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Page 5 | December 9, 2025 Health and Human Services: Childcare Assistance 12,766 6,248 3,284 38,789 46,744 51,497 18,553 15,067 16,674 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 2019 2023 2025 Change in Provider Type between 2019 and 2025 for Total Childcare System Registered Homes Higher Quality Licensed Base Licensed included in the ECECD tiered quality rating and improvement system (TQRIS) guidelines but follow required safety guidelines. In some cases, these children are cared for by a family member, and when this is true, they can have better outcomes than children in childcare centers. As the CCPI report points out,

“Home-based providers are more likely than centers to offer flexible, nontraditional care hours, and may offer families a closer match to their cultural and linguistic preferences … [P]revious research with families from less prevalent racial and ethnic groups has found that lack of care offered during nontraditional hours and from providers who share language and culture are key.”

According to CCPI, between fall 2019 and spring 2023, childcare system capacity—meaning total childcare slots available to individuals on Childcare Assistance—declined by 3 percent, mostly through the loss in registered childcare homes, which saw a 51 percent reduction during the four-year period. LFC analysis of ECECD data indicates the number of registered homes further decreased to 3,284 in FY25—or a total of 75 percent across the six-year period. Of the children served by Childcare Assistance, 2.7 percent of children in June 2025 were served by registered homes. The vast majority of children in registered homes are in families with incomes at or below 200 percent of the FPL. ECECD had 113 new registered home applications this fall.

Lowest Income Families. Earlier this year, CCPI found that between 2019 and 2023, the number of children in families with income under 100 percent of the FPL that are being served declined by 6.8 percent. While it is possible the number of eligible children at the lowest end of the poverty scale declined, data from the Urban Institute cited by CCPI indicated the total number of eligible children increased between 2019 and 2023, making the decline in children served in that category even more concerning.

More recent data examined by LFC suggests the number of children in families with incomes under 100 percent of the FPL has declined. However, the number of children in that category served declined at a significantly higher rate during the same period. The proportion of New Mexico’s lowest income families have continuously dropped since expansion of Childcare Assistance began in 2019. In January 2019, a little less than 60 percent of families who received Childcare Assistance were in families with incomes at or below 100 FPL. As of June 2025, Source: LFC Files