Child Care Assistance Income Limits 2026: Who Qualifies, the Copay and When a Raise Ends It

You can likely get child care assistance if every parent in your home works or is in school or training, your child is under your state’s age limit (usually under 13), and your income is under your state’s limit. Each state sets its own limit and its own copay, the share of the child care bill that you pay, so the table below gives the limit to start in each state we have checked. Under federal rules, 85% of the state median income is the highest line (45 CFR 98.20). Many states let a family start under it and stay higher, so a raise ends help later for a family already getting help than for one just applying. A state can also run out of money and put new families on a waiting list, so being under the limit does not always mean getting help.

What is child care assistance?

Child care assistance is help from your state with paying a child care provider, so that you can work, study or train. It is also called a child care subsidy or a voucher. The state pays your provider part of the bill, and you pay the rest, called the copay or the family share. The money comes through the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), and each state runs its own program under the federal rules in 45 CFR part 98.

That is why the program goes by many names: Care 4 Kids in Connecticut, Working Connections Child Care in Washington, Employment Related Day Care in Oregon, the Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship in Montana, School Readiness Assistance in Arkansas, Child Care Works in Pennsylvania and the Child Care Payment Program in Mississippi. The calculator’s child care card uses your state’s own name where we have it.

Who can get child care assistance?

Most states ask for three things: a parent who works or is in school or training, a child under the age limit, and income under the state’s limit. The details differ by state, so treat this as a guide and not a promise.

• Work, school or training. Each parent in the home must usually be doing one of these, and some states set a minimum. Arkansas asks for 30 hours a week, Iowa an average of 32 (28 with a special-needs child), Mississippi 25, and Pennsylvania 20, or 10 of work plus 10 of school or training. Montana asks a single parent for 60 hours a month and a two-parent family for 120.
• A child under the age limit. This is usually under 13, and up to 18 or 19 for a child with a disability or special needs, as Connecticut, Iowa, Oregon and Pennsylvania say. North Dakota pays through the month a child turns 12 when the provider is licensed by the state.
• Other rules. A few states add their own, such as a rule about the child’s citizenship or immigration status (see the questions at the end).

The calculator checks the child’s age, whether each parent has pay or is marked as a student, and your income. It does not check hours of work. It counts you, your husband or wife and your children as the family, and not another adult in the home, though a state may count them. Ask your state’s office who counts in your case.

What are the child care assistance income limits for 2026?

There is no single limit: each state sets its own, and the table gives the limit to start in each state we have checked. That is the most a family can earn in a month, before taxes, and still apply. It goes up with the number of people in your family, and states differ on who counts as family.

Not checked yet: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. Their limits are on each state's own pages.

To use the table, find your state and the column for the number of people in your family. If your income for a month, before taxes, is at or under that number, you are under the limit to start. For a family of five or more, use your state’s own chart.

The table works from each state’s own chart. Where a state prints a yearly limit, the table shows a twelfth of it. Where a state gives its limit only as a share of the poverty guidelines, as Iowa and Oregon do, the table works that share out from the 2026 guidelines. The poverty guidelines are the yearly income lines that the Department of Health and Human Services sets for each household size. The table rounds down to whole dollars, and a dash means the chart has no figure for that size. Open the Source link in a row to see which year the chart is for. Most are for 2026, but Arkansas’s and Idaho’s are for October 2025, Montana’s and North Carolina’s for July 2025 and DC’s for October 2024, and those states may have published newer charts that we did not find.

The states named under the table as “Not checked yet” are ones whose current limit is not in our data. For many of them the state’s website would not open for us. For others we found only the federal government’s tables of 2023 policies, or a state plan written in 2024, and a limit from then could be wrong today, so we left it out rather than guess. New Mexico is in the table as “No limit”: it has had no income limit since November 1, 2025. A dash means the state’s chart prints no figure for that family size. Maine is named because it gives its limit as 125% of the state median income, with no dollar chart that we could use.

Federal rules set the highest line. With federal child care money, a state can serve a family only if its income is at or under 85% of the state median income for a family of its size (45 CFR 98.20). The state median income is the income in the middle of all families in the state. Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma set their limit to start at that line, and most other states we checked set it lower. Two print limits above it: Vermont’s is 575% of the poverty line, and Maine’s is 125% of the state median income. We did not find an explanation of that on either state’s page.

Why does a state have a limit to start and a limit to keep help?

