Across the country, policymakers are debating how to modernize child care regulations. For example, in Indiana the state is proposing relaxing of some regulations including lessening of qualifications for child care center directors and caregivers.
Like Indiana, states are discussing how to reduce administrative burdens, streamline licensing requirements, and give providers more flexibility to meet the growing demand for child care. These goals are understandable. Families need access to affordable, high-quality care, and providers need regulations that are practical and effective.
But a critical principle should guide any effort to reduce or modernize regulations: regulatory flexibility must be accompanied by significant investments in the education, training, compensation, and qualifications of the child care workforce. What concerns me, is that we are not seeing additional investments in the workforce in Indiana and without those children may suffer.
The quality of child care ultimately depends on the people caring for children. Regulations exist because young children are vulnerable. Child care settings present complex challenges involving health, safety, learning, development, and behavior. When policymakers propose reducing regulations, they are often assuming that providers and teachers will use professional judgment to make sound decisions in situations where rules once provided guidance.
That assumption is reasonable only if the workforce possesses the knowledge, skills, and preparation necessary to effectively exercise that judgment.
This is true in every profession. We trust physicians, nurses, engineers, pilots, and teachers with greater discretion because they have extensive education, training, and professional standards. The same principle should apply to early childhood educators. A highly skilled workforce can responsibly operate with greater flexibility because they have the professional judgment to navigate complex situations while still protecting children and promoting healthy development.
The opposite is also true. Reducing regulations without investing in workforce quality poses greater risks to children. When educational requirements, professional development opportunities, compensation, and career pathways remain weak, fewer caregivers have access to the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions. In that environment, regulations serve as an essential safeguard for children’s health, safety, and well-being.
Unfortunately, today’s child care workforce is being asked to shoulder enormous responsibility while their compensation and professional supports lag far behind comparable professions. Child care workers earn among the lowest wages in the American economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for child care workers was $15.41 per hour in 2024, well below the median wage for all occupations, and lower than minimum wage in a handful of states.
The broader early childhood education workforce faces even greater challenges. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment found that early educators earn a median wage lower than 97 percent of all occupations. Their wages fail to provide a living wage in any state, and 43 percent of early educator families rely on public assistance programs such as Medicaid or food assistance to make ends meet. Many also lack paid leave, health insurance, and retirement benefits.
Meanwhile child care professionals are being asked to do more than ever before. They support language development, foster social-emotional growth, identify developmental concerns, manage increasingly complex behavioral challenges, create safe learning environments, and partner with families facing a wide range of stresses. These responsibilities require expertise, judgment, and specialized knowledge.
Not surprisingly, these conditions contribute to persistent workforce instability. According to a 2024 analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, child care worker turnover is approximately 65 percent higher than turnover in the median occupation nationwide. Many educators leave not because they lack commitment to children, but because they cannot afford to remain in the profession. Roughly half of those leaving child care jobs leave the labor force entirely.
This instability has consequences for children. Strong early learning environments depend on stable relationships between children and caregivers. High turnover disrupts attachment, undermines program quality, increases recruitment and training costs, and makes it more difficult for programs to implement consistent educational practices.
What Child Care Regulation Reform Requires
This is where the conversation about regulation often goes wrong. Not every rule adds value.
Some regulations may be outdated, unnecessarily prescriptive, or impose costs that do little to improve outcomes for children. But reducing regulations only works when the workforce has the capacity to exercise professional judgment in place of prescriptive rules.
Simply eliminating rules does not create quality. It merely shifts responsibility from the regulatory system to the workforce. If the workforce has not been strengthened, children may be exposed to greater risks and more inconsistent care.
Research shows that higher pay and stronger professional support help stabilize the workforce. Higher wages are associated with lower turnover rates, and jurisdictions that have invested in wage enhancements for early educators have seen measurable improvements in staff retention.
Example: North Carolina’s Child Care WAGE$ Program
Since 1998, North Carolina has run the Child Care WAGE$ Program, which pays low-wage teachers, directors, and family child care providers a salary supplement every six months, on the condition that they stay at the same program. Statewide, the child care teacher and assistant teacher turnover rate climbed from 21 percent in 2019 to 38 percent in 2023. However, among educators receiving WAGE$ supplements in 2025, the turnover rate was 13 percent, and in counties with higher average supplements, it was as low as 8 percent.
Source: Early Years (formerly Child Care Services Association), 2025
Pair Regulatory Reform With Workforce Investments
A modern child care system should pursue two goals simultaneously.
When a workforce is highly qualified, regulations can evolve to allow greater professional discretion. When workforce qualifications remain stagnant, reducing regulations may undermine the very protections that children depend upon.
The conversation about modernizing child care should not be framed as a choice between regulation and flexibility. The real question is whether we are willing to build a professional workforce capable of exercising greater responsibility. Modernization succeeds when flexibility is paired with expertise. Without that investment, deregulation risks weakening the health, safety, and developmental foundations that quality child care is meant to provide.
Children deserve both a modern regulatory framework and a highly skilled workforce. Policymakers should pursue both together, not one at the expense of the other.