Current Virginia status
Virginia offers a statewide Child Care Subsidy Program for eligible families, a nine-region Ready Regions early-childhood coordination network, and VQB5 quality information; employers considering child-care assistance may also review the federal Section 45F credit, but eligibility, qualified expenses, caps, and filing requirements are conditional and should be confirmed with the IRS and Virginia agencies. No Virginia Tri-Share pilot or state employer child-care credit should be advertised as active without an enacted law and current administering-agency guidance.
Verified programs and resources
Virginia Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP)
current state assistance for eligible Virginia-resident families; approval, qualifying activity, documentation, locality income limits, participating provider, and available slots/waitlists apply.
Ready Regions
current statewide nine-region early-childhood coordination network administered/overseen by VECF;
VQB5
Virginia's quality measurement and improvement system for publicly funded birth-to-five classrooms; publicly funded programs participate annually and non-publicly funded programs may participate.
Federal Section 45F
for qualifying employer child-care facility, contracted care, or resource/referral expenditures.
Federal Section 45F
For qualifying 2026 expenditures, the IRS describes a 40% credit for qualified child-care expenditures, or 50% for an eligible small business, plus 10% for qualified resource-and-referral expenditures. Statutory caps, facility, licensing, employee-access, nondiscrimination, tax-liability and no-double-benefit rules apply.
Frequently asked questions
Virginia offers a statewide Child Care Subsidy Program for eligible families, a nine-region Ready Regions early-childhood coordination network, and VQB5 quality information; employers considering child-care assistance may also review the federal Section 45F credit, but eligibility, qualified expenses, caps, and filing requirements are conditional and should be confirmed with the IRS and Virginia agencies.
Section 45F is not automatic. The IRS says a taxpayer may be eligible only when it pays or incurs qualified child-care or resource-and-referral expenditures and meets the applicable facility, contract, licensing, employee-access, nondiscrimination, and other statutory requirements. Use Form 8882 to claim the credit and consult a tax professional for the employer’s actual arrangement.
State family-assistance and employer-incentive programs have their own enrollment, funding, provider, income, activity, tax, and documentation rules. Check the official agency links on this page before relying on a benefit or availability.
Official sources
Last Updated: September 27, 2026