Many states let a family start help only below one income line and keep it up to a higher line, which gives a family already getting help room for a raise. The limit to start applies when you apply. The limit to keep help applies to a family already getting it, usually when it renews, often once a year.

Federal rules push states this way. A state whose limit to start is under 85% of the state median income must set a second, higher limit for families that renew. That limit is 85%, or a lower amount above the limit to start that the state can justify (45 CFR 98.21(b)). The rule calls this a graduated phase-out. These states have the clearest published lines:

• Connecticut: a family applying must be under 60% of the state median income (new applications), and a family at renewal can be at or under 85% (renewals).
• Washington: 60% of the state median income to start, 65% at renewal, and 85% as the line at which income calls for a decision on the case during the year (Washington’s chart). That the 65% line is the one for renewals comes from Washington’s 2025–2027 plan, which is older than the chart.
• North Carolina: 200% of the poverty line to start, or 133% when every child in care is 6 to 12 and none has special needs. A family on the program can have income up to 85% of the state median income (North Carolina’s chart).
• Wyoming: 175% of the poverty line to start. A family already in the program can stay through two more steps, up to 225% (Wyoming’s fee chart).
• Montana: 185% of the poverty line to start. A family not on TANF, the cash help for families with children, that is already in the program can stay up to 200% if it is over the line at its yearly review, but no one stays above 85% of the state median income (Montana’s fee scale).
• Alabama: 150% of the poverty line to start, 170% at recertification, and a higher cutoff in dollars that ends help before the year is out (Alabama’s fact sheet).

In Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma the limit to start is already 85%, so one limit serves for both, and Vermont prints one table for starting and keeping. For Idaho and Pennsylvania we found a limit to start but no current limit to keep help, and North Dakota’s and South Dakota’s plans set 85% for renewals but print no dollars. For a family already getting help in those four states, the calculator says “Not checked yet” when its income is over the limit to start.

Some states look at income only when you renew, and others have a line that applies at any time in the year. Washington’s chart, Alabama’s fact sheet and Nevada’s notice each print a cutoff for the year. Connecticut says income over 85% of the median is a change you must report. Oklahoma’s chart says your copay is set when you are approved and does not rise until the next renewal, unless your income goes over the top line and your case closes. Ask your state’s office when it looks at a change in your pay.

Which limit applies to you? If you are applying, the limit to start. If you already get help, the limit to keep it, and in the calculator you tick “Child care help” under “What you have now” to use it. That is why the cliff comes later for a family already getting help. A raise that would put a new family over the line to start does not end help for a family on the program until its pay reaches the higher line.

Is there a waiting list for child care assistance?

In a number of states there is: when a state’s money runs short, it can put new families on a waiting list, or take applications only from some groups, even when they are under the income limit. This is what we found on states’ own pages and documents, with the date each gives:

• Alabama: since May 8, 2026, new applications go on a waiting list, apart from priority groups such as foster care, protective services and families that have just left TANF. A family already getting help that stops meeting the rules can lose its place (notice of May 15, 2026).
• Arkansas: a waiting list since February 2025, with 2,221 families on it in figures to April 15, 2026 (OEC Fast Facts). Children in foster care or protective services skip it. We found no notice that it has ended.
• Connecticut: most new families go on the Care 4 Kids Enrollment List. The status page, updated October 30, 2026, says the wait is about 6 months, and on October 26, 2026 the program invited working families who had applied on May 14, 2026 (status page). Families on TANF now or in the last five years, foster families and homeless families skip it.
• DC: a waiting list for new applicants since May 12, 2026. Since October 1, 2026, only the first four priority groups can enroll, such as protective services, homelessness and working parents under 150% of the poverty line, and working parents from 150% to 300% wait. Families already enrolled keep their subsidy at renewal (DC’s subsidy page).
• Maryland: a 2026 legislative fiscal note says enrollment in the Child Care Scholarship program was frozen and a waiting list began on May 1, 2025 (fiscal note for House Bill 849). Families on Temporary Cash Assistance or SSI and children experiencing homelessness are exempt. The note does not say whether the freeze still holds, and Maryland’s own child care pages would not open for us.
• Mississippi: since April 1, 2025, new applications are taken only from priority groups such as families on TANF, foster care, teen parents and homeless families. Since August 1, 2025, the state has invited working families from its waiting list in the order they joined, until funding is used up, when applications pause again (MDHS).
• North Carolina: each county keeps its own list, and a county that cannot serve every applicant may set priorities, such as working parents or child protective services cases (financial assistance page). We found no statewide freeze.
• North Dakota: a waiting list for new applicants since December 1, 2025. Homeless households and families at or under 30% of the state median come first, and families already in the program or on TANF do not wait. A family whose case closes joins the list if it reapplies (CCAP page).
• Oregon: a waiting list since November 2023. New applicants wait unless they fit an exemption, such as TANF or a child welfare referral, and have income at or under 200% of the poverty line. A family that reapplies within two months of its benefits ending is also exempt (ERDC page).

