State policymakers play a pivotal role in driving forward child care policies aimed at improving accessibility, affordability, and quality. The 2025 legislative session marks a crucial moment for states to make further investments in child care funding and policies. This blog post offers a first look at what’s ahead for state policymakers in 2025: pathways for investment, potential challenges, and which governors are already prioritizing child care and early learning policies in their early proposals—and calling on their fellow legislators to follow suit.  

Building off a busy legislative year in 2023, states continued to make progress in 2024 on advancing policies and investments for their child care systems. This year, states had multiple factors to juggle related to child care policy, including spending down remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, developing new Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plans for 2025-2027, and addressing new federal requirements in CCDF regulations.  

Currently, states are finalizing their FY 2025-2027 Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plans. Every three years when states undergo this planning process, they must provide the public with an opportunity to comment. This must happen before submitting a final version to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) by July 1, 2024. As states release draft CCDF Plans ahead of their required public hearings, CCAoA has been monitoring how they respond to questions, especially those aligned to new policy requirements in the 2024 CCDF Final Rule.