A Stronger Workforce Starts With Child Care

Understanding and solving child care challenges is key to strengthening Kentucky’s workforce and growing the economy. The Kentucky Chamber and partners have produced a research package that offers a roadmap for action—combining consensus recommendations, economic impact estimates, and a detailed map of where access falls short.

What it is: A consensus-driven blueprint developed over eight months by an ideologically diverse group of 40 stakeholders and state leaders. It highlights 37 recommendations to expand access, improve quality, and better align child care with Kentucky’s workforce needs.

Key recommendations include:

• Improve child care data to better target limited resources and ensure a strong return on investment.
• Support affordability for low- and moderate-income families to access quality care.
• Strengthen the business model through regulatory relief, workforce strategies, and new opportunities for providers.
• Engage local communities and employers in designing solutions that meet regional needs.

Why it matters: Establishes a shared framework that aligns policymakers, employers, providers, and communities on practical steps to address Kentucky’s child care challenges.

Read the full Foundation for Action Report

What it is: Original economic analysis from the Kentucky Chamber Center for Policy and Research (supported by the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation) estimating how improved access and affordability can lift workforce participation and economic output.

Key findings at a glance:

• 16,000–28,000 Kentucky parents could newly join or return to the workforce with better access to affordable child care.
• Kentucky’s working-age labor force participation could rise out of the bottom ten nationally.
• Potential economic impact: $599 million–$1.1 billion in new wages and state tax revenues.
• Includes regional breakouts to help local leaders plan targeted solutions.

Why it matters: Quantifies how addressing child care isn’t just a family issue—it’s a workforce and growth strategy for Kentucky’s economy.

 Read the Workforce Solution that Works Report

What it is: A data-driven look from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, in partnership with the Kentucky Chamber and Metro United Way, mapping where child care supply does not meet potential demand.

Key findings at a glance:

• Statewide, formal child care services are unavailable for up to 56,000 children who may potentially need it.
• 37 rural counties have over half of children who may need formal care but lack local options.
• Granular analysis includes congressional districts, state senate districts, counties, and opportunity zones.

Why it matters: Pinpoints where supply and demand are most misaligned so leaders can invest strategically, improve access, and raise quality where it’s needed most.

 Read the Child Care Gaps in Kentucky Report

• Foundation for Action sets the shared roadmap of recommendations.
• Workforce Solution that Works shows the economic upside of acting.
• Child Care Gaps in Kentucky identifies where to focus first.

Together, they provide Kentucky with both the why and the how—a path to expand opportunity for families, strengthen the workforce, and grow the Commonwealth’s economy.

The Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership is an innovative way for Kentucky employers to help workers afford quality child care and attract and retain top talent. Through this program, an employer can partner with the state to help reduce the out-of-pocket cost of child care for their employees. If the employer is willing to contribute financial assistance that goes directly to the employee’s child care costs, the state will match that assistance. For employers, this creates key opportunities:

• A unique talent attraction and retention tool that is not available in most other states
• A public-private partnership approach to providing a powerful employee benefit
• An investment in their current and possibly future workforce

Survey data shows that working parents strongly favor employer-provided child care benefits.
 

Employees benefit from the program by seeing their out-of-pocket child care cost reduced, which helps them afford quality care for their kids and keep them in the workforce and with their current company. 
 

Child care providers benefit through reliable payments from employers, the state, and their clients.
 

Finally – and most importantly – kids benefit through consistent access to high-quality care. 
 

The Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership is a win-win for employers, workers, providers, and kids. 
 

$2 million in matching funds are available fiscal year – so apply now! 
 

Learn more and APPLY NOW for the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership on the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ website:

 APPLY NOW

 Frequently Asked Questions

Federal and State Tax Guidance

Here’s how it works: 

• An employer agrees to assist an employee with the cost of child care through direct cash assistance paid to the employee’s child care provider. The amount of assistance is up to the employer. 
• The child care provider must be a licensed provider participating in the Kentucky All STARS quality-rating program. 
• The employer works together with the employee and their child care provider to submit the necessary information to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Visit HERE.
• If approved, the Cabinet will match the employer’s contribution up to 100 percent and will make payments on the employee’s behalf directly to the child care provider. For example, if the employer commits $100 per month to the employee’s child care expenses, the state may match that contribution up to another $100, giving the employee up to a total of $200 in child care assistance for the duration of the contract. 
• Participation for employers, employees, and child care providers is 100% voluntary, and contracts may be cancelled at any time. 
• Restrictions and specific eligibility requirements apply.

Watch a video with the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Family Services that details the program: 

What Should Employers Do To Get Started? 

• Assess the child care needs of your workforce. To assist with this, the Kentucky Chamber has developed a series of recommended survey questions for employers to use. 
• Develop familiarity with the rules of the program and determine your company’s ability to comply with its administrative guidelines and eligibility requirements.  

There are numerous resources that employers should be aware of to address workforce challenges associated with child care.

Read the Kentucky Chamber’s full guide on Child Care Resources for the Kentucky Business Community.

Key Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership Resources:

• Federal and State Tax Guidance
•  Legislative Text 
• Administrative Regulations 
• Child Care Database
  
• Kentucky Chamber Recommended Child Care Survey Questions for Employers