Gov. Evers, DCF Launch New Online Tools to Make Navigating Child Care Licensure and Regulation Process Faster and Easier

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), today announced the launch of new online tools to help Wisconsinites interested in starting a licensed or certified child care program navigate the regulation process, cutting license processing times nearly in half and helping to bolster the child care industry by making licensure and certification more accessible and more straightforward for interested applicants.

“Since Day One, my administration has been working to make sure our state government works smarter, faster, and better for Wisconsinites, and by streamlining and modernizing the licensing process for child care providers, we’re reducing unnecessary barriers for more qualified, caring folks to get into the profession and support this critical industry on which parents, employers, and our entire economy relies,” said Gov. Evers. “What’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state, and these new tools are about doing both by making sure state government is working and working for you.”

These updated tools continue to build upon efforts of the Evers Administration over the last several years to modernize and bring state government operations into the 21st Century, helping to improve the daily lives of Wisconsinites and ensure state government processes are efficient and accessible for all.

Until this year, child care license applications were required to be submitted exclusively via hard copy. The new tools announced by Gov. Evers today represent a significant step in modernizing the child care regulation process and include:

• Roadmap to Child Care Regulation, an interactive webpage designed to help prospective providers with:
  • Determining the best program option (licensed or certified) for their situation;
  • Navigating the regulation process with step-by-step guidance;
  • Understanding necessary documents and verifications; and
  • Learning how to provide a healthy, nurturing, and safe environment for kids.
• An online licensing application, available to both prospective and current providers, to reduce administrative burden and improve the application process:
  • Users can submit their expression of interest in launching a child care practice, submit their initial application, and maintain additional and ongoing license requirements.
  • Early data show that the time to process initial licenses has been cut nearly in half since implementing online licensing.

The new tools also complement a host of existing resources aimed at making the child care system easier to navigate for active child care providers and applicants in pre-licensing, including:

• Pre-licensing consultation and technical assistance from the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association and 4C For Children;
• YoungStar, which is Wisconsin’s five-star quality rating and improvement system that helps bolster child care providers’ programs;
• Thriving Wisconsin and the Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRR) Agencies, which provide a wide range of services for providers, families, and the community; and
• The Wisconsin Registry, which offers comprehensive professional development opportunities for early childhood education and afterschool care professionals.

GOV. EVERS’ EFFORTS TO STABILIZE WISCONSIN’S CHILD CARE INDUSTRY, BOLSTER PROVIDERS, AND LOWER CHILD CARE COSTS FOR WORKING FAMILIES

Gov. Evers declared 2025 the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin and has made investing in the state’s child care industry to help fill available child care slots, cut child care wait lists, and lower the cost of care for working families a top priority of his administration and of this budget. Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration fought for a pro-kid state budget that makes meaningful investments in Wisconsin’s kids at every stage and every age. In the months leading up to the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget, Republican legislative leaders indicated they had no intention of making any direct investments in child care providers statewide.

Gov. Evers, who has been working to support child care providers and lower the cost of child care statewide for years, signaled that a budget without direct payments to child care providers was a non-starter and would force the governor to veto the budget if Republicans failed to include these critical funds. After months of negotiations with Republican leaders, Gov. Evers ultimately secured a $110 million investment for direct payments to child care providers in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, delivering on his promise to ensure providers can continue to receive direct monthly payments to help pay their staff, keep their doors open and lights on, and continue providing high-quality care for Wisconsin’s kids and families. The final, bipartisan state budget enacted by Gov. Evers included more than $360 million to support Wisconsin’s child care industry and help lower child care costs for working families, a third of which is in direct payments to providers.

Following the signing of the final budget, in August, more than 3,100 child care providers across the state received a total of $8.7 million via the first round of direct payments to providers provided by the governor’s $110 million budget investment. Known as the Child Care Bridge Payments Program, this program is similar to the successful Child Care Counts Program, which was launched by Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration in 2020 and helped more than 5,700 child care providers keep their doors open, ensured the employment of more than 75,000 child care professionals, and allowed providers to continue care for more than 430,000 kids.

Additionally, in October, Gov. Evers announced that Wisconsin Shares families will see an increase in their subsidy amount, thanks to the governor’s investment of over $123 million in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program in the bipartisan 2025-27 Biennial Budget. With this investment, the maximum Wisconsin Shares subsidy rate will be at or above the price of 75 percent of child care slots. The increase, which went into effect Oct. 1, will impact roughly 15,000 Wisconsin Shares families, with the average savings per family being around $174 per month.

In addition to the $110 million investment in direct payments to child care providers, as well as the over $123 million in the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program, the governor’s budget also includes:

• $66 million to fund a new “Get Kids Ready” initiative, the first-ever entirely state-funded child care program in Wisconsin state history, which will support child care providers serving four-year-olds to help prepare Wisconsin’s kids for kindergarten and get an earlier jump start on learning at a critical time in development;
  • The new first-of-its-kind program in Wisconsin is also designed to help ensure the state’s child care industry will receive sustainable, ongoing state investments into the future after Child Care Counts ends.
  • Kids in the program will be taught by child care providers using a curriculum that meets the Wisconsin model early learning standards.
• $2 million to Wonderschool designed to help child care providers across the state build capacity to be able to cut child care wait lists and ensure more kids and families have access to affordable child care;
  • The grant will expand access to high-quality child care in the state, including launching an online software platform that is linked to the department’s website to connect child care providers with child care workers.
• $2 million intended to help bolster Wisconsin’s CCRR Agencies, which help parents find child care locally and provide training and technical assistance opportunities to child care providers;
• $28.5 million for a pilot program to help support expanding capacity across Wisconsin’s child care industry to ensure more families with infants and toddlers can access quality, affordable child care.
  • The proposal will increase payments to providers caring for infants and toddlers across the state through the Wisconsin Shares program.
  • Under the plan, providers would receive payments of $200 per month for every infant under 18 months and $100 per month for every toddler between 18 months and 30 months.
  • The investment will also help ensure more families and kids have access to affordable child care by helping providers accommodate more infants and toddlers under a new temporary pilot program aimed at aligning Wisconsin with peer states like Minnesota, enabling providers to care for seven toddlers between 18 and 30 months of age per staff member.

Gov. Evers also exercised his broad, constitutional veto authority to partially veto aspects of the budget that were outside of the bipartisan budget negotiations. More information about the bipartisan pro-kid budget signed by Gov. Evers is available here.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.