Early Childhood

Democratic lawmakers are renewing their push to create paid family and medical leave in Wisconsin, introducing a bill that would spend about $260 million to help fund up to 14 weeks of paid leave.

Schools and childcare centers are at odds over a bipartisan bill that would require them to collaborate when educating 4-year-olds. Supporters say it would replenish childcare funding when school districts create 4-year-old kindergarten programs, but school officials oppose “forced-contracts” and exempting childcare staff from Wisconsin Department of Instruction licensing requirements.

A proposal from Republican lawmakers would offer state tax breaks to Wisconsin businesses that help their employees afford child care. The refundable tax credits would apply to businesses that start their own day cares for workers, as well as to those who help employees pay for outside providers. During a public hearing this week, Sen.…

Two months after Gov. Tony Evers convened a special session to call on lawmakers to pass workforce development legislation, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature on Tuesday passed their version of the bill, which nixes nearly all the governor’s programs, including child care funding and a paid leave program. The GOP bill instead includes a more…

The city of Waupun is taking the unusual step of investing directly in a community day care center to help alleviate long waiting lists and concerns about parents being unable to work because their children don’t have a place to go during the day. For nearly 35 years, the Wee Care Child Center has served…

Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday that he’ll direct $170 million in emergency federal funding towards the child care industry. The news comes after months of political battles with Republicans over the future of the Child Care Counts program, which used federal COVID-19 relief funds to keep centers open during the pandemic. It also comes days…

Child care providers and parents guardians testified Wednesday in support of a plan authored by Gov. Tony Evers that would extend funding for child care subsidies and other workforce development proposals. The bill reintroduces funding for programs that Evers had written into his budget proposal that were later removed by the Legislature’s Republican-led budget writing…

A special legislative session that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers ordered to consider child care and paid leave programs wrapped up quickly Wednesday afternoon, with no action taken and the parties at odds about how to address Wisconsin’s ongoing workforce shortage and child care crisis. In August, Evers ordered the special session to take up two…

Republican legislators hope to expand access to day care by loosening restrictions on day care providers, the proposals coming after they rejected Gov. Tony Evers plan to spend $340 million on the Child Care Counts program. At a public hearing Wednesday on the five bills aimed at child care, most of the discussion focused on…

Many child care providers and parents were devastated earlier this month when Republicans in the Legislature defunded Child Care Counts, Wisconsin’s pandemic-era child care subsidy program. On Thursday, a series of tweets and a press release from Gov. Tony Evers gave them hope the program could be saved. “Today, I submitted a formal request to…