The pages for Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Vermont and Washington mention no waiting list, which means we found none, not that none exists. Elsewhere the pages we read say nothing either way, and some say a list may start when money runs out, as Pennsylvania’s page does. For states we have not checked, we do not know today’s status.

A waiting list changes what “Likely” means in the calculator. In a state with a list, the calculator says “Maybe” for a family that is applying, because being under the income limit is not enough. It does not say how long the wait is. Where the pages say so, a family already getting help is not put on the list, but a closed case can send it back to the end. Alabama says a family that stops meeting the rules can lose its place, and North Dakota puts a family whose case closes on the list when it reapplies. Ask your state’s office what happens if your case closes.

How much is the child care copay?

It depends on your state, your income and your family size, and in the states whose scales we could read it goes up as your income goes up, except in New Mexico, which charges none. Most states charge nothing, or very little, at the lowest incomes, and several skip the copay for groups such as families on TANF or children in foster care. Where the top of the scale is a share of income, it reaches 7% in Connecticut and Montana and 10% in Maine and North Carolina, and it stays under 1% in South Dakota.

Until July 13, 2026, federal rules said a family’s copay could not be more than 7% of its income. A final rule published on May 12, 2026 took that cap out (91 FR 25796). The rule now asks only for “affordable family co-payments that are not a barrier” (45 CFR 98.45(l)(3)). States may keep their own caps, and the rule says that as of March 2026 the plans of 37 lead agencies, the offices that run the program, limited copays to 7% of income or less. So do not assume 7% in your state. Use your state’s own scale.

States set the copay in different ways. In the states we checked:

• A share of your income: Connecticut charges 0%, 3%, 5% or 7%, by where your income falls against the state median. Maine charges up to 10%. Montana charges from 0.5% to 7%, with a minimum. North Carolina charges most families 10% of gross monthly income.
• A flat monthly amount for the family: Washington sets it by income band, however many children are in care. Oklahoma sets it when you are approved. Mississippi reads it from yearly income and splits it among the children in care. South Dakota lets it rise little by little with income, the same whatever the care costs.
• A fee for each child: Alabama charges by the week and Wyoming by the day, less for a part day. Arkansas charges a share of the state’s daily rate that depends on the child’s age group and your income. DC charges by the day for the two youngest children in care and nothing more for a third.
• Other fees: Iowa charges for each half day of care, on the child who gets the most. Vermont charges a weekly family share that rises with income up to its limit.
• Nothing: New Mexico has no copay for any family.

You pay your copay to your child care provider, not to the state and not to a website. The state pays the provider the rest, up to the rate it sets for that care, and North Dakota’s plan says providers may bill the difference above that rate.

How does your copay change when your pay goes up?

It goes up in steps, or by a share of each extra dollar, depending on your state. In a state with bands, such as Washington, Oklahoma, Alabama and Wyoming, your copay stays the same while your income stays inside a band, then jumps when your income passes the band’s edge. Each jump is a small cliff of its own.

In a state that charges a share of your income, each extra dollar you earn adds part of a dollar to your copay: about 10 cents in North Carolina. Where the rate itself goes up at a band’s edge, as in Connecticut and Montana, the new rate applies to all of your income, not only to the part above the edge. So a raise of a few dollars that crosses the edge can cost much more than a few dollars.

The calculator shows each of these steps as a small drop in what your household has left in a month. A copay jump is only part of the help, and the big drop comes where help ends.

How does the calculator work out your copay and your help?

