BOISE, ID – The Idaho Legislature is considering a bill that would significantly lower the income eligibility threshold for families to qualify for a child care subsidy program.

For a family of four, Senate Bill 1419 would lower the income cutoff for the Idaho Child Care Program to $44,550 each year, down from the current cutoff of $57,750 a year. In rates, the change would be from 175% of the federal poverty level down to 135% of the level.

The Idaho bill would effectively kick people off the program, and make it harder to qualify, advocates with the nonprofit group Idaho Voices for Children say. The bill would also lower the asset cap for program participants from $1 million to $500,000. That new cap — which could count homes, savings accounts and cars — would be lower than the federal government’s and caps in 48 other states, the group says.

August Christensen, the mayor of Driggs, a high-cost of living rural town in eastern Idaho, said the bill could kick off families in need in her area.

“In my town and county, we have very few families that qualify for (the program) due to the high cost of living. (The program) does not adjust numbers to accommodate this,” she said. “So a job wage may seem high, but due to the cost of living, it is not.”

The bill’s change of income cutoffs, she said, “could eliminate even the few current families or future ones. These are the people that need it most.”

Those changes and a range of fraud-prevention measures are part of the bill, which comes on the heels of concerns about fraud in Idaho’s program after viral allegations in Minnesota prompted the Trump administration to crack down on child care funds.

The Idaho bill is heading to the state Senate after passing the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on a 6-3 vote Wednesday.

Every member of the public who testified on the bill was opposed to it, including child care providers and a representative for the Idaho Freedom Foundation. The only person who testified in favor of the bill was Doug Taylor, a lobbyist for Florida-based conservative think tank Foundation for Government Accountability.

In August 2024, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare paused new enrollments for parents to receive subsidies through the program for months as the agency anticipated the program would face a budget shortfall. At the time, state officials said the projected shortfall was caused by rising costs of child care and expanded program eligibility, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

But child care providers said the budget cuts compounded financial troubles that providers and parents face.

Lawmakers largely talked about the boosted fraud-prevention measures in the bill

Debating the bill in committee, senators largely talked about the bill’s added fraud-prevention measures — not its lower income eligibility threshold. The bill would give the Idaho Attorney General’s Office jurisdiction to prosecute fraud cases in the program.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare can take administrative actions in response to fraud allegations — like pulling back a provider’s license, or demanding funds back, agency director Juliet Charron told lawmakers. But when they refer cases for prosecution, she said “often nothing happens with those cases.”

Since the allegations in Minnesota, Idaho’s program has been thrust into the controversy by state lawmakers. In December, two Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Josh Tanner, the co-chair of the Legislature’s powerful budget committee, asked the state to freeze funds in the program meant to expand child care provider access.

In response to the letter, the Department of Health and Welfare had pledged to audit providers. Charron told lawmakers Wednesday that the full review would be available within a week — and that it would show that the state health agency took administrative actions against 28 providers, such as terminating them from the program, or suspending their licenses.

In committee, lawmakers were divided over the bill.

Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth, said the state shouldn’t even be involved in the program.

“I think it is fundamentally an improper use of federal government, state government,” he said. “I think this belongs to family. This belongs to nonprofits, churches and so forth, to provide support and aid in these areas.”

Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, said he was somewhat on the same page, but he pushed for the bill to advance.

“I don’t disagree with almost everything Sen. Shippy said. However, we can’t pretend that the (the program) doesn’t exist, because it clearly does,” Lenny said. This bill, he argued, puts “the Idaho Legislature back in the driver’s seat.”

The three lawmakers who voted against the bill were Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls; Shippy; and Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise.

The bill would shift the Idaho Child Care Program from agency rules to state law. The bill would set the program to end in two years — in July 2028 — unless the Legislature extends it.

But Idaho Voices for Children’s Executive Director Christine Tiddens told lawmakers in a committee hearing Wednesday that the bill is missing key details from the current iteration of the program — like exempting foster parents from income requirements, and clearly spelling out that both parents in a two-parent household could be in school and remain eligible.

That worried Wintrow, who said she believed the issue would need to be fixed by the Legislature.

But Charron, who directs the state health agency, said the agency could fix the issue through temporary administrative rules.

Idaho actually paused the child care expansion grants after lawmakers request, records show

In early January, after lawmakers’ letter requesting Idaho pause the funds to expand child care provider access, state health officials had said Idaho’s funds hadn’t gone out yet.

After Republican lawmakers ask to freeze Idaho child care grants, state plans to boost oversight

But officials didn’t clearly say if they would freeze the funds — or that they were gearing up to post grant applications.

Days before the lawmakers’ request, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials told child care providers in an email on Dec. 23 that grant applications for $14 million in child care expansion funds would soon be open on Jan. 2, according to documents that the Idaho Capital Sun obtained in a public records request.

But after lawmakers’ request, state health officials emailed providers to tell them that the grant applications would not be posted.

“Due to recent national events and concerns about program integrity tied to federal child care funding, the department will be focused on a thorough review of the Idaho Child Care Program to include program expenditure and all enrolled providers,” the agency’s child care program manager, Aubrie Hunt, wrote to a child care provider on Jan. 2. “Given the need to redirect our staff resources to this enhanced review effort, we will be adjusting the timeline to post the expansion grant opportunity.”

When one provider followed up in mid-January, an official indicated the pause was indefinite.

“There are no updates to the previous announcements,” Hunt told the provider in a Jan. 20 email. “We will communicate with all providers when/if there are changes.”

Officials with the Department of Health and Welfare could not be immediately reached for comment on why they didn’t publicly disclose the pause earlier. Charron told lawmakers on Wednesday that legislative budget writers had approved the $14 million in child care provider expansion funds, but that it awaits full approval by the Legislature.

State health officials also pushed back against the concerns about fraud in Idaho’s child care programs, the records show.

“We want to ensure you that Idaho is not Minnesota, and that the vast majority of the childcare providers in the state have good business practices and are providing safe and nurturing environments for families,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Deputy Director Monty Prow wrote in a Jan. 19 email to lawmakers on the House Health and Welfare Committee.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.