The Illusion of Access: A Special Message from Flanner House of Indianapolis, Inc.
- Evelyn Blunt
- May 12
- 4 min read
Let’s Tell the Truth About How We Got Here
This crisis did not happen to us.
It was constructed.
In December 2024, as federal investments from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expired, Indiana made two deliberate decisions about the future of working families:
It paused new enrollment into the Child
Care Development Fund (CCDF)
It cut reimbursement rates by 30%,
rolling them back to pre-pandemic
levels
Those were not technical adjustments. They were choices. Choices that signaled clearly that access to child care for thousands of families was negotiable.
What Happens When You Pull the Floor Out
When you cut funding to a system that is already fragile, you don’t create efficiency.
You create collapse. And that is exactly what happened across Indiana:
More than 300 child care providers closed
At least 221 closures are directly tied to these decisions
Over 10,000 child care seats disappeared
Nearly 1 in 5 providers closed classrooms just to survive
This wasn’t gradual. It was a chain reaction.
Providers stretched. Then they strained. Then they shut their doors.
And when they closed, families didn’t just lose care.
They lost stability.
They lost income.
They lost options.
The Waitlist Was Built, Not Discovered
As providers closed and enrollment paused, the outcome was predictable:
It is not. It is a record of decisions. Every name on that list represents a family that was told directly or indirectly: Not you!
And what doesn’t get counted are the families who stopped applying altogether, because after a while, people stop knocking on doors that never open.
Now Comes the $200 Million Headline
In early 2026, the state announced a $200 million investment and the release of approximately 14,000 voucher seats. On the surface, it sounds like action. It invites relief. It suggests a correction. But even after that investment, approximately 21,400 children will still be waiting. Still locked out. Still navigating a system that has already decided where they fall.
Who Gets Help and Who Gets Left
The state has identified priority groups:
Foster and kinship families
Children with special needs
Families experiencing homelessness
Child care workers
Those priorities matter. But they also draw a line. And on the other side of that line are tens of thousands of working families, many with children ages 0–5, especially toddlers who are told to keep waiting. Not because they don’t need care. Not because they aren’t working.
But because they are not deemed urgent enough.
You Can’t Rebuild What You’re Still Undermining
Here is what makes this moment untenable: The same system announcing expansion is still operating under the policies that caused the collapse.
Reimbursement rates remain reduced.
Providers are still absorbing losses.
Capacity has not been restored.
So what does it actually mean to “open” 14,000 seats in a system that has already lost over 10,000? Where, exactly, are those children supposed to go? Because a seat is not a number.
It is a teacher. A classroom. A stable environment. And those things do not reappear simply because funding has been announced.
This Was Never About What We Could Afford
There will be those who frame these decisions as fiscal responsibility.
But the numbers tell a different story. Indiana closed its fiscal year 2025 with a
$676 million surplus. The state holds approximately $2.5 billion in total reserves, about 11% of annual expenditures, a level considered more than sufficient to maintain stability and protect its AAA credit rating.
At the same time:
General revenues reached $53.8 billion, a 6.8% increase
Income tax revenue grew by 6.9%
And projections suggest reserves could approach $5 billion by 2027
Let’s be clear. This was never about whether the state had the resources. It was about whether it chose to use them.
Call It What It Is
This is not a system that failed. Failure is accidental. This is a system that made a series of decisions and is now managing the consequences of those decisions in ways that still ration access.
You don’t get to call it a transformation when you built a 30,000-child waitlist and then announce funding that still leaves the majority of those children behind.
Opening 14,000 seats after eliminating more than 10,000 is not expansion. It is a partial replacement. And doing so while maintaining reduced reimbursement rates is not recovery. It is a continued strain.
What This Looks Like on the Ground
At Flanner House, our Child Development Center is living this reality every day.
We are supporting families navigating instability we did not create. We are holding the line on quality in a system that is making that harder to sustain. And we are absorbing the impact of a 30% reduction in funding while being asked to expand access.
This is not a gap. This is pressure by design.
What We Refuse to Accept
We refuse to normalize this. We refuse to accept that working families should have to compete for something as fundamental as child care. We refuse to accept that early childhood education is optional infrastructure. And we refuse to accept a system that determines access based on who is deemed urgent enough. Every child is urgent. Every family is worthy.
To Those Who Stand With Us
To our donors and partners: This is why your support matters. Because while systems ration access, we create it. While policy debates eligibility, we stand in the gap. I’ve had parents sit across from me in my office, employed, doing everything right, asking how they are supposed to keep their job when they can’t access care. Not because they don’t qualify.
Not because they didn’t apply. Because the system was closed to them. Your investment allows us to hold the line for families who should never have been pushed to the margins in the first place.
And To Those Making These Decisions
If we are serious about solving this:
Restore reimbursement rates to sustainable levels
Rebuild provider capacity, not just voucher counts
Eliminate the waitlist entirely
Re-engage the families who were pushed out of the system
Because progress is not what you announce. It is what families actually experience. And right now, tens of thousands of them are still waiting.
Submitted by:
Dr. Brandon D. Cosby, Chief Executive Officer,
Flanner House of Indianapolis, Inc.