Parents of nearly 10,000 children in Virginia are urgently seeking early childhood care and education services, primarily in the southern and central regions of the state. This data, collected by the Department of Education as of October 1, highlights the growing challenge of balancing service capacity with increasing demand as the state aims to support families and prepare children for school.
Virginia currently faces significant unmet demand for three state-funded child care programs. These include:
Child Care Subsidy Program: Provides financial assistance to eligible families.
Mixed Delivery Program: Offers funding to private, community-based preschools for at-risk children.
Virginia Preschool Initiative: A free program available for four-year-old children.
Delegate Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, emphasized the impact of unmet demand at the October 9 Commission on Early Childhood and Education meeting, stating, “Unmet parent demand for child care is essentially a loss or a leak in our workforce pipeline.”
Delegate David Bulova, D-Fairfax, noted that while progress has been made, more work is necessary. He remarked, “We’ve built up a system that is gaining a great reputation, and it’s not surprising that people want to participate. This is a crucial part of our economy and workforce development.”
Current Waitlist Statistics
Data from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) reveals that 9,657 children, including infants and toddlers, are currently on the waitlist for the Child Care Subsidy Program. This information was gathered from 93 of the state’s 120 localities.
Jenna Conway, deputy superintendent at VDOE, explained that the remaining localities either have sufficient resources or a different level of demand. The agency did not provide updated enrollment figures for the Mixed Delivery or Virginia Preschool Initiative programs.
The Chesapeake Bay region shows the highest demand for child care services, accounting for 24% of the waitlist, followed closely by the Central and North Central regions at 22%. Most children on the waitlist—approximately 4,100—are infants and toddlers.
To fully address the waitlist, Conway indicated that Virginia would require an additional $112.7 million in funding. If school-age children are excluded, the cost would drop to $94.1 million. She also noted that about two-thirds of families are looking for private sector options, primarily due to the need for full-day or full-year care.
On average, Virginia families contribute about 2% of their gross income towards child care, with the average monthly copayment currently set at $77. Any changes to the copayment policy for these state-funded programs would require adjustments to Virginia’s biennial budget, which was completed in May.
Improving Child Care Services
The commission recently celebrated the release of 3,121 profiles detailing publicly funded early childhood programs across Virginia. These profiles, published on October 8, provide essential health, safety, and learning information aimed at improving school readiness and expanding access for families.
The profiles are part of the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five system (VQB5), which helps measure the effectiveness of early childhood education programs. Delegate Bulova pointed out that prior to his legislation in 2020, about 75% of publicly funded programs did not participate in the state’s voluntary quality measures. His legislation now requires all publicly funded providers to participate.
Coyner expressed eagerness to analyze the new data to enhance access, affordability, and quality of services for families. “To support our families in job training and education, we must ensure eligible families can access child care,” she said. “This relates directly to our financing of the system.”
The commission is set to finalize its review and propose updates to the copayment schedule, parental work requirements, and attendance expectations for the Child Care Subsidy Program and Mixed Delivery Grant Program by December 1. Their goals include using state general funds to ease the fiscal burden as family incomes rise and establishing reasonable copayments to minimize reliance on additional funding.
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