Gov. Kelly Ayotte reassured New Hampshire child care providers and families this week that the federal money that helps cover child care costs for nearly 5,000 children in the state has not been frozen by the Trump administration, contrary to reporting by national media outlets.
While the Trump administration has frozen payments to several states in the wake of fraud allegations in Minnesota, Ayotte said New Hampshire is not among them. She said she has not been told the state’s money for the child care scholarship program is in jeopardy.
“We're going to continue to make sure that those resources go to the families who need them,” Ayotte told reporters Wednesday. She said the program is critical to allowing parents to obtain child care so they can work.
The scholarship program, which is supported by state and federal money, has grown since the state expanded it to families with higher income in 2024. As of November, nearly 60 percent of scholarships went to families who are at or above 138 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which equates to a family of four earning up to $124,595 a year.
Proposed changes would give state’s choices
The Trump administration also announced Monday that it was “rescinding” the Biden administration’s rules governing the federal child care funding program, alarming child care providers in New Hampshire and beyond.
However, the administration has only proposed rule changes, and those changes, if they were to go into effect as proposed, would still allow New Hampshire officials to retain — or rescind — its current practices.
That means the state could continue paying child care providers scholarship subsidies based on enrollment, rather than attendance, which fluctuates and makes payments unpredictable. The state also pays providers a week in advance to help with cash flow.
Families in the program pay no more than 7 percent of their income on child care, and many pay nothing. A family of three earning $89,200 a year pays no more than $6,200 a year per child, for example.
Child care providers say that’s significant in a state where the average annual cost of child care is more than $17,000.
If the federal rule changes that have been proposed do go into effect, state rules would not change unless lawmakers opted to change them.
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver told executive councilors this week: “We are still doing business as usual right now. We have no official word. We have no notice. We have nothing. We're just continuing on.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declined NHPR’s request this week to clarify the proposed rule changes. Press secretary Emily Hilliard referred NHPR back to the department’s public announcement of the changes.
The public can submit comments on the proposed rule changes through the Federal Register website until February 4.
