Special to IFN

Gov. Josh Stein on Tuesday announced the release of the North Carolina Task Force on Child Care and Early Education’s 2025 year-end report. Led by bipartisan co-chairs Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt and Sen. Jim Burgin (NC-12), the Task Force has developed six recommendations to make child care accessible and affordable across North Carolina and has identified opportunities to implement the recommendations.

“Too many families in our state can’t afford to work because child care is expensive and in short supply,” Stein said. “I look forward to working with leaders in government and the private sector to turn these recommendations into results. Doing so represents a win-win-win: It gets parents the freedom to work, kids the safe start they need, and employers the workforce necessary to keep North Carolina’s economy thriving.”

“Right now, everything feels more expensive for families, and child care is one of the biggest costs they’re trying to manage,” added Hunt. “Over the past year, the Task Force on Child Care and Early Education has focused on real, practical ways to make child care more affordable and accessible in all 100 counties. In the year ahead, we’ll keep pushing that work forward and urging leaders in the General Assembly to treat child care like the essential support for working families that it is.”

Stein established the North Carolina Task Force on Child Care and Early Education through Executive Order No. 10 in March 2025. The task force’s 2025 meetings welcomed dozens of guest experts from across the state and explored issues like child care finance and funding, compensation and supports for the child care workforce, child care for public sector workers, child care access in communities recovering from natural disasters, child care needs of military communities, and emerging trends in child care supply. Task force meetings also shed light on successful local innovations expanding child care access in North Carolina communities.

In June 2025, the Task Force issued a preliminary report with six recommendations to help expand child care access and affordability across North Carolina. The 2025 year-end report updates those recommendations with opportunities for action to move the recommendations forward.

The Task Force’s six focus areas include:

♦ Set a statewide child care subsidy reimbursement rate floor;
♦ Develop approaches to offer non-salary benefits for child care professionals;
♦ Explore partnerships with the UNC System, community colleges, and K-12 schools to increase access to child care for public employees and students at public institutions;
♦ Explore subsidized or free child care for child care teachers;
♦ Link existing workforce compensation and support programs for early childhood professionals; and
♦ Explore the creation of a child care endowment

This year, the task force’s work groups will continue developing action plans for each of the task force’s six initial recommendations. Upcoming task force meetings will continue to explore issues related to the supply and cost of child care and early education in North Carolina, including ways to leverage existing funding to support child care and early education, successful child care solutions led by private-sector employers and local public-private partnerships, and the North Carolina Tri-Share Child Care Pilot Program.

The task force will also encourage leaders in the N.C. General Assembly to make meaningful investments in child care and early education as they return to Raleigh for legislative session this year.

LEARN MORE

♦ View the Task Force’s 2025 Year-End Report HERE.