S4294

An Act concerning the State’s child care assistance program and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. Every year, based on available funding, the Division of Family Development in the Department of Human Services determines how many families will be served by the State’s child care assistance program.

b. However, the true demand for child care assistance exceeds what is provided on a yearly basis, a fact which became apparent when in August 2025, the State’s child care assistance program received an increased number of applications prior to the program implementing a freeze on such applications.

c. A September 2025 brief by the Rutgers Child Care Research Collaborative found that 76 percent of New Jersey children under the age of five are in non-parental care, with half of those families spending more than seven percent of their annual income on child care.

d. For many of the most vulnerable families in the State, the child care assistance program is the only path to affordable, quality child care, highlighting the importance of the program in helping low-income families remain active participants in the State’s workforce.

e. The implementation of the freeze on applications to the State child care assistance program also had a negative impact on child care providers who rely on the subsidies provided by the State to continue operating their businesses.

f. Under the State’s child care assistance program, families pay their share of the cost of child care services directly to the child care provider, while the State pays the provider for the balance of the cost of care. The loss of subsidy payments from eligible families has led to decreased enrollment in child care programs and financial instability for child care providers, reinforcing the need for better data collection to inform State policy and funding decisions concerning the provision of child care services.

g. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the State to establish a system to register and track all applications for the State’s child care assistance program to improve transparency and data collection relating to the State’s child care assistance program and to quantify and respond to the unmet child care needs of, and the program’s role in supporting, the State’s working families.

2. a. The Division of Family Development in the Department of Human Services shall establish and maintain, on an ongoing basis, a system for registering and tracking all applicants and prospective applicants to the State’s child care assistance program. The registration system shall:

(1) maintain a waiting list of persons who wish to apply to receive assistance through the State’s child care assistance program;

(2) implement procedures by which such persons shall be invited to apply for assistance through the State’s child care assistance program as determined by the division; and

(3) establish methods for notifying persons on the waiting list when they can submit their applications for the State’s child care assistance program and when the division shall process their applications, including, but not limited to, posting such information on its Internet website; and

(4) designate child care resource and referral agencies contracted with the division to provide persons who have been invited to apply for assistance with help in completing and submitting applications for the State’s child care assistance program.

b. The division shall publish, at least semi-annually, a report, to be made available on the Department of Human Services’ website and submitted to the Governor and the Legislature, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), containing non-identifying aggregate data about persons on the waiting list, persons who were invited to apply, and persons who did in fact apply to receive assistance through the State’s child care assistance program pursuant to subsection a. of this section. The report shall, at a minimum, include the number of:

(1) applications received for the State’s child care assistance program;

(2) applications received from persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the State’s child care assistance program;

(3) persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the program and who applied to receive such services, were determined eligible, and approved for enrollment in the program;

(4) persons who wish to apply to receive assistance through the program2 on the waiting list; and

(5) persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the program determined ineligible for the program, including aggregate reason categories for ineligibility, such as income exceeding eligibility limits, incomplete applications, or failure to meet activity requirements or other program criteria.

c. The report published pursuant to subsection b. of this section shall also include, to the extent practicable, information on:

(1) average processing time for applications;

(2) average length of time persons wish to apply to receive services through the State’s child care assistance program remain on the waiting list;

(3) geographic distribution of persons who wish to apply to receive services through the program and persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the program, by county; and

(4) total number of children by age represented by persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the program.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill requires the Division of Family Development (the division) in the Department of Human Services (DHS) to establish and maintain, on an ongoing basis, a system for registering and tracking all applicants and prospective applicants to the State’s child care assistance program.

The bill requires the registration system to: (1) maintain a waiting list of persons who wish to apply to receive assistance through the State’s child care assistance program; (2) implement procedures by which such persons on the waiting list are to be invited to apply for assistance through the State’s child care assistance program as determined by the division; (3) establish methods for notifying persons on the waiting list when they can submit their applications for the State’s child care assistance program to the division, and when the division will process their applications, including, but not limited to, posting such information on its Internet website; and (4) designate child care resource and referral agencies contracted with the division to provide persons who have been invited to apply for assistance with help in completing and submitting applications for the State’s child care assistance program.

The bill requires the division to also publish an annual report, made available on the DHS website and submitted to the Governor and the Legislature, containing aggregate data about persons on the waiting list, persons who were invited to apply, and persons who did in fact apply to receive assistance through the State’s child care assistance program, including information on the number of: (1) applications received for the State’s child care assistance program; (2) applications received from persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the State’s child care assistance program; (3) persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the program and who applied to receive services, were determined eligible, and approved for enrollment in the program; (4) persons who wish to apply to receive assistance through the program on the waiting list; and (5) persons who were invited to apply to receive services through the program and were determined ineligible for the program.