It follows your state’s own fee chart, using only what you type. These are its steps:

1. It checks that a child is under your state’s age limit and that each parent has pay or is marked as a student.
2. It adds up your family’s income before taxes: the pay of the parents and children, other income such as Social Security and unemployment benefits, and child support you receive. Two states change the sum. South Dakota leaves out 4% of earnings, and Oklahoma takes off child support you pay. Your state may leave out other income that the calculator counts.
3. It compares that income with the limit to start, or with the limit to keep help if you ticked “Child care help”. Over the line, the card says “Not now”. If your state’s limit to keep help is not in our data, it says “Not checked yet”.
4. It finds your row in your state’s fee chart from your family size and income, and reads your fee: dollars for the family, dollars for each child, or a share of your income. It counts every child under the age limit as in care.
5. It turns the fee into a month. A fee set by the week, the day or a unit of care is counted as full-time care, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. A weekly fee is multiplied by 52 and divided by 12. A daily fee is multiplied by 5 days and 52 weeks and divided by 12. A fee for each child is multiplied by the number of children in care.
6. It takes the fee off your child care bill. If the fee is as much as the bill, the program pays nothing. If it is less, the program pays the rest. The calculator counts that as money coming in while your whole bill goes out, so your month is the same as if you paid only the fee.

Where a state’s fee chart could not be read, or depends on details we do not have, such as each child’s age group, the calculator can still check the income limit. For Arkansas, Idaho, North Dakota, Oregon and Pennsylvania it says “Maybe” and that the fee scale is not in yet. It also does not know the rate your state pays your provider, how many hours of care your children use, or which of your children are really in care, so your own bill and share may differ.

Will a raise make you lose child care assistance?

It can, in two ways. A raise can move you into a higher copay band, which takes part of the raise back, and a raise that takes your income over your state’s limit ends the help altogether. The second is the big one, because the help is worth your whole bill minus your copay, which can be far more than the raise adds.

A cliff is a point where a little more pay leaves you with less money in total, because a benefit worth more than the extra pay ends. For child care help, the size of the cliff is your bill minus your copay, so it is larger when your bill is higher. The guide to the benefits cliff explains how cliffs in different programs add up.

Take a single parent in Washington with two children (ages 2 and 4), applying for child care help while earning $5,900 a month and paying $1,000 a month for child care. Washington’s copay is a flat monthly amount for the family, set by its income band, and the program pays the rest: $703 of the bill. As pay rises, the copay steps up each time pay passes the edge of a band. The last step comes at $5,653 a month, where help falls from $775 to $703. At $6,167 a month, one dollar over the limit to start, help ends. The calculator shows the family’s month $702 lower than at one dollar less.

Now take the same family, already getting child care help, after a raise to $6,400 a month. It is already on the program, so Washington’s higher line for renewals applies, and it still gets $703 a month in help with the same copay. The calculator puts the end of its help at $6,681 a month, against $6,167 for a family that is applying, and shows its month $702 lower there. Above that line the family can keep help until it renews, as long as its income stays under Washington’s line for the year, so the calculator says “Maybe” there instead of counting the help.

In Connecticut the gap between the two limits is wider. Take a single parent in Connecticut with one child (age 3), applying for Care 4 Kids while earning $5,000 a month and paying $1,000 a month for child care. Care 4 Kids charges a share of income, and here the program would pay $750 of the bill. But Connecticut puts most new families on an enrollment list, so the calculator says “Maybe” for this family, not “Likely”, and, as for a housing voucher, leaves the help out of the money left until the family is invited. So its ground shows no cliff where a new family stops qualifying, at $5,309 a month, one dollar over the limit to apply.

Now take the same family, already getting Care 4 Kids, after raises to $6,800 a month. A family already on Care 4 Kids is held to 85% of the state median income, so it keeps help at that pay. But its copay has moved up to the top rate, 7% of income, so the program pays $524 of the bill. The copay moved up at $5,309 a month, the same pay at which a new family stops qualifying, and help fell from $735 to $628. Help ends at $7,521 a month, and the calculator shows the family’s month $473 lower than at one dollar less.

A fee set by the day gives the same pattern. Take a single parent in Wyoming with two children (ages 2 and 4), already getting child care help, earning $4,500 a month and paying $1,000 a month for child care. Wyoming charges a fee for each child by the day, and the calculator counts two children in full-time care, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. The program pays $594 of the bill. Wyoming’s chart has six steps. A family can start at step 4 or below, and a family already in the program can move up to steps 5 and 6, each with a higher fee. This family is in step 5. On the way up, its copay stepped up at $3,416, $3,985 and $4,554 a month. Its help ends at $5,124 a month, where its month is $406 lower than at one dollar less.

