established in state law and the state Constitution as well as the joint rules set by the Assembly and Senate for 2025.

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