The Mississippi Department of Human Services will soon resume accepting Child Care Payment Program applications from families not in the six currently eligible populations.
As things stand, the only residents able to seek tuition assistance for daycare are those receiving or transitioning from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, children in the Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services foster care, teen parents, families with children who have special needs, deployed military families, and homeless families.
But on Friday, the state agency, through its Division of Early Childhood Care & Development, will begin accepting applications for child care relief from Mississippians not in the aforementioned categories.
According to a news release, applications will be offered in the order in which families were added to the child care payment program waitlist, beginning April 1 of this year, and following. Families on the waitlist will begin receiving email notifications with a personalized application link and a unique code to access the application portal.
Once a parent or guardian receives the application email, they have 10 calendar days to complete it. If a family does not complete the application within this timeframe, the next family on the waitlist will be contacted. Families approved through the process will receive 12 months of child care assistance, with continued services dependent on available funding in 2026. Once an application is approved, parents will choose the provider in their community that best suits their child’s needs.
“MDHS is pleased to resume serving Mississippi’s working families,” said Dr. Chad Allgood, director of the Division of Early Childhood Care & Development at MDHS. “We are committed to distributing this support fairly and efficiently to strengthen family stability and workforce participation across Mississippi.”
The waitlist will continue to be processed until current funding is spent. Once funds are obligated for child care payment program certificates, applications will pause until additional funding becomes available.
