In 2025, Connecticut put $300 million into early childhood programs. It was a big step, but right now, more than 3,000 families are still stuck on the Care4Kids waitlist.

That means parents waiting months for care they need now. Not later. Not eventually. Now.

That’s why lawmakers are pushing Connecticut Senate Bill 265 childcare bill, which would add another $70 million to help clear the backlog and get families into care. But at a press conference highlighting the waitlist in March, we didn’t just hear about numbers or policy. It was about what this looks like in real life.

Maria Reyes, a family child care provider and President of the Family Child Care Union Council of CSEA SEIU Local 2001, put it plainly.

“We’re not talking about an abstract system,” Reyes said. “We’re the ones opening our homes before sunrise, feeding kids, teaching them, caring for them — so parents can go to work.”

And right now, she said, the system is running on sacrifice. When families can’t access care, something has to give. Usually, it’s work.

Parents — most often mothers — end up cutting hours or leaving their jobs altogether. Other times, a family member steps in to help, unpaid, putting their own income on hold just to make things work. That’s not a system. That’s people patching holes.

“Connecticut’s childcare system is being held together by sacrifice instead of investment,” Reyes said.

And the waitlist is where that reality shows up most clearly. These aren’t just names on a list. They’re families trying to figure out how to get through the week. Providers trying to stay open. Workers trying to stay in the workforce.

Everyone knows that Care4Kids works, but the problem is, too many can’t access it.

That’s why providers and advocates are pushing lawmakers to finish the job: fund the program, clear the waitlist, and actually support the people doing this work every day. 

“Because when child care works, Connecticut works,” Reyes said, “And right now, this is not working.”