Michiganders continue to wait for the state legislature to pass fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budgets. The Governor, Senate, and the State House have all proposed different versions of the FY26 budgets, but if they cannot reach a compromise and pass final state budgets before October 1, Michigan’s government will shut down until the budget bills are passed. A state government shutdown would cause significant interruptions to programs serving young children and their families across Michigan.
There’s still time: Contact your state lawmakers and urge them to pass a budget to avoid a government shutdown, while ensuring funding for critical programs that families with young children rely on. Inform your lawmakers about the early childhood issues that matter the most to you and why they should prioritize them in the final budget.
Below are some key budget priorities that ECIC and the Think Babies Michigan coalition partners continue to prioritize at this time.
Early Care and Education
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- Expand and strengthen the Child Development and Care (CDC) child care scholarship program. Child care providers remain underpaid statewide, while families are still unable to afford child care. Increasing CDC scholarship reimbursement rates and reforming how the scholarship is implemented – through prospective payments and contracts for providers – will improve child care access for families with young children while providing the financial stability child care businesses need.
- Protect dedicated funding for regional Great Start Collaboratives and Family Coalitions in the School Aid budget. Funding for these community-focused and family-led groups is critical to ensure local early childhood systems are developed with and for families, early childhood providers, businesses, and other community leaders. These funds strengthen services like local home visiting, parent education, literacy support programs, and community connections for families.
- Continue to expand PreK for All that’s inclusive of community-based options. Michigan’s PreK program – the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) – was built upon and relies on both school-based and community-based PreK classrooms to best support the needs of all families. As part of PreK for All expansion, maintaining funding to support GSRP start-up grants will be essential in the FY26 budget.
- Protect investments in Early Care and Education Registered Apprenticeship Programs as an important career pathway for growing and training early educators. These programs allow employers to develop their current and future workforce. Through registered apprenticeships, child care professionals obtain paid work experience, classroom instruction, mentorship, and two nationally recognized credentials.
Maternal and Child Health and Well-Being
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- Protect Medicaid in the state budget. Without action, children and families could lose coverage to critical health care services, including early childhood professionals who rely on Medicaid due to low wages. Further cuts will also destabilize hospitals and clinics—especially in rural and underserved areas—threatening jobs and communities.
- Protect investments in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC), a prevention-based intervention teaming mental health professionals with early care and education providers and families to improve adults’ ability to positively develop children’s social, emotional, and behavioral health from birth through age five.
- Sustain statewide investment in CenteringPregnancy programs, which provide group-based prenatal care for women to enhance engagement, learning, and self-confidence. CenteringPregnancy is proven to decrease the rate of preterm and low weight babies, increase breastfeeding rates, and has been shown to nearly eliminate racial disparities in preterm birth.
- Maintain statewide investment in Maternal Quality Payments to Michigan Birthing Hospitals, which strengthen quality of care provided throughout the state’s birthing hospitals. In FY25, 86% of Michigan’s birthing hospitals received these funds by participating in safety improvements, committing to provide the highest level of care patients need, and promoting risk-appropriate care from pregnancy through postpartum.
- Protect statewide investment in Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs). Codified in statute with PA 243 of 2024, the nine regional PQCs address underlying causes of poor birth outcomes and health inequities, connecting providers, families and community voices to find regional solutions.
Please make your voice heard: contact your representatives today to educate them about the need to fund these critical programs for children and families across Michigan. Find your legislators here.
Stay informed about the budget status of these programs with ECIC’s Michigan Early Childhood Budget Tracker, where we compile all early childhood budget proposals into one side-by-side resource.