December 1, 2025
By: ECECD staff in collaboration with Shelly Masur, Vice President of ECE Advisory and State Policy at the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF).
Contact: PIO-ECECD@ececd.nm.gov
New Mexico is leading the nation with a bold promise: to make universal, no-cost child care available for any family—regardless of income. Behind this historic achievement are years of planning, community partnership, and data-driven approaches to transforming access to child care.
To prepare for Universal Child Care, the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) commissioned a statewide study—a gap analysis—to gain a clear understanding of child care supply, demand, and family needs across New Mexico. The goal was simple: build a world-class child care system shaped by real data and real voices.
ECECD selected the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF)—a national leader in early childhood facilities and financing—to conduct the analysis, working alongside Growing Up New Mexico and research partner OpenFields. Together, the team produced three complementary reports, now available as interactive story maps, that will guide the state as it implements Universal Child Care.
Why Data Matters
Universal Child Care is more than a policy milestone—it completes the promise made by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to center the needs and priorities of New Mexican families and to grow a high-quality cradle-to-career system that sets our state on a trajectory of success. By removing income limits and continuing to waive family copayments, the state is making high-quality child care available, regardless of income or ZIP code.
ECECD’s approach has long centered two core principles: listening to families and providers, and grounding decisions in transparent, reliable data. These reports demonstrate both at work.
About the Reports — and What They Reveal
Report #1: Child Care Access in New Mexico
A statewide look at supply and demand
New Mexico now has its most complete picture of child care availability thanks to this statewide look at supply and demand. Key findings include:
- Child care supply has remained stable since 2017, despite temporary declines during the pandemic.
- Larger centers have grown, while licensed family child care homes have seen declines.
- Despite a small decline in demand over the last decade, the state still needs more than 15,700 additional child care spaces.
- The largest gap is for infants and toddlers, who account for more than 12,000 of the needed spaces.
This report helps ECECD focus its investments where families need them most.
Report #2: Building on Success: Provider Insights
What child care programs say they need to thrive
Through engagement with providers statewide, ECECD and its partners identified several opportunities for continued improvement:
- Local regulatory challenges can make expanding from home-based care to larger programs difficult.
- Recruiting and retaining qualified staff remains a statewide concern, even with ECECD’s efforts to increase compensation.
- The cost of facility expansion is a key barrier for many providers.
- Providers want more support to develop high-quality outdoor learning and play environments.
These insights reinforce ECECD’s work to strengthen the workforce, improve facilities, and streamline supports for providers.
Report #3: Parent Voices: What Families Need Most
Understanding how families experience child care
Families across New Mexico shared what matters most when choosing child care:
- Predictable and affordable costs, including sliding-scale options (which universal child care now addresses).
- Classrooms with sufficient, stable staffing and ratios.
- Safe environments, especially for children with developmental delays and disabilities.
- Access to quality outdoor play spaces.
These perspectives continue to shape ECECD’s efforts to build a system that reflects family needs and priorities.
A Model for the Nation
As New Mexico enters this new era, the findings from these reports—combined with ECECD’s leadership, commitment to accountability and transparency, and strong partnerships with the provider community—position the state to deliver on its vision of Universal Child Care for all families.
This work is already demonstrating what’s possible when states invest deeply in young children and the early childhood workforce. With its focus on data, equity, and community voice, New Mexico is offering a model that can inspire national policy and future investments across the country.
This is the first post in a two-part series co-published with LIIF to showcase ECECD’s supply and demand analysis. Check back soon for a post about supply building efforts.