Child Care
Going to work should help a family get ahead. Finding safe, affordable child care shouldn’t be what stands in the way.
In MIT’s basic-needs budget for two working adults and two children in Yellowstone County, child care is the largest single expense: $26,292 a year.
That is $2,191 a month and about 52% more than the model’s housing cost. A family still has to pay for food, transportation, medical care and everything else.
A modeled family budget, not a quote from a local provider. Actual costs depend on children’s ages, care arrangements and assistance.
Annual costs · Two adults working, two children
Source: MIT Living Wage Calculator, Yellowstone County, updated Feb. 15, 2026. Selected expenses, not the complete budget. Monthly values divide annual costs by 12 and round to the nearest dollar.
Even if a family can pay, there may not be a licensed place available. In 2024, Montana’s licensed capacity could cover less than half of estimated demand. For infant care, it was about one-third.
The state counted about 21,100 licensed places against 46,290 children under six in working-parent households. More capacity is needed, but a license alone does not guarantee an open, staffed place.
54% capacity gap
67% capacity gap
Source: Montana Department of Labor & Industry, 2025 employer summit, using 2024 capacity data. Gaps are 100% minus the reported coverage.
Estimated demand is based on children in households where all available parents work, not a waiting-list count. The infant-demand estimate uses children under two. Licensed capacity is not the number of vacant places or children actually enrolled. Informal care and some tribal, school and other legally unlicensed programs are not captured in the licensed-capacity measure.
A program on paper is not the same as help reaching a family. A Montana Budget & Policy Center analysis estimated that Best Beginnings reached only a small share of income-eligible children.
The gap was especially wide for school-age children. The report identified a mismatch between licensing rules and afterschool programs as a barrier to accepting scholarships.
Source: Montana Budget & Policy Center, December 2024. The 94% figure is 100% minus 6%.
The analysis uses fiscal year 2024 recipients and population and poverty estimates from earlier Census data. Its eligibility denominator estimates children in families below 185% of the federal poverty level; it is not a count of approved applications. Nonparticipation does not mean a family applied and was denied. These are historical participation estimates, not current eligibility advice or a finding that every nonparticipant needs paid care.
Families need options after the last bell and during school breaks, not only before kindergarten. Yet one major afterschool funding round awarded less than a third of the dollars Montana programs requested.
For the 2024–25 school year, 26 applicants requested funding and 13 grants were awarded. That is a gap in support for programs, not a measure of the entire state’s afterschool budget.
Source: Montana Budget & Policy Center, December 2024. Requested: $6,573,918. Awarded: $2,154,527. Difference: $4,419,391. Display values are rounded; unawarded requests are not necessarily approved or eligible projects.
The 2025 Legislature created a new funding foundation. But proposals to widen scholarship access and support the people providing care did not become law. Passing something is a start. Closing the gaps is the test.
Enacted · HB 924
The Montana Early Childhood Account received a one-time $10 million transfer and a share of GO Trust interest. It creates a way to support affordability and the workforce, but it is not a guaranteed $10 million every year.
GO Trust overview, August 2025. This describes the funding structure, not measured results or grants already delivered.
Vetoed · HB 456
A bill to qualify most child care workers for Best Beginnings passed the Legislature but was vetoed. The people families rely on to provide care can face the same struggle paying for care for their own children.
The Pulp, October 8, 2025, reporting on the veto and the worker-assistance program.
Failed · HB 457
The proposal to expand Best Beginnings eligibility failed in the House. The affordability gap remains a reason to examine who gets help, who is left just outside the rules, and how to make additional support sustainable.
Montana Free Press, 2025 Capitol Tracker. These are 2025 legislative outcomes, not a claim that program rules have stayed unchanged.
We’re fighting for a Montana where parents can work, children can thrive, and the people caring for them can afford to stay in the job. These are the priorities we want to advance, not promises that the work is already done.
Push for scholarship access that reflects real family costs, with a simpler path to applying and keeping help. Measure success by families reached, not just eligibility on paper.
Revisit support for child care workers’ own families and more predictable provider payments. Affordable care depends on a workforce that can afford to keep doing it.
Prioritize infant care and workable paths for afterschool and summer programs to participate in assistance. Expand access without treating safety as something to trade away.
Use the new funding foundation responsibly. Track staffed places, family costs, provider stability and who actually receives support, so we can see what works and where gaps remain.
Policy direction informed by the afterschool access analysis, worker-assistance reporting and GO Trust funding framework. Specific proposals need implementation details and fiscal review.
These gaps are not a reason to give up on Montana. They are a reason to get to work. We can fight for a future where raising a family and making a living belong in the same sentence.
Evidence note: This page combines separately dated sources. Yellowstone County budget estimates, statewide capacity, scholarship participation and grant awards measure different things and should not be read as one current-year dataset. Source links and definitions appear with each graph. Evidence reviewed September 21, 2026.
