Fighting for Families: Advocating in D.C. for Affordable Child Care

By Lynanne Gutierrez, President & CEO

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Last week, I traveled to Washington, D.C. with partners from across the nation alongside the First Five Years Fund (FFYF) to advocate for a commonsense, bipartisan solution that would make child care more accessible and affordable for working families across the country: the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act, championed by Senators Katie Britt (R-AL) and Tim Kaine (D-VA).

At the center of this legislation is the expansion and modernization of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC)—the only federal tax credit specifically designed to help low- and middle-income working parents offset the high cost of child care. It’s long past time to update our tax code to reflect the real needs of today’s families and the real costs of care.

In meetings with key members of Ohio’s congressional delegation, I made the case for why this issue matters deeply to our state—and to every working family trying to make ends meet. Regardless of committee assignments, every delegate received materials and resources from Groundwork Ohio on the CDCTC and the urgent need for action in this year’s tax package.

Here’s why this matters so much:

• 67% of Ohio’s children have all available parents in the workforce. That means child care isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.

• The average cost of infant care in Ohio is over $12,000 per year—more than the cost of in-state college tuition.

• Ohio loses an estimated $5.48 billion annually due to breakdowns in the child care system—lost productivity, missed work, and parents being pushed out of the workforce.(1)

And yet, the current CDCTC offers little relief. Families today receive an average credit of just $600 per year—an amount set back in 2001. That’s not nearly enough to make child care affordable or accessible.

The Child Care Availability and Affordability Act would finally modernize the CDCTC by:

• Expanding the credit to a maximum of $2,500 for families with one child and $4,000 for families with two or more children.

• Making the credit refundable, so that low- and middle-income families can actually benefit from it.

• Strengthening Dependent Care Assistance Plans (DCAPs) and bolstering the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit (Section 45F) to encourage businesses to invest in care solutions for their employees.

But we were also clear in our message to lawmakers: this progress cannot come at the expense of other core supports that families rely on—like Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF. Working parents need a full foundation of support to ensure their children can grow up healthy, safe, and ready to learn.

As we look ahead to the tax package being negotiated in Congress, it’s critical that lawmakers prioritize this win-win solution for families and our economy. Parents should be able to keep more of what they earn, afford the child care they need, and participate fully in the workforce.

We’re grateful to FFYF for their leadership and partnership—and we’ll keep showing up to make sure the voices of Ohio’s families are heard loud and clear on Capitol Hill.

Learn more about the CDCTC and the First Five Years Fund’s work here.

(1) U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation,  Untapped Potential in Ohio: How Child Care Impacts Ohio's Workforce Productivity and The State's Economy