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2025 Child Care and Early Learning Legislation

As we enter the 2025 session, supporting families with young children remains a top policy priority of Voices for Utah Children. At the forefront of our advocacy efforts is the urgent need to address families' critical child care needs.

We are working closely with several legislators to propose much-needed public investment in the child care sector. We are also supporting multiple early care and education bills being championed by other legislators and organizations.

Child Care Priorities

HB 382: Child Care Amendments, Rep. Ashlee Matthews & Sen. Luz Escamilla
Last session, HB 461 passed, making child care workers eligible for child care subsidies regardless of income, mirroring Kentucky's successful initiative. This helps child care owners cover the costs of providing a child care benefit and helps staff keep more of their paycheck. However, its passage did not include funding, delaying implementation. This 2025 bill and appropriations request will allocate $3M per year in dedicated funding for the initiative and clarifies that the Department of Workforce Services will initiate it by October 1, 2025. When implemented, the program is estimated to benefit 2,200 parents employed in child care. (Flier available for printing and sharing here). 
Position: PRIORITY

SB 221: Child Care Safety and Licensing, Sen. Luz Escamilla
Utah law currently allows a person to provide child care for up to eight kids in their home without licensing, safety training, or oversight. This is the second-highest limit in the entire country. SB221 will reduce the limit to four, as it was in 2022, and reinstate the residential certificate requirement. People caring for other people's kids need training, enforced background checks, experience, and oversight. This will put fewer kids at risk and encourage more childcare providers to offer safe, quality services for families. 
Position: PRIORITY

School Readiness Pre-School Program Funding, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore
Only $6 million in state dollars and $6 million in federal funds go into the state’s High-Quality School Readiness (HQSR) program, Utah’s preschool program. Last year, high-quality providers requested over $24 million to serve Utah students from historically underserved communities, yet only $12 million was able to be distributed. This appropriations request would increase funding by $5M for the state’s preschool program. Promise Partnership Utah, our partner organization, leads out on this request (fact sheet here). This request was heard in the Economic and Community Development Appropriations Subcommittee on Monday, Feb 3rd.
Position: PRIORITY

Other Child Care Legislation & Funding Requests

HB 316: Child Tax Credit Expansion, Rep. Mark Strong
Utah's non-refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC) is capped by income and only eligible to families with children ages 1-4 years old. This means only 1.8% of households and 5.4% of children in Utah will benefit from the state’s current CTC. This bill proposes adding infants younger than 1 year old and 5 year olds to be eligible for the CTC. This increase would make 3% of households and 9.2% of children eligible for the CTC. We advocate that the CTC must also be refundable, making 7.2% of households and 21.7% of children eligible.
Position: SUPPORT

SB 189: Child Care Services Amendments, Sen. Luz Escamilla
This bill creates an employer-based, state-assisted child care capacity expansion program by retrofitting obsolete state-owned buildings for child care facilities. Private employers (or groups of employers in a cooperative) can lease the state-owned child care spaces for free. In return, they must partner with licensed child care providers to offer reduced-cost child care for their employees and community members. Under the proposal, 40% of the child care slots would be reserved for children for community members, at least one infant room and one toddler room must be available, a sliding fee scale will be developed to help low-income families, and the program must participate in the high-quality rating system. This bill is supported by the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity.
Position: SUPPORT

HB 410: Child Care Amendments, Rep. Tracy Miller
This bill counts preschool teaching in child care as equivalent to school teaching for educator licensing. It allows local governments to use up to 1% of housing and transit reinvestment zone funds to expand child care facilities.The Utah Private Child Care Association, our partner organization, leads out on this bill
Position: SUPPORT

HB 389: Child Care Business Tax Credit, Rep. Jason Thompson
The bill establishes a business tax credit to encourage Utah employers to offer child care benefits. It allows employers to claim a nonrefundable credit—20% for costs on contracting with child care providers and 50% for expenses related to acquiring, constructing, rehabilitating, or expanding child care facilities. While we support efforts to improve access to child care, we are concerned that the credit excludes home-based providers and may favor larger employers and higher-paid employees. Additionally, past experience shows similar tax credits have been ineffective and underutilized, and linking child care benefits to employment may inadvertently lock parents into inflexible job situations. We share these concerns not to dismiss the bill, but to emphasize that it should not be seen as a comprehensive solution to all child care challenges, and stakeholders should proceed with caution.
Position: SUPPORT

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To see all Voices for Utah Children legislative priorities, go here.
This blog will be updated as information becomes available. Last updated 2/3/25.