Recent reports indicate that immigration enforcement policies are increasingly affecting child care providers, specifically family child care educators. About 1 in 5 early childhood educators are immigrants, who provide safe, nurturing, and culturally relevant care to children across the nation. While the policies being created to enforce immigration are not explicitly mentioning the child care sector, their effects are being felt at an alarming rate. Republican policymakers use immigration enforcement policies to stir their base but do not acknowledge how it directly contributes to dismantling our child care system. Unfortunately, immigration enforcement is not the only issue negatively impacting child care right now.
With the passage of H.R. 1, also known as “The Big, Beautiful Bill,” there have been numerous policy changes where the impact ripples into the child care sector. Due to cuts in federal funding outlined in H.R. 1, states are making significant changes to Medicaid and how eligibility is determined. As small business owners, family child care educators, do not have access to traditional forms of employer-provided benefits such as healthcare, retirement, paid leave, or paid time off. In fact, according to the NAFCC Annual Survey Report, 28% of family child care educators report relying on Medicaid or Medicare for their health coverage, highlighting the programs’ essential role in maintaining workforce stability. Social programs such as Medicaid as well as policies that support immigrant children, families, and small business owners, are essential to sustaining access to family child care programs.
Although these seem like separate issues, the underlying root cause is the same. Daily, policymakers draft and vote on policies that affect the nation’s most vulnerable populations. More often than not this is done without any input of the community’s true needs or awareness of the impact policies have on the communities they intend to support, including children and small business owners such as family child care educators.
H.R. 1 may not mention child care in a single line item, but its impact is showing up in the lives of families and educators across the country. Policymakers across the nation are already shaping state budgets, impacting family stability and access to care in real time.
Medicaid cuts and new eligibility requirements are moving forward as states adjust systems and prepare for implementation. For families, that means more paperwork, more frequent eligibility checks, and a higher risk of losing coverage, even when they still qualify. When parents lose access to health care, it quickly becomes a financial issue. Families are forced to make difficult decisions about what they can afford, and child care is often one of the first expenses impacted.
For family child care educators, many of whom rely on Medicaid themselves, this pressure exists on both sides. They are managing their own coverage while caring for families whose circumstances are becoming more unstable. When this happens, attendance shifts, enrollment declines, and payments become inconsistent.
States are already responding to cost shifts built into H.R. 1. As state budgets tighten, early childhood programs are being put on the chopping block. Child care subsidies, which many family child care educators depend on to keep their businesses operating, become more scarce and less predictable. Delays, reduced access, and long waitlists are not new, but with the added pressure, they are becoming harder to navigate.
H.R. 1, along with other proposed policy changes, also impacts immigrant families by restricting access to benefits and increasing funding for immigration enforcement. Those changes affect how families show up. Families are more hesitant to share information, less likely to engage with public systems, and in many cases, leaving child care services altogether. There are also reports of how policies are affecting the mental health of immigrant children.
Family child care programs are deeply connected to their communities. When families are afraid to show up, reduce hours, or leave care entirely, educators feel it immediately through decreased enrollment and income, in addition to the emotional and mental impact on the community.
Changes to food assistance and other supports add even more layers. When families have fewer resources to meet basic needs, everything else becomes harder to sustain. Still, family child care educators often fill the gaps, stretching what little they have to support the children in their care.
All of these policies and their effects build on each other. Health coverage becomes harder to maintain, food assistance is reduced, and families face increased pressure and uncertainty. State systems tighten and family child care absorbs that impact first.
If we are serious about the future of this nation, we must be serious about seeing social programs as public goods in service of the collective. We must prioritize universal, high-quality child care. We must value and support immigrant families. We must ensure access to health care, retirement, and paid leave for all, including self-employed and small business owners. We must create policies that serve the best interests of all, not the agenda of a few.