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For decades, Mississippi child care advocates have exposed the broken system that parents of young children have struggled to navigate. The problems appear so overwhelming that it is difficult to know where to begin to fix an early childhood education program that is so vital to the state’s economic success.
Yet, there is in reality a fix that does not require additional state funding. The problem could be solved to a large extent by freeing up unspent federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to be used for child care.
But through the years, misinformation, lack of transparency and warring political ideologies have resulted in the lack of support for freeing up the TANF funds.
The current income level is 85% or below the state median income, or $51,424 for a family of four, to receive financial assistance for child care. This fact directly contradicts public opinion that programs administered through the Mississippi Department of Human Services are entitlement programs to support non-working families.
That perception is simply incorrect. The federal law to support low-income workers and those seeking employment, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Child Care Development Block Grant, both require parents to work, be in school or serving as a foster parent. These programs exist to support working families by offsetting some of the high costs of child care.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government recognized that child care was essential for keeping parents in the workforce. As a result, approximately $200 million was allocated to the Mississippi Department of Human Services to distribute to eligible child care centers to continue serving parents. The grants extended for several years until the funds were spent.
While the special COVID-era child care funding being provided by the federal government has ended, the overall child care funds being allocated to Mississippi are approximately the same as before COVID. Even with the return of the funding to the pre-Covid era levels, we still have viable solutions to the child care crisis .
Mississippi Department of Human Services Executive Director Robert Anderson, center, answers child care questions posed by Legislative Black Caucus members, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 at the state Capitol in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi TodayIt is in large part decisions made within the state Department of Human Services that have resulted in a waiting list of about 20,000 families who need child care to work. The TANF funds could be freed up to be used to offset the loss of federal COVID funds and ease or even eliminate the waiting list.
It makes sense to do so. Numerous surveys conducted by business associations and research centers support the critical need for child care. In 2024, the Mississippi Economic Council surveyed members and found 77% of the businesses reported child care as a problem and 44% said it was their biggest problem.
When the COVID funding ended, many child care programs lost the support that helped them remain open. As a result, some families were forced to leave the workforce because they could no longer find or afford reliable care.
In 2025, after the funds were depleted, more Mississippi child care programs closed than during any other time in recent memory, leaving a void in available child care.
The situation should not be so bleak. For years, the state Department of Human Services has not allocated all funding the state received through the federal TANF program designed to help low-income families. Millions of dollars remain with no explanation as to why the funds are not being used to relieve the child care crisis.
Rumors have been rampant as to why the money is not transferred from one program to another. The lack of full disclosure by the state Department of Human Services makes it hard to know how much is going unused annually.
After several years of the argument that the federal regulations do not allow it, state Human Services officials finally revealed the money can be legally used for child care through a direct spending transfer.
When asked several months ago by Senate Public Health Committee Chairman Hob Bryan why the state chooses not to use the TANF funds for child care, Mississippi Department of Human Services Executive Director Robert Anderson said he would investigate. Bryan asked if help was needed since this was such a serious situation. Bryan was told no.
The amount of money in the TANF account is thought to be over $100 million, but the true current figure has not been released. Figures reveal the amount needed for eligible families and to keep the child care centers in business is $60 million.
Moving the money does not require a law or state appropriation. The director can approve the transfer. No additional funding is needed this year if the transfer is made.
To avoid a future child care crisis, there is a need for a state law requiring unspent federal TANF funds to be legally transferred annually to child care programs. This one act will eliminate the stress on child care businesses and families.
This one act can pay off big time. If just 7% of parents who are not working due to child care challenges entered the workforce, the state would stand to make $1.2 billion a year.
The state pays nothing. Yet the return would be enormous. There is no reasonable explanation why this is not done immediately. It is up to Gov. Tate Reeves and Human Services Director Anderson to provide the leadership.
Parents, businesses and child care directors are waiting.
Bio: Cathy Grace is the early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 50 years as a first -grade teacher, consultant to state and nonprofit agencies and child care programs. Grace taught early childhood education at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita. She also directed the planning and implementation of public kindergarten while employed at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Washington as an early childhood advocate and presented research numerous times at state, regional and national conferences.
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