Child care closures exceed 300 in Indiana since Sept. 1, 2025 INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A child care advocate on Tuesday said most child care centers that have closed since September have done so because of cuts to the child care voucher program. Dr. Hanan Osman, executive director of the India na Association for the Education of Young Children, told News 8 her organization’s review of the data shows 311 child cares have closed since Sept. 1. Of those, 221 have closed as a direct result of cuts to the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) voucher program. CCDF vouchers help low-income families cover the cost of child care. Reimbursement rates for the vouchers have been cut and the state will not issue any new vouchers until at least 2027. This has caused many families to stop using them and drop out of child care programs altogether. “Those families are seeking unregulated programs to leave their child at. They have tardiness with their employers. Some of the families have decided one partner will work and another will take care of the child, which has affected the family’s affordability for gas, for food, for everything else,” she said. Osman said home-based child cares have been hit the hardest. She said those are a popular choice for parents because they believe those are the best place for their children. Home-based child cares are frequently located in neighborhoods. She said 202 of the 311 child cares that have closed since September have been home-based cares. Another 58 were child care centers, while the remaining 49 were child care ministries. “(Home-based child cares) are small businesses. They are their own business operator. They don’t have that backbone of businesses,” she said. “And usually, we find that, when family child care homes close, they will not reopen again.” In all, she said Indiana has lost 10,321 seats in child care programs since Sept. 1. During the 2026 legislative session, state lawmakers authorized a potential lifeline. The state has a $300 million fund called the Financial Responsibility and Opportunity Growth, or FROG, Fund. First set aside for Medicaid, the Family and Children’s Fund and the Department of Correction during the 2025 budget session, lawmakers this spring added the CCDF program to the short list of purposes for which FROG money could be used. Senate leaders have cautioned they don’t expect all $300 million to go to child care. Any use of the FROG Fund requires the approval of the bipartisan State Budget Committee, which has not met since December. The committee is scheduled to meet on April 16 but it is not yet clear if FROG money for child care programs will be part of the discussion. Osman said she and other child care advocates are waiting to see what the State Budget Committee does at its next meeting. In the meantime, she said parents and child care providers should talk to state lawmakers about their needs. She said she hopes lawmakers devise a more permanent funding solution as part of the 2027 budget negotiations. ...read more read less