Hey there, folks. Governor Tony Evers here.
I’ve spent my entire career fighting for Wisconsin kids because I’ve always believed that what’s best for kids is what’s best for our state.
That’s why I declared 2025 the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin, and I was proud of all we were able to accomplish to do what’s best for our kids and the families and communities that raise them.
Thanks to the investments I fought hard to secure in our bipartisan, pro-kid budget, we’re helping to stabilize our child care industry, support child care providers, and make child care more affordable and accessible for working families now and into the future.
As part of our budget, we created our state’s first-ever fully state-funded child care program, called Get Kids Ready.
Get Kids Ready provides direct payments to our child care providers to help get four-year-olds ready for school, and providers can now apply to get enrolled for the 2026 school year at no cost.
Here’s how it works: through Get Kids Ready, qualified child care providers will focus on developing the academic, physical, social-emotional, and self-help skills that kids need to succeed in school.
And in return, the state pays child care providers directly for the time kids spend in Get Kids Ready programming, making that part of the day free for families.
I’m incredibly proud of our work to get this program up and running so that we can continue to support Wisconsin’s child care providers and help get kids a head start for their education.
Folks, just because the Year of the Kid is over doesn’t mean our work is done.
We’ve got a heckuva lot more work to do to do what’s best for our kids, and we’re going to keep working together to get that done.
Thank you.
