A new University of Virginia survey confirms the economic impacts of subsidized child care availability on Virginia families. There are now nearly 14,000 children on a waitlist for the Child Care Subsidy Program alone, according to data released Oct. 1.
Daphna Bassok, a professor of education and public policy at UVA, helped develop the survey, which was sent to about 19,000 families who’d been on the Child Care Subsidy Program waitlist at any point between July 2024 and May 2025. She presented the results to the state’s Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education on Wednesday.
Over 6,500 families responded to the survey, and about half said someone in their household had to leave their job to care for their child because of lack of available care.
Two-thirds reduced their work, and 76% said they were working less than they wanted because their child was stuck on the waitlist.
Bassok told VPM News this was among the “most striking” findings: that many families of children on the waitlist wanted to work, but couldn’t because they didn’t have affordable child care.
She said many families described “a catch-22 of wanting to work, but needing child care just in order to get that job and, without that, feeling stuck and unable to move forward for their family’s well being.”
Bassok said many families also passed up jobs, promotions and higher education degrees because of their lack of access to affordable child care.
Those on the waitlist also experienced higher levels of financial difficulty than those who’d secured a subsidized child care spot for their child or children, with 80% experiencing food insecurity and 51% worrying about running out of money most or all of the time.
“We had families who were homeless because of their inability to work, and described what that was like to be homeless with a child and not have anybody to take care of their child,” Bassok said.
She recalled one respondent who was living out of her car with a toddler. Others described living with family or friends to save money.
“The families that wrote in described profound challenges just meeting the needs of their family,” Bassok said. “Those who did pay for child care so that they could go to work often described using so much of their income to cover child care that very little was left to cover other basic needs. So families really were feeling profound stress about what the lack of access was doing to their families.”
Families who did not receive a subsidy were also far more worried about their children’s learning, development and safety than those who did receive subsidized child care.
She said families described leaving children with a relative who was also working from home, or an older relative that didn’t have a lot of energy or capacity to take care of a child, while on the waitlist.
“Parents described their kids being in front of a TV or an iPad for a whole day,” Bassok said. “Parents described being concerned about their children’s development, talking about their speech and social skills not developing the way they were hoping they would.”
Meanwhile, those who eventually received the subsidy — about a third of respondents — described profound impacts on their economic wellbeing and their kids’ learning and development.
One parent wrote: “While I was on the waitlist, my entire paycheck was going towards paying for child care. Since receiving child care assistance, I’m able to work more hours without worrying about my daughter’s safety or security. I’ve been able to get a raise and have been able to contribute to my job and community and my family.”
Bassok said the parent testimonies were “incredibly powerful” and demonstrated “compelling evidence” about the impact of the program not just for families — but for the economy.
She hopes policymakers will help meet the growing demand for subsided child care in the commonwealth — including by reducing the waitlist.
“All families benefit from access to affordable child care,” Bassok said. “And I think in times with constrained resources and limited funding, this is one program where you can really see that though there’s a cost of providing this care to family, there’s also a huge benefit, and not just directly to the family, but to our communities, and to growth in businesses and economic growth for the state as a whole.”
Marie, a single mom who completed the survey because she was on the CCSP waitlist for several months, told VPM News earlier this year that without subsidized child care, she would have to quit her job. (She asked that her full name not be used to protect her privacy.)
She said being on the waitlist created a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for her, but luckily, her 3-year-old son’s child care provider, Rainbow Riders Childcare Center in Blacksburg, provided a tuition scholarship so he could remain at the site while she waited for government-funded assistance.
Shaban Athuman
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VPM News
Marie isn’t sure what she would have done without this scholarship, and she urged the state to invest more in subsidized child care.
“That’s all a kid needs: food, a place to live, and somebody to love them. That’s it. Everything else is extra, and somebody to love them also looks like this,” she said. “It looks like child care. They need to invest more in child care.”
Jenna Conway, deputy superintendent of early childhood care and education for Virginia, told VPM News it’s “premature” to say whether or not Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s budget will include additional funding to address the waitlist: his budget proposal for the next two years will come out in December.
“We are serving more kids than ever before, and we are seeing that turning into better outcomes for kids, more families working,” Conway said. “We also have larger wait lists than I think we may have expected and wanted to know what the impact of that was on them.”
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera said during the commission meeting Wednesday that “listening to the voices of Virginians is how we’re going to change things,” adding that “not a single other issue will bring an adult to their knees than not having access to quality child care.”