1. Your pay goes upA raise, more hours, a second job
2. Taxes take a littleAbout 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare, then income tax
3. Help shrinksSNAP, tax credits and marketplace help fall a little with each dollar
4. A limit is crossedSome help stops all at once at a set income: Medicaid, child care help, CHIP
5. The cliffOne dollar more in pay, hundreds less in help
6. The climb backThe pay where you are ahead again: the calculator finds it

If help ends and your pay later falls, you may not get it back right away. In a state with a waiting list, a family whose case closed may have to wait again. Whether a raise leaves you ahead depends on everything that changes with it: your copay, taxes, tax credits, SNAP, health coverage and the rest. The calculator works your own household out at every level of pay and marks each point where your total falls, so you can see what a raise really leaves you. It does not tell you what to do. Ask your state’s child care office how and when it looks at a change in your pay.

What does the calculator say for a state we have not checked?

It says “Not checked yet” for child care help, and its card links to your state’s own page under “Ask your state” where we could read one. We work child care help out only from a state’s current chart, as the state’s own pages give it, and many state websites would not open for us. Until we have checked a state, the calculator does not guess, because an older limit could be wrong. It still gives its other answers, such as the tax credits and SNAP.

The federal childcare.gov page on getting help paying for child care leads to your state’s office. The states page shows the limits we have for each state side by side.

How do you apply for child care assistance, and how do you avoid a scam?

You apply with your state’s child care office, and applying is free. The only payment the program asks of you is your copay, and you pay that to your child care provider. Your state’s program page says where to apply, and the childcare.gov page above leads to it. The calculator’s child care card links to your state’s page under “Where to apply” where we have it.

Be careful with anyone who says otherwise. No one can sell you a place, move you up a waiting list or promise you help for a fee. Give your personal details only on your state’s own application, reached from your state’s agency page, not from a text message or an advertisement. A state’s application site does not always end in .gov: the link on Washington’s own Working Connections page goes to washingtonconnection.org, for example. So follow a link from the agency’s page and do not trust a web address alone.

This site takes no applications and sends nothing to any office. It never asks for your name, Social Security number or bank details, and the calculator keeps what you type in your browser. Only your state’s office can decide whether you qualify and how much you pay.

Figures checked October 31, 2026.

Questions people ask

What is the income limit for child care assistance?

There is no single limit. Each state sets its own, and many set a lower limit to start than to keep help. The table above shows the limit to start for each state we have checked, and federal rules make 85% of the state median income the highest line. Put your household in the calculator to see your state’s limit and the pay where your help would end.

How much is the child care copay?

It depends on your state, your income and your family size. It is nothing, or very little, at the lowest incomes in most states we checked, and it rises as income rises. At the top of the scale it reaches 7% of income in Connecticut and Montana and 10% in Maine and North Carolina. Federal rules no longer cap it at 7%, so check your own state’s scale.

Will a raise make me lose child care assistance?

Your help ends only when your income goes over your state’s limit for your situation. A raise can also move you into a higher copay before that. The limit is higher for a family already getting help than for one that is applying. The calculator works your household out at every level of pay, so you can see where your help would end and what a raise would really leave you.

Can I get child care assistance if I am not working?

Usually not: most states want each parent to be working or in school or training, and the calculator needs pay or a student box for each parent. A few count a job search for a limited time. Iowa lists looking for work as a reason, Connecticut allows up to three months after a job loss, and North Dakota counts it only when a family is homeless. Ask your state’s office about your case.

Do I have to be a U.S. citizen to get child care assistance?

It depends on your state. Idaho says the child must be a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, and New Mexico says its help is open to families regardless of immigration status. We have not checked this rule in every state, so ask your state’s office.

Is child care assistance the same as the child care tax credit?

No. Child care assistance is paid by your state to your provider, and you pay a copay. The Child and Dependent Care Credit is a separate tax credit for part of what you pay for care while you work, and you claim it on your tax return. The guide to the Child Tax Credit explains it.

Does the calculator tell me for sure if I get child care assistance?

No. It gives an estimate from your state’s published rules and what you type. It says “Maybe” where a waiting list or a missing fee scale decides it, and “Not checked yet” where we have not checked your state. Only your state’s child care office decides whether you qualify, how much you pay and whether there is a place for you.

Updated November 1, 2026