2026 Legislative Session: Child Care is Shortchanged, but the Work Continues    

By Matt Williams, MLICCI Policy Director

We are grateful to all providers, families, and advocates for your calls, messages, letters, and conversations with your state legislators during the 2026 Regular Session. Your efforts kept child care in the conversation until the final moments of the legislative process. Conversations about the child care crisis, the need for additional revenue and workable solutions made their way through the hallways, into hearings and into media coverage. 

The 2026 legislative session is officially over. Despite our efforts to advocate for additional child care revenue, the lawmaking session ended with no additional child care funds. This decision was not the result of a lack of available revenue. As lawmakers pointed out during debates this session, the state has adequate revenue to commit additional funds to child care. Despite key legislators making commendable efforts to get additional funding, the political will of the majority failed to respond to the state’s child care crisis.  

We are heading into the next year with even less revenue. The inaction by the legislature this year will allow the child care industry to slip further into economic pain and will leave working parents with fewer affordable child care options. This is a choice, not an inevitability. We at MLICCI remain committed to expanding the use of federal TANF funds for child care subsidies. This action does not require legislation and can be implemented by the Mississippi Department of Human Services.   

We want to thank legislative child care champions and, in particular, members of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus (MLBC). Members of the MLBC championed child care funding solutions throughout the session, on the floor, during committee meetings and behind the scenes, using every available lever to bring additional funds to child care. The MLBC held a critical public hearing during the session, in which MDHS leadership revealed that a substantial amount of unspent, unobligated TANF revenue is available.

Braiding Federal TANF Funds and Federal Child Care Funds 

This year, Representative Rickey Thompson (D – District 16) championed a law that would require the state to adopt a braided TANF child care financing strategy. House Bill 1450, the “Mississippi Affordable Child Care Act”, would have required the MDHS to implement two simultaneous financing mechanisms for child care: 1. making the maximum TANF “transfer” to child care from each annual TANF block grant and 2. allocating federal TANF funds to child care subsidies through TANF “direct” child care spending. This law would create a more sustainable child care financing approach and would more efficiently use federal TANF revenue that too often builds up and goes unspent. Mississippi’s child care subsidy system – the Child Care Payment Program (CCPP) – meets both employer and parent child care needs across the state. 

The bill was referred to two House committees – Public Health and Human Services and Appropriations A. While Rep. Thompson and other key legislators made a tremendous effort to get this bill out of committee, the committee chairs did not allow the measure to move forward. As a result of this inaction, House Bill 1450 died on the calendar on February 3, 2026.

Read House Bill 1450: https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2026/pdf/history/HB/HB1450.xml 

Early in the session, Senator Hob Bryan (D – District 7), Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, invited MDHS leadership to provide testimony on the status of child care funding. During this hearing, MDHS announced they are exploring TANF “direct” spending as a possible option, marking a significant development in our collective advocacy to push for this financing strategy.

Read about it here: https://mississippitoday.org/2026/01/22/mississippi-child-care-crisis/. 

There were several proposed bills that sought to require the MDHS to maximize the TANF “transfer” each year. While MDHS is already using this option, which injects nearly $26 million into child care each year, the bill would have required this financing strategy as state law rather than leaving it optional to the MDHS. One such measure was Senate Bill 2464, authored by Sen. Derrick Simmons (D – District 12).

The Senate Public Health and Welfare committee passed SB 2464 on February 3 and the full Senate passed the measure with overwhelming bipartisan support with 52 yeas and zero nays on February 11^th. While the bill as written would not have increased the amount of TANF funding for child care (because MDHS is currently doing this administratively), the stated intention of the Senate was to explore policies that would result in additional TANF funding for child care. While passing the Senate with unanimous support, the bill was not considered by the two committees it was referred to in the House and it died on the calendar without ever being debated by members of the House.    

State Child Care Appropriation 

Additional funds for child care subsidies are desperately needed following the expenditure of COVID-era relief funds. MDHS Executive Director Bob Anderson testified at numerous committee meetings and hearings that child care needs an additional $60 million to return to pre-April 2025 service levels. MLICCI advocated for the appropriation of $60 million for child care subsidies. Your calls and letters informed lawmakers about the impact on children and working families losing access to child care and what the industry needs to recover.     

Despite a massive effort to inform lawmakers and advocate for needed funding, the House passed HB 1909 with $0 for child care subsidies in 2026. When the bill was debated on the House floor, our legislative allies surfaced the dire need for child care funding, offered solutions and pointed to the House’s action having devastating consequences for working families. 

We collectively turned our efforts to state Senate appropriators. After a significant collective effort to advocate for needed funds led by your voices, Senate appropriators responded to the needs of child care and passed a committee substitute of HB 1909 that included $15 million for child care! The Senate passed the appropriation with overwhelming bipartisan and near-unanimous support.

Read about it here: https://mississippitoday.org/2026/03/13/senate-child-care-crisis/.  

Unfortunately, when the bill was sent to conference committee for final passage, the House stuck to their original position and their preference to not appropriate funds for child care prevailed. The conference report removed the critically needed $15 million the Senate put on the table for child care, but the report was ultimately agreed to by both House and Senate conferees. 

When the conference report for HB 1909 was debated on the floor, Rep. Summers (D – District 68) made clear that a lack of child care funds results in parents quitting work and that many agencies’ budgets came in millions over Legislative Budget Office recommendations, thus the decision to not fund child care was a choice, not a budgetary inevitability. Rep. Summers introduced a motion to re-commit the conference report and appealed to House colleagues to continue working on the bill to find at least $15 million in state funds. Disappointingly, Rep. Summers’ motion to re-commit the conference report failed and both the House and Senate passed the final conference report on the MDHS appropriation bill without any additional state funds for child care in 2026. Read House Bill 1909: https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2026/pdf/history/HB/HB1909.xml

The Work Continues 

The fight for additional child care revenue is far from over. While the 2026 session had its twists and turns, we are making progress on getting more TANF funds committed to child care. This progress is incremental, but progress, nonetheless. When – NOT IF – we are successful, our state’s child care subsidy system will have more stable and sustainable funding. 

MLICCI continues to advocate for TANF “direct” spending of available TANF funds on child care subsidies and this action can be implemented without legislation. We invite you to continue this advocacy with us and to stay tuned for near-future advocacy efforts. Be sure you are signed up to receive messages from us.   

Signs of progress are emerging. After the end of the session, WLBT ran a story on the failure of the legislature to appropriate additional funds for child care. MDHS provided this message to WLBT: 

“’MDHS is still moving in the direction of converting additional TANF funds to childcare,’ said Mark Jones, chief communications officer for MDHS. ‘No decision on a final amount has been made. We anticipate an announcement in the near future.’” 

Stay tuned. Stay engaged.