Kentucky Chamber Testifies Before Congress on State-led Child Care Solutions

Kentucky’s leadership in addressing child care challenges through public-private partnerships, collaboration, and innovative solutions was highlighted before Congress on Tuesday as Kentucky Chamber Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Kate Shanks testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

“Child care access is critically important to Kentucky’s business community because of its potential to alleviate our state’s long-standing workforce challenges and support economic growth,” Shanks told members of Congress. “Kentucky has taken a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to child care, recognizing that quality, availability, and affordability are interconnected.

The hearing, “Supporting Working Families: State-Led Child Care Solutions,” brought together key states to share innovative approaches to expanding access to affordable, reliable care and the roles states, employers, and communities can play in developing solutions. Kentucky was one of three states invited to speak on the issue before the subcommittee.

Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Kiley opened the hearing by noting that child care is not just a family issue but a workforce, employment, and economic issue. He stressed the important roles that states and the private sector can play in developing solutions.

Kentucky’s Collaborative Approach to Innovative Child Care Solutions

Shanks pointed to the Kentucky Collaborative on Child Care, launched by the Kentucky Chamber in 2024 in partnership with the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution and the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation, which brought together diverse perspectives to develop consensus-driven solutions. That work helped provide the foundation for House Bill 6, a child care reform package sponsored by Rep. Samara Heavrin that passed with strong bipartisan support during the 2026 legislative session. Lawmakers also approved more than $135 million for fiscal years 2027 and 2028 to strengthen child care access.

Shanks emphasized that Kentucky’s approach recognizes there is no single solution to child care challenges and instead focuses on the interconnected needs of families, providers, employers, and communities.

One of those efforts makes qualified child care workers eligible for Kentucky’s Child Care Assistance Program regardless of income, giving providers another tool to recruit and retain employees. More than 5,300 child care workers benefited from the program in fiscal year 2025.

Kentucky is also piloting a new microcenter licensing model for smaller groups of children, with greater flexibility in requirements related to kitchens, playgrounds, and mixed-age groups. The model is intended to create new options for communities and workers whose needs may not be well served by traditional child care centers, including rural and third-shift workers.

Another initiative, Certified Child Care Communities, focuses on local zoning and land-use rules that can make it more difficult for providers to open or expand. The program will provide local governments with best practices and a model ordinance to help address those barriers.

On affordability, Shanks highlighted Kentucky’s Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership, or ECCAP, which allows employers to voluntarily contribute toward an employee’s child care costs with a matching contribution from the state. The program is designed to help middle-income working families who do not qualify for Kentucky’s traditional child care subsidy but still struggle with the cost of care.

Shanks also pointed to Kentucky’s work to better measure where child care is needed. Current measures can overstate supply by counting licensed slots that may not be available, and overstate demand because not every family with a young child is seeking licensed care. House Bill 6 directs the state to utilize a new methodology to better identify gaps and target resources.

Shanks shared with members of Congress research conducted by the Kentucky Chamber Center for Policy and Research, highlighting that improved child care access and affordability could help 16,000 to 28,000 Kentuckians join or rejoin the workforce. Kentucky’s labor force participation rate for 25-54-year-olds was 80.3 percent last year, placing the state among the bottom 10 in the nation and falling three percentage points lower than the national average. The Center’s research shows that improved child care access and affordability can help strengthen workforce participation in Kentucky and have an economic impact of more than $1 billion in new wages and state income and sales tax revenues.

As Congress considers federal child care policy, Shanks encouraged lawmakers to preserve flexibility for states to innovate and maintain support for the Child Care and Development Fund. She also thanked Congress for recently strengthening the Employer Provided Child Care Tax Credit, which gives employers another tool to help address child care needs.

“States like Kentucky have benefited from having the flexibility to innovate in child care policy,” Shanks said. “Our hope is that federal law continues to encourage innovation and provides states with the flexibility they need to meet children and families where they are.”

The Chamber’s full written testimony on child care before the subcommittee can be read here.