Child Care Business Expansion Grant Program

The Child Care Business Expansion Grant Program is offered by the Women's Business Development Council with financial support from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood. The program provides cash grants of up to $25,000 to qualified Connecticut child care businesses that are preparing to expand. It is intended to help licensed child care businesses grow their operations, create additional child care slots, and improve business growth and profitability. Eligible expansion activities include increasing licensed capacity or meaningfully increasing enrollment at an existing location by at least three full-time equivalent slots, opening a new location, moving from a family home to a group home, or moving from a group home to a center. Awards are competitive, and the funder states that it will not be able to fund every strong application. Grant funds must support a clearly defined expansion project that can create new child care slots capable of being filled within a few months. Examples of eligible costs include construction or renovation costs for existing or new space needed to create classrooms or serve additional children; furniture, fixtures, and equipment for new classrooms; educational supplies needed to serve a new age group or additional children; and supplies needed to accommodate children during a night shift. Applicants moving to a new location may request a small portion of the grant for first-month operating expenses such as rent and utilities when the need is supported by financial projections. Applicants hiring staff to serve the additional children created by the project may include up to $2,000 in salary for an employee other than the owner. Funds cannot be used for real estate purchases, owner salary or draw, projects fully covered by insurance, wish-list upgrades not required for expansion, or renovations to a leased building with less than three years remaining on the lease. Certain relocation projects and projects at locations that are not close to licensure are also ineligible. Applicants must operate full time as a Connecticut Office of Early Childhood licensed family home, group home, or center with enrolled children and must have been in business for at least two years. They must generally have at least 75 percent of licensed capacity currently enrolled, including school-age children, or 75 percent of adjusted licensed capacity based on the business model. Applicants must be in good standing with the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services or be on a payment plan for taxes owed. They must have been profitable in at least one of the past three years, or have broken even if operating as a nonprofit, maintain or establish a business banking relationship before award, use a formal digital bookkeeping or financial system, demonstrate financial need, and have less than $2,500,000 in sales or revenue during the preceding 12 months. Applicants expanding to a new location must be close to becoming OEC licensed and have the location approved by the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Family home applicants must provide documentation showing that they have initiated or completed the required Large Family Home licensing endorsement process. Ineligible applicants include businesses that are not actively licensed by the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood as a family home, group home, or center; part-time licensed child care businesses; businesses operated by municipalities; businesses without children currently enrolled; and child care businesses outside Connecticut. Businesses awarded a WBDC Start-up Grant, Emergency Facilities Grant, or Expansion Grant within the preceding six months for the same license number are also ineligible, although this restriction does not apply to recipients of the OEC-WBDC Program Operations Grant. OEC-LISC grantees from 2024 to the current period are identified as ineligible, while the eligibility section also directs OEC-LISC grantees to contact the program because eligibility may be assessed individually. If qualified applications exceed available funding, priority is given to programs serving infants and toddlers, receiving Care4Kids, holding specified accreditation or Head Start approval, receiving state or federal funding, operating in identified underserved communities, operating full time as for-profit programs, or actively receiving WBDC technical assistance beyond grants. Applicants must create or update a profile in WBDC's eCenter before beginning the application. The application contains Profile, Contact, and Eligibility information; Section A, Background about Your Business; Section B, Use of Grant Funds; Section C, Narrative of Your Business; Section D, Supporting Documents for Uploading; and Section E, Compliance and Consent. Supporting materials described by WBDC include a Proposed Use of Funds Tracker showing proposed expenditures, contractors or vendors, and costs; historical financial information; three-year financial projections; and a Connecticut Department of Revenue Services status letter. Family home applicants have additional licensing documentation requirements when applicable. WBDC provides information sessions, application walk-throughs, financial statement and projection assistance, grant preparation sessions, and free one-to-one advising, although receiving assistance from an advisor does not indicate that an award will be made. Applications are evaluated by an external panel that includes community partners with business and child care expertise. WBDC states that strong applications should provide a thoughtful and complete picture of the business and its path to growth, an exceptionally clear use of funds tied to growth, detailed historical financial information, robust financial projections reflecting seasonality, evidence of long-term growth potential, new slot and job creation potential, return on investment, meaningful business impact, and unmet financial need. The Impact of the Grant narrative should identify anticipated new slots and jobs, expected effects on revenue and profit, and applicable waitlist information, and it should align with the financial projections. Applicants should be able to implement their proposed projects within a few months after receiving an award. The stated application window is August 3 through August 31 at 11:59 PM. Based on the current analysis date of August 13, 2026, the application is within its stated submission window. The source also states that future grant rounds are expected, with the next round anticipated in Winter 2026. Questions about the application process may be directed to childcaregrants@ctwbdc.org. Applicants who are ineligible or need alternative business funding may contact WBDC at 203-353-1750 x129 for English assistance or 203-353-1750 x166 for Spanish assistance, or use childcarebusiness@ctwbdc.org. WBDC encourages applicants to begin early and use its preparation and advising resources as needed.

Start early; present a thoughtful and complete picture of the business and path to growth; make the use of funds exceptionally clear and directly linked to growth; provide thorough historical financials and robust projections that reflect seasonality; quantify new child care slots and jobs; align financial projections with the Impact of the Grant narrative; demonstrate return on investment and unmet financial need; use WBDC information sessions, prep sessions, and advising resources when helpful.