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Can you get help paying for daycare?
Six questions. Your state's real income line, your co-pay range, and the second bill nobody warns you about.
The Daycare Help Kit — $29, one-time
The check gives you the answer. The kit walks the whole road after it: the application packet in the agency's own order, the denial translator, the real-bill worksheet, the redetermination calendar, and the tour-and-judge checklists — for all 50 states and DC.
See what's inside the kit $29 · one-time payment
The money check
Eligibility is only the first question. This check also computes the four things other calculators leave out: your co-pay in dollars (a range, from your state's own fee chart), the gap between your provider's price and the state rate, what a raise does to your help, and whether your state is even funding new families right now.
The safety check
Every state hides inspection records in a different portal, in a different vocabulary. Our Safety & Records department walks you to your state's portal, decodes its violation classes and status words from the state's own definitions, and shows you what each archive cannot tell you. We never name, rate, or score a center — we teach you to read the record yourself.
How the check works
1 · Your state's line
We compare your income to the entry line your state publishes — percent of the poverty line or of state median income, by family size — and answer in three honest classes: likely, borderline (with the deciding facts named), or unlikely (with the exceptions that still apply).
2 · Your real bill
Your co-pay range from the state's sliding fee scale, printed with the chart's date — plus the gap: your provider's price minus the state's rate ceiling, always labeled an estimate.
3 · The raise answer
Entry and exit lines are different numbers. Tell the check about a raise and it answers against the exit line, with the 12-month protection explained — not against the door you came in.
State rules, state by state
Income limits, fee scales, and waitlists checked October 2026 against state agency publications and each state's CCDF plan.
Guides, in plain words
How Child Care Assistance Actually Works — the Whole Machine in Plain Words
Entry lines, exit lines, co-pays, the gap, and the waitlist: how the federal-state child care assistance machine really decides what your family pays.
The Hidden Second Bill — the Gap Between the State Rate and Your Daycare's Price
In 40 states a daycare may charge your family the difference between the state rate and its price. How the gap works, with the worked example from Nevada's own report.
What a Raise Does to Your Child Care Help — Entry Lines, Exit Lines, and the 12-Month Lock
A raise rarely ends your help the day you get it. How entry lines, exit lines, phase-outs, and the mid-period co-pay lock actually work, state by state.
Straight answers
Is the check really free?
Yes — the check, the state pages, the records decoder, and the guides are free. The $29 kit is the paperwork layer for families who want the worksheets and checklists done for them.
Do you decide my case?
No. Only your state agency decides. This site reads the agency's published charts and shows its work — every figure carries its check date.
What is "the gap"?
When a provider charges more than the state pays, many states let the provider bill the family the difference. That difference is the gap — the second bill. Forty states allow it and eleven prohibit it (PN3, December 2025). Your state page says which side of that line your state is on, or says plainly when we could not confirm it.
Why a range instead of one co-pay number?
Because the state chart is a scale, not a price tag: your fee depends on your exact income band, your children's ages, and your schedule. A single invented number would be a lie with decimals.
I was already told no. Is it over?
Not necessarily. Denials come with appeal windows, and many are paperwork failures, not eligibility failures. The guide Denied, or just told no? walks the difference.