(The Center Square) – Wisconsin parents already paying $17,400 a year for infant care face higher bills as a $110 million federal childcare subsidy ends Tuesday, the state's child welfare agency warns.
The state's Department of Children and Families said the end of the federal bridge payment program is almost certain to drive costs higher.
The total taxpayer cost for the bridge payment program in Wisconsin is $110 million, running from July 2025 to Tuesday’s scheduled end.
The program makes monthly payments directly to providers.
Reports show the end of the program could be any increase in childcare expense between $1,300 and $2,600 for the average Wisconsin family.
"Childcare costs in Wisconsin significantly outpace inflation," the department wrote in its report. "Families with an infant in center-based care are seeing an average 8% increase in monthly tuition prices, while families with an infant in family-based care are seeing an average 13% increase."
“At the gas pump and grocery store, everyone is feeling the national affordability crisis. But the end of Child Care Counts and Bridge payments are leaving families with growing child care bills in addition to everything else,” DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl said. "With childcare costing more than UW tuition and as much as a mortgage, families need us to build on these investments and permanently lower costs.”
The bridge payment program is the COVID-era federal program that sent money to providers across the country. It was meant to be a temporary COVID subsidy.
DCF is also is pointing to a recent Market Rate Survey that shows childcare prices are already high in the state.
"The average annual cost for full-time infant care is now $17,400 in center-based programs (22% of median household income) and $13,000 in family-based programs (17% of the median household income) in Wisconsin," DCF said.
Republicans in Wisconsin tried to head-off childcare price spikes in 2023, but Democrats at the Capitol balked at their plan.
Republican lawmakers introduced a package of childcare reforms that would have allowed parents to save up to $10,000 tax-free for childcare costs. The package also included regulatory changes to open more spots in daycares and allow some home-based daycare centers to hire people as young as 16.
Then-Senate Democrat Leader Melissa Agard, D-Madison, said the GOP plan was “completely insufficient in addressing Wisconsin’s childcare crisis.”
