NaTodjea Frye, a working Gary mom, has eased the pain of rising child care costs for her youngest son by telling herself it’s just another monthly car loan.

Shawn isn’t a car, though.

He’s a 4-year-old boy with working parents who need a safe learning environment for him during the day.

Brandy Hart’s 1-year-old and 2-year-old kids are still asleep when she drops them off at the Elka Child Education Center in Gary at 6:30 a.m. so she can arrive at her job in Valparaiso by 7:30 a.m. She’s a certified medical assistant for a cardiologist.

On weekends, she works in a group home for mentally ill women in Merrillville and her partner, the children’s dad, works full-time as a manager at Goodwill Industries.

In September, their child care co-pay at Elka increased $100 to $227 a week.

In August, Hart lost SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) federal food benefits because her family earned too much money to continue to qualify.

“It’s ridiculous. I feel like it’s unfair to the moms who really are struggling. We try to give our kids everything, and you turn around and it’s something else,” she said.

Gary resident Shawn Frye, 4, hugs his mother, NaTodjea, during a school day at the ELKA Child Educational Center on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

Already mired in urban and rural child care deserts, critics say Indiana’s GOP lawmakers dealt the state’s child care programs another blow by slashing funding and reducing enrollments.

About 55,000 Indiana kids receive child care vouchers, but lawmakers slashed Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) money in their two-year state budget approved in April.

The 10 to 35% cuts to providers, like Elka, forced them to raise co-pay fees on parents.

State officials blamed a $225 million funding shortfall on unsustainable child care spending by then-Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration, which was flush with federal pandemic funding.

Today, child care providers are feeling the strain and many could close, leaving vulnerable families without childcare options.

“We made this decision to protect the children and families that depend on vouchers,” said Adam Alson, director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.

He said about 55,000 children received vouchers in July. Before the COVID-19 funding boosted federal dollars, the average was 35,000.

Alson said the influx of federal money raised child care rates and expanded eligibility. In 2022, federal dollars swelled the Child Care and Development Fund to $900 million and it served about 68,000 children.

With pandemic funding gone, the state dipped into its general fund and tightened criteria to accommodate new children enrolled. By fiscal year 2027, funding is expected to drop to about $400 million.

A news release from Alson said the reductions to child care providers align their reimbursements with federal rules that require programs to be sustainable.

Alson’s agency received surveys from 25% of licensed childcare providers and analyzed their cost data to arrive at reimbursement levels that he said reflect current operating realities.

House Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Carey Hamilton, D-Indianapolis, said cuts could have been made elsewhere and she singled out the state’s CHOICE, or private school voucher, program.

“While Gov. Braun and the Republican supermajority provide private school vouchers to billionaires, they have now put working Hoosier families in the impossible situation of deciding whether to have a job or stay at home and take care of the kids,” she said in a release.

ELKA Child Educational Center director Ashley Eaves smiles as a parent talks about her children’s time attending the program on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

She said expanding private school vouchers shouldn’t be a priority.

“There was no requirement to blow a $200 million hole in our biennial budget this year by opening up private school vouchers to the wealthy. This amount would nearly cover the projected deficit of the child care voucher program, but Statehouse Republicans chose to prioritize the wealthy over working-class families.”

Indiana also downsized its On My Way to Pre-K scholarships and cut reimbursements to those providers, forcing many of them to turn to parents for a co-pay.

State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond, said the child care cuts will trickle down and impact parents and child care facilities, increasing urban child care deserts.

“Up here, there’s been a shortage of child care for years,” she said.

Ashley Eaves, executive director at Elka, said the center is licensed to serve 153 children, but since the cuts began, its enrollment dropped to 74.

Earlier this month, the Indianapolis Star reported a survey of more than 440 state child care providers found about half were in jeopardy of closing.

The CCDF program covers children from ages 3 to 13, while the On My Way Pre-K program is dedicated to 4-year-olds from income-eligible families.

Dolls sit on a table next to a playing child at ELKA Child Educational Center on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

Because of the cuts, On My Way Pre-K has about 25,000 children on a waiting list, while only about 15,000 children are receiving vouchers, Eaves said.

“We normally have 25 students, now we have 4 or 5 if we’re lucky enough,” she said of the state pre-school program.

Elka was founded by Eaves’ grandparents, Julius and Eleanor Hill, in 1968.

“For us here at Elka, we’ve been around 57 years. This year, we’ve seen the largest amount of cuts ever… for this to happen, it’s kind of putting everyone in shock.”

Nina Burton, of Gary, who operates the Woodland Child Development Center in Hammond, said school-age vouchers took the biggest hit.

She said the impact is more acute on families with multiple children in child care who now face rising co-pay costs.

Burton started fundraising efforts for parents, including the sale of taffy apples and other products. Everything they sell goes toward their tuition, said Burton, who’s looking for grants from other agencies.

“People want their kids in a safe environment. Parents have to work,” she said.

“Right now, we’ll bear the cost and we won’t take them out of the program,” said Burton, who also operates a state micro-site pilot program in Gary.

The pilot stemmed from a legislative public health committee recommendation aimed at expanding child care in hard-to-serve areas for children ages 3-5.

Earlier this summer, state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, who chairs the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee, said child care is crucial to the state.

“It touches every aspect of our economy,” he said.

Charbonneau said the lack of vibrant child care programs hinders the recruitment of new businesses.

The shortage of child care access costs Indiana about $4.22 billion each year, according to a March report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

A sign advertising the ELKA Educational Center Happy Learner Garden is seen near a planter of pepper plants at the facility on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

“Indiana faces significant child care gaps due to a tight labor market and lack of sustainable solutions, driving parents out of the workforce and reducing state tax revenue,” the report concluded.

Burton said she won’t give up on the children she serves.

“The kids become so dependent on us – we pick them up; we drop them off. We have activities like performing arts. It’s not just watching kids.

“I don’t think people understand how crucial the program is. Even in infants, we’re running a curriculum by the time they graduate. By kindergarten, they’re reading. It’s a great start and for anyone to not see the value, that’s crazy.”

Meanwhile, NaTodjea Frye has adapted to a working mom’s reality. At 3 p.m., her three older kids come home from school to an empty house until she gets home at 5 p.m.

“We have a lot of cameras in the house,” she said. “They say ‘it takes a village,’ and this was the village,” she said of the Elka Child Education Center.

To save money, she said her family will likely skip buying Halloween costumes this year. “The price of everything has gone up,” she said.

Gary resident NaTodjea Frye speaks about difficulties introduced when she lost child care benefits from the Indiana Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) for her child, Shawn, 4, at the ELKA Child Educational Center on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

For Brandy Hart, working two jobs is taking a toll. “I shouldn’t have to do this,” she said.

She said the children’s dad also works long hours and is lucky to get a day off.

“I do have to overwork myself. My mom is only 57, but she can’t watch them all the time. It’s hard.”

Hart’s solution is a cautionary warning to state leaders.

“I don’t plan on staying here that long,” she said, explaining she intends to leave Indiana.

If she relocates about an hour away to a neighboring state, her pay would rise a couple of dollars an hour, she said.

Hart disapproves of President Trump’s policies, which she said hurt struggling families like hers.

“How can we survive out here if everything is taken away?”

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/02/state-child-care-cuts-take-toll/