Indiana parents deserve more childcare choice

The proposal would reduce some education and credential requirements for childcare center directors and lead caregivers. It would not eliminate background checks, CPR and first-aid expectations, safe-sleep rules, abuse-reporting requirements, inspections, or basic health-and-safety training. That distinction matters.

In the Archbridge Institute’s 2026 State Childcare Regulation Index, Indiana ranks 40th in childcare freedom, with first representing the least restrictive regulatory environment and 50th the most restrictive.

Economic research has linked tougher regulation with higher childcare costs. Published research has found that education mandates for lead teachers can substantially increase the cost of childcare, with especially large estimated effects for infant care. Indiana’s proposed childcare center rule would reduce some credential requirements for childcare center workers, while preserving basic health-and-safety requirements.

The economic mechanism is straightforward. When regulations make qualified center staff more expensive to hire, they also make care more expensive to provide. Providers must absorb those costs, reduce services, or pass at least some of them on to families.

According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, the annual cost for infant care in Indiana is $14,471. This is more than $4,000 more than Michigan and more than $5,000 more than Kentucky. In the same index, Michigan ranks 24th and Kentucky 14th, indicating substantially less restrictive regulatory environments than Indiana’s.

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The annual cost for infant care is also more than $4,000 higher than in-state tuition at public Indiana universities.

Of course, reducing cost doesn’t matter if child safety is compromised. Child safety should be the first priority. But safety should be measured, not asserted.

Indiana’s latest published childcare safety report, covering calendar year 2024, shows that licensed childcare centers reported 304 serious injuries, eight substantiated abuse cases, and zero fatalities. The state defines a serious injury as one requiring attention from a medical professional. Ohio and Michigan also reported zero center fatalities in their latest data, while Kentucky reported one death in Type I licensed childcare centers in 2025 and zero in 2023 and 2024.

These numbers are not perfectly comparable because states define and report injuries differently. But they do not show that Indiana’s more restrictive regulatory approach is purchasing clearly superior safety outcomes. Regulators should focus on the rules most directly connected to preventing serious harm: background checks, CPR and first aid, safe sleep, supervision, emergency planning, abuse reporting, inspections, and health-and-safety training.

College-credit requirements create barriers to entry and should therefore be retained only when their benefits justify their costs.

A college-credit or credential requirement for a lead teacher may affect professional status or some dimensions of program quality, but it is not equivalent to a background check, safe-sleep rule, staff-child ratio, or emergency medical training. If Indiana retains its core safety rules, opponents of the reform should explain how the particular credential requirements being relaxed prevent serious harm.

Ultimately, parents should have a central role in judging quality. Regulators should establish and enforce genuine safety protections, while allowing parents to weigh cost, location, schedule, educational approach, values, and the needs of their own children. Indiana policymakers have proposed rule changes that would give families more options while preserving the core safeguards most directly connected to child safety. The available evidence provides no reason to conclude that these particular changes would jeopardize child safety.

Indiana should retain the rules most directly tied to preventing harm while reconsidering requirements whose costs exceed their demonstrated safety benefits. By lowering unnecessary barriers to entering and working in childcare, the state can give providers greater flexibility and families more options without abandoning the safeguards children need.

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