Evers Administration ensures providers see no gaps in funding after Child Care Counts
MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), today announced that more than 3,100 child care providers across the state received a total of $8.7 million via the first payment of the Child Care Bridge Payments Program. The program, which will provide $110 million in monthly direct payments to Wisconsin child care providers through June 2026, was made possible through the more than $360 million investment that Gov. Evers fought for and secured in the 2025-27 bipartisan state budget to help stabilize Wisconsin’s child care industry and lower the cost of child care for working families. Due to the quick work of Gov. Evers and DCF, there will not be any gaps in direct funding for child care providers caused by the winding down of the Child Care Counts Program. Funds from this first month’s payment will support the retention of 25,531 staff and the care of 126,181 kids.
“When Republican lawmakers said this budget would not include any direct payments to child care providers to help stabilize the industry, I made it clear I wouldn’t sign a budget without it. After months of bipartisan negotiations, I was proud to secure $110 million in direct payments to child care providers to help them keep their doors open and lights on as a part of our over $360 million investment to stabilize Wisconsin’s child care industry,” said Gov. Evers. “This first monthly payment alone will help care for over 126,000 Wisconsin kids by supporting over 3,000 child care providers and helping retain over 25,000 child care workers—this is a big deal for Wisconsin and one of the reasons I was proud to sign a bipartisan, pro-kid budget last month. But there is, as always, more work to do, and we must continue our efforts to build the future we want for our kids and our grandkids, including supporting our state’s child care industry.”
Under the new Child Care Bridge Payments Program, the first round of direct payments is 87 percent of what providers were receiving under the last round of payments from the Child Care Counts Program. The next application window will open Aug. 23, 2025, and will close on Aug. 31, 2025, with additional opportunities to apply each month through June 2026. Wisconsin child care providers can find more information on how to apply on DCF’s website here.
“Gov. Evers’ bipartisan, pro-kid biennial budget is a major milestone for our state,” said DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl. “From Child Care Bridge Payments and Wisconsin Shares rate increases, to the first-ever entirely state-funded child care program in Wisconsin, this success gives us a solid foundation in building a stronger early care and education system that supports families and the workforce behind it. Despite these successes, the child care crisis is not over, and we will continue working with families, child care leaders and policy makers to forge a sustainable system for the future.”
The Child Care Bridge Payments Program is similar to the successful Child Care Counts Program, which was launched by Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration in 2020 and helped more than 5,700 child care providers keep their doors open, ensured the employment of more than 75,000 child care professionals, and allowed providers to continue care for more than 430,000 kids. The Child Care Bridge Payments Program will provide the financial stability providers need to stay open, recruit and retain qualified staff, and continue providing high-quality care for Wisconsin’s kids.
Gov. Evers declared 2025 the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin and has made investing in the state’s child care industry to help fill available child care slots, cut child care wait lists, and lower the cost of care for working families a top priority of his administration and of this budget. All in all, over $360 million was secured by Gov. Evers in the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget. In addition to the $110 million in direct payments to child care providers, the over $360 million in child care investments includes:
- $66 million to fund a new “Get Kids Ready” initiative, the first-ever entirely state funded child care program in Wisconsin state history, which will support child care providers serving four-year-olds to help prepare Wisconsin’s kids for kindergarten and get an earlier jump start on learning at a critical time in development;The new first-of-its-kind program in Wisconsin is also designed to help ensure the state’s child care industry will receive sustainable, ongoing state investments into the future after Child Care Counts ends. Kids in the program will be taught by child care providers using a curriculum that meets the Wisconsin model early learning standards.
- $2 million to Wonderschool designed to help child care providers across the state build capacity to be able to cut child care wait lists and ensure more kids and families have access to affordable child care; The grant will expand access to high-quality child care in the state, including launching an online software platform that is linked to the department’s website to connect child care providers with child care workers.
- $2 million intended to help bolster Wisconsin’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, which help parents find child care locally and provide training and technical assistance opportunities to child care providers;
- Over $123 million to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program to help lower out-of-pocket child care costs for working families across the state; and The investment will raise rates for the Wisconsin Shares program to ensure Wisconsin meets its statutory obligation, designed to ensure families can access 75 percent of child care slots within a given geographical area and lower the cost of child care for parents.
- $28.5 million for a pilot program to help support expanding capacity across Wisconsin’s child care industry to ensure more families with infants and toddlers can access quality, affordable child care. The proposal will increase payments to providers caring for infants and toddlers across the state through the Wisconsin Shares program. Under the plan, providers would receive payments of $200 per month for every infant under 18 months and $100 per month for every toddler between 18 months and 30 months. The investment will also help ensure more families and kids have access to affordable child care by helping providers accommodate more infants and toddlers under a new temporary pilot program aimed at aligning Wisconsin with peer states like Minnesota, enabling providers to care for seven toddlers between 18 and 30 months of age per staff member.
Additionally, new changes under the agreement will help expand access to child care for working families by allowing for ‘large family care centers’ that can serve up to 12 kids and standardize the minimum age for assistant child care teachers to 16 years of age while retaining all requirements for assistant teachers.
Gov. Evers also exercised his broad, constitutional veto authority to partially veto aspects of the budget that were outside of the bipartisan budget negotiations. More information about the bipartisan budget signed by Gov. Evers is available here.
An online version of this release is available here.
