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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine sidesteps budget vetoes in child care sector • Ohio Capital Journal [1]
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Date: 2025-07-01
It seems little will change about the budget when it comes to child care, after Gov. Mike DeWine’s 67 total vetoes didn’t include changes specifically related to child care provisions.
The budget sent to DeWine by an Ohio General Assembly joint conference committee last week and signed at 11:15 p.m. on Monday brought back a cost-sharing model for child care, funded a subsidy program through federal dollars, and created a child care recruitment and mentorship grant program.
In a Tuesday press conference announcing the budget signing and his vetoes, DeWine praised the moves made by the legislature with regard to child care.
“Ohio families making up to 200% of the federal poverty level will now be eligible to receive assistance, enabling more working parents to pursue an education or to join the workforce, while knowing that their children are learning and receiving quality child care,” DeWine said.
But the budget also held state-funded child care at current levels and changed the way in which child care providers are paid, in a way that advocates say will negatively impact the sector.
Early childhood advocacy group Groundwork Ohio said the budget secured “modest wins” but ultimately “fails to meet the moment for Ohio’s youngest.”
Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork said the organization is “hopeful that – even in a challenging fiscal and political environment – the final budget keeps Ohio moving with intention toward the goals set forth by Governor DeWine to improve outcomes for young children and families.”
But “the path forward is uncertain,” the group said in a statement.
“Without new action, Ohio will face a $600 million shortfall in child care funding next biennium as one-time federal dollars dry up,” the statement read.
Child care organizations across the state urged the governor over the last week to veto certain parts of the budget that they said would create even more challenges in a struggling child care sector.
“The governor has long styled himself as a man who defends children,” said Policy Matters Executive Director Hannah Halbert in a statement. “This bill harms them.”
Ohio House Republicans said the final budget draft would help more Ohioans cover the cost of child care services, and with increases in child development programs like Help Me Grow, would invest in “a system of supports for pregnant women, caregivers with new babies and families with young children with developmental delays and disabilities.”
Ohio House Democrats sent a letter to the governor on Friday discrediting the budget provisions related to child care, among other things.
“Instead of funding our public schools or helping parents afford child care or health care, or pay for groceries, diapers, rent, and any other costs, this budget prioritizes tax cuts for the wealthiest few and Medicaid cuts for babies and the elderly,” the letter stated.
Dr. John Stanford, state director for the Children’s Defense Fund, urged DeWine to use his vetoes to support children in several ways, including preserving Medicaid coverage for infants, safeguarding access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and rejecting Medicaid changes.
He said the budget as passed by the joint committee “sends a clear message to Ohio’s children and families: you are not the priority.”
DeWine did veto the legislature’s provision repealing continuous Medicaid coverage for children under the age of four, saying the the coverage “is consistent with the DeWine-Tressel Administration’s longstanding pro-life and pro-family agenda and is critical to making Ohio the best place in the nation to raise a family.”
“At a time when families are struggling to access child care, health coverage, poverty relief and safe housing, lawmakers have chosen to deliver tax breaks to the wealthy and handouts to stadium developers,” Stanford said in a statement. “This budget robs children of their chance to grow up with dignity, hope and joy.”
What’s in the budget: Child care edition
Legislators left the Publicly Funded Child Care eligibility at 145% of the federal poverty level, something that had been high on advocates’ list of items to change.
Groundwork Ohio and other organizations had hoped to see that level increased to at least 160%, if not 200% of the poverty line, to allow Ohio to increase access to child care.
Keeping the eligibility at its current level leaves the state at one of the lowest eligibility levels in the country, according to experts and the leader of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.
The Child Care Cred Program, a new provision that was originally a GOP-sponsored set of bills introduced in the last General Assembly and the current one, was included in the final draft of the budget.
The move in conference committee brought the program back, with a $10 million appropriation, after it had been removed by the Senate.
The program was presented as a way to begin the process of improving the child care system in Ohio by allowing costs to be shared among employers, employees and the state in a 40%-40%-20% split respectively.
Child care policy analysts in Ohio said the program had “lackluster” results in other states where it’s been attempted.
Also included in the budget was the DeWine-supported Child Care Choice Voucher Program, which originally was funded through just general revenue funds, but will now receive $50 million each over the next two years in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant funds.
A grant program to support child care recruitment and mentorship will receive $1 million in 2026 and $1.85 million in 2027. But that’s a cut from the total of $3.2 million set aside in the House budget draft. The Senate had offered $2.75 million total in their version.
Two new provisions related to child care worker pay caused several advocates to plead for vetoes from the governor.
The conference committee inserted provisions in the Ohio Department of Children and Youth budget, which change the payment categories and time increments for Publicly Funded Child Care.
Under the budget bill, the categories would start with an “hourly” category of less than 10 hours a week of child care, a “part-time” category for between 10 and 33 hours per week, and a “full-time” category for providers giving more than 33 hours per week of child care.
Currently, hourly payments are made for child care of less than seven hours, part-time is considered between seven and 25 hours, and full-time is 25 to 60 hours per week.
“There would likely be a reduction in payments for those children served in modified categories,” the budget documents stated.
Advocates including Tamara Lunan, director of the Care Economy Organizing Project, which focuses its advocacy work on child care and early education, said not only will there be a reduction in payments, but the line item “will negatively impact an entire industry.”
“Small businesses live and die on cash flow,” Lunan said in a letter to DeWine asking for vetoes of the provisions. “…Indeed, it’s not hard to see why changing the hour categories in such a way may ultimately turn away children or cause other capacity issues simply due to the shift in value based on seemingly random threshold shifts.”
The second line-item revised family child care home rate payments, “aligning” licensed child care providers who serve seven to 12 children in their homes (Type A centers) with those who serve one to six children (Type B centers).
The changes from the two provisions “would force more providers out of business,” according to Policy Matters’ Halbert, and would “effectively eliminate the thousands of dollars that they put into their business expansions to be a larger provider,” Lunan said of Type A centers.
“We need more providers to expand – not contract – but this language disincentivizes home providers who have worked diligently to grow their businesses,” Lunan said.
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