Governor Tom Wolf visited Kiddie Space Heights today with Department of Human Services Acting Secretary Meg Snead to spotlight his $25 million child care tax credit program that will give back $180 to $630 to Pennsylvania’s working families with young children. At least 221,000 families are expected to benefit from the program.

“Pennsylvania’s hard-working families deserve the chance to succeed. That’s why I created this child care tax credit program,” said Gov. Wolf. “With some money back in their pockets, they can work or go back to school while ensuring their children are thriving at a quality child care center.”

Gov. Wolf secured $25 million for the Child and Dependent Care Enhancement Program. Modeled after the federal child care tax credit program, this state-level child care tax credit program benefits working families with children in daycare who already qualify for the federal program. The state child care tax credit is for 30% of the federally approved expense.

Pennsylvanians paying for child care services will be able to claim the credit when filing state taxes starting in 2023. Families could be eligible for:

    $180 (one child) or $360 (two or more children) for households earning above $43,000, or

    $315 (one child) or $630 (two or more children) for households earning less than $43,000.

“High-quality early education programs help build a foundation for children’s learning and development, and for parents, knowing that they can afford high quality, reliable care for their children while they are working is immeasurable,” said Acting Secretary Snead. “This tax credit will help ease the affordability burden on lower income, working families, and we must do everything we can to continue supporting parents and children in the commonwealth so they can continue to benefit from the incredible, life-shaping work our child care industry does every day.”

Governor Wolf’s support for the childcare industry to ensure every opportunity for working families to achieve success has been steadfast. In addition to being important to our workforce and economy by ensuring parents and caregivers the opportunity to work or go to school, centers for early childhood education provide pre-k programming proven to help children perform better in school and see higher graduation rates while developing necessary social and emotional skills to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

Over the last eight years, Governor Wolf has:

    Increased Pre-K Counts enrollment by more than 18,100 slots and increased funding by $205 million (211%)

    Increased Head Start Supplemental enrollment by more than 3,400 slots and increased funding by $49 million (125%)

    Increased Child Care Works enrollment to 120,000 in 2022-23, up from 105,600 in 2014-15 and increased funding from $744 million to more than $1.25 billion in 2022-23

    Issued more than $1.5 billion in federal COVID relief funding to support Pennsylvania’s childcare industry