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Gov. Janet Mills highlights child care investments and signs law capping costs
Summary
Governor Janet Mills said her administration has invested more than $145 million in state and federal funds to expand child care, and she signed legislation capping family out-of-pocket costs as part of broader measures to make child care more affordable and expand access across Maine.
Governor Janet Mills said her administration has invested heavily to expand child care and that she signed legislation to cap the amount families pay out of pocket for child care.
"My administration has invested more than $145,000,000 in state and federal funding to expand child care and early childhood education throughout Maine," Mills said in a short recorded message, linking those investments to stronger options for working parents and better outcomes for children.
Mills said the administration has expanded Pre-K programs statewide and reached the highest Pre-K enrollment ever in the 2025–26 school year. She said the state has supported renovation, expansion and new construction of child care facilities that together have created more than 6,100 additional child care slots, and that pay increases have reached nearly 8,000 child care staff. "We've also expanded subsidies to make child care more affordable for families," she said, adding that more than 3,000 children currently receive a subsidy paid directly to their child care provider and that out-of-pocket costs are now capped based on family income.
Speaking about a recent visit to a child care center in Biddeford, Mills said she signed legislation "to put those caps on the cost of child care and other important reforms into state law and to keep child care affordable and accessible for Maine families." She thanked Senate President Maddie Daughtry and Senator Henry Ingersoll for their roles in moving the measures into law.
Mills placed the child care changes in the context of broader affordability challenges, saying rising costs for health care, housing and utilities are squeezing Maine families. "There's a lot more to do," she said, "but we're gonna continue to do what we can, where we can to provide some relief to the people of Maine."
The message was a brief, statewide statement announcing the signing and highlighting recent investments; Mills did not provide implementation timelines or precise regulatory details in the remarks.
