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Page 6 | December 9, 2025 Health and Human Services: Childcare Assistance that number approximately halved and is around 30 percent. According to U.S. Census Data, in 2019, approximately 10.1 percent of families with children below the age of 13 were in families at or below 100 of the FPL in New Mexico. In 2024, that number declined to 9.7 percent. While there was a 3.9 percent change in families in New Mexico who were living at or below 100 of the FPL, this does not align with the decline in families served by the Childcare Assistance Program. Academic research has found in other countries that offer universal childcare assistance, slots are often taken by families with higher socio-economic status, echoing LFC staff’s analysis.iii

Age of Kids Served. As discussed above, slots for children under the age of 2 are not offered at a rate that is commensurate with births by county. Since FY23, the distribution of children who are served under the age of 2 fell by approximately 4 percent, while the share of children ages 3 to 5 being served increased by almost 10 percent—despite significant prekindergarten expansion for 3 and 4 year olds. This indicates, while the number of slots has empirically increased since expansion began, it is not necessarily the most in-demand slots that have increased.

Quality. New Mexico continues to make investments in childcare quality with the current tiered quality rating and improvement system, FOCUS, where the state pays higher rates for inputs associated with higher rated childcare centers and registered homes. Research indicates quality is a key component in children’s outcomes. Although New Mexico has yet to find links between childcare quality and educational outcomes, a number of articles point to the importance of quality in childcare and ECECD has brought back measurement of quality through the CLASS instrument—an evaluative tool that assesses quality of interaction in the classroom—demonstrating quality is one of the key components for childcare and a stated goal of ECECD.

A recent Economist article that examined universal childcare programs in Norway, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Italy found rapid expansion can result in unfavorable outcomes and may potentially create adverse effects. A study examining universal childcare in Quebec found universal childcare led to a 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 Jan-19 Mar-19 May-19 Jul-19 Sep-19 Nov-19 Jan-20 Mar-20 May-20 Jul-20 Sep-20 Nov-20 Jan-21 Mar-21 May-21 Jul-21 Sep-21 Nov-21 Jan-22 Mar-22 May-22 Jul-22 Sep-22 Nov-22 Jan-23 Mar-23 May-23 Jul-23 Sep-23 Nov-23 Jan-24 Mar-24 May-24 Jul-24 Sep-24 Nov-24 Jan-25 Mar-25 May-25 Changes in Enrollment for Childcare Assistance by Poverty Level (Proportion) Expansion At or Below 100 101-200 201-300 301-400 Source: LFC Files