Feb 18, 2026

RELEASE: New Mexico House approves first-in-the-nation universal child care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Julia Sclafani, Public Relations Specialist Email: ECECD-PIO@ececd.nm.gov Mobile: (505) 699-5937

Visit the Early Childhood Education and Care Department Newsroom here .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 18, 2026

CONTACT

Julia Sclafani

Public Relations Specialist

Email: ECECD-PIO@ececd.nm.gov

Mobile: (505) 699-5937

1120 Paseo De Peralta

Santa Fe, NM 87501

nmececd.org

New Mexico House approves first-in-the-nation universal child care

SB 241 and SB 96 clear House, SB 241 returns to Senate for concurrence

SANTA FE — The New Mexico House of Representatives voted late Tuesday to cement the state’s first-in-the-nation no-cost universal child care program into law.

The House approved Senate Bill 241 on a 37-19 vote and Senate Bill 96 on a 41-23 vote. SB 241 now goes back to the Senate for concurrence before heading to the governor’s desk.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the House vote represented widespread support for the child care initiative across New Mexico. Lujan Grisham announced her initiative to create the nation’s first universal, no-cost child care program in September after years of laying incremental groundwork – expanding eligibility, building supply, strengthening the early childhood workforce and creating the funding structure that makes the program possible.

“I want to thank the members of the Legislature — in both chambers — for their partnership and their resolve in approving this historic opportunity for New Mexico’s children, families and economy,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “When we invest in the earliest years of a child's life, we are making the single highest-return investment a state government can make — in brain development, in school readiness, in lifetime earnings and in the economic security of every household we serve.

New Mexico is proving that a state can be both fiscally responsible and unapologetically pro-family,” the governor added. “I look forward to signing universal child care and its funding into law at the earliest opportunity.”

“Universal child care is a promise to New Mexico families that affordable, reliable child care is a priority — today and for future generations,” said Early Childhood Education and Care Department Sec. Elizabeth Groginsky . “By protecting Universal Child Care in statute and clearing barriers that hold back the child care sector, these bills help New Mexico keep building a system that works for families, providers, educators and employers.”

SB 241, the Child Care Assistance Program Act, sponsored by Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), would make New Mexico’s universal child care program permanent by placing the child care assistance program in state law and guaranteeing funds for the program for years to come. This bill also establishes clear rules for how the program is run, including stronger transparency and reporting requirements, direction to use a cost estimation model to help inform reimbursement rates defined parameters related to copayments and waitlists.

Opening a child care center in New Mexico can mean navigating a patchwork of local zoning rules that vary city to city and county to county. SB 96, the Regulated Child Care Zoning Requirements Act, sponsored by Sen. Heather Berghmans (D-Bernalillo), would establish consistent statewide rules for where regulated providers can provide care for children — automatically allowing regulated child care homes in residential areas and clarifying where child care centers can operate. The bill would spur growth in local child care supply by reducing delays and uncertainty for providers who want to open or expand.

The legislation builds on New Mexico’s universal child care expansion that took effect Nov. 1, when the state removed income limits for eligibility for child care assistance and set a goal to grow the supply of child care statewide. Since the expansion, more than 13,000 new children have been enrolled in the child care assistance program from families across income levels.

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Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham launched the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) in 2020, making New Mexico among the first states to consolidate all early childhood programs and services under a single cabinet-level agency. Under this administration, ECECD has led the nation by expanding access to free New Mexico PreK, overseeing the largest investment in early childhood infrastructure in state history, and implementing cost-free child care for a majority of New Mexico families. Learn more about how ECECD supports children, families, and the early childhood professionals that serve our communities at nmececd.org, or find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram as @NewMexicoECECD.

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