Help paying for child care in Florida

It is paid for mainly with federal Child Care and Development Fund money, but Florida law sets who qualifies. The Division of Early Learning runs it through local early learning coalitions, which take applications, keep the waiting list and pay providers.

To enroll, family income must be at or below 55 percent of Florida's median income for your household size. Once enrolled, a family stays eligible on income until it passes 85 percent. Florida changed the rule in 2025. Before that the line was 150 percent of the federal poverty level, so older guides print lower figures.

Most families pay a copayment on a sliding scale set by income, family size and hours of care. When money runs short there is a waiting list, and places go in the order Florida law sets.

There is no income test. A child who lives in Florida and is 4 by September 1 can enroll that school year or the next, and stays eligible until starting kindergarten.

Most families choose one of two formats. The school-year program runs at least 540 instructional hours. The summer program runs at least 300 hours and cannot start before May 1. A specialized program serves children with disabilities who have an individual education plan from their school district.

The hours are instruction time. Care before and after them is separate, and a family that needs a full working day arranges and pays for the rest.

Head Start is funded federally and run by local programs, so its rules are the same in Florida as anywhere else. The income test is the federal poverty line, which sits far below School Readiness's line. Qualifying for one tells you little about the other.

Income is only one of four routes in. A child who is homeless, a child in foster care, and a family that receives or could receive public assistance all qualify regardless of income. Programs are required to prioritize these families.

Programs may also fill up to 35 percent of their places with families who earn more than the poverty line but less than 130 percent of it, once eligible families in their area have been served.

Unlike School Readiness and Head Start, the Child and Dependent Care Credit has no income ceiling. Earning more does not disqualify you, it only lowers the percentage you get back. That makes it the one program on this page nearly every working family paying for care can use.

You claim it against expenses you actually paid so that you, and your spouse if you file jointly, could work or look for work. The credit is capped by the amount of care expense it will count, and then by a percentage that steps down as your income rises.

For 2025 returns, the percentage starts at 35 percent for the lowest incomes and falls by one point for every $2,000 of adjusted gross income above $15,000, until it flattens at 20 percent. The IRS publishes each year's schedule in Publication 503.

Florida does not tax personal income, so there is no Florida credit to claim on top of this one.

A Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account is set up by an employer, not by a government agency. You decide during open enrollment how much of your pay to route into the account, and that money is excluded from your gross income.

The saving is your own tax rate applied to whatever you set aside, so it is worth more the higher your bracket. That makes it the natural counterpart to the tax credit, which is worth more at lower incomes.

You generally cannot claim the same dollar of expense through both an FSA and the Child and Dependent Care Credit, so it is worth comparing the two before you enroll rather than after.