In 2022, Best Starts for Kids, a King County voter approved initiative, launched the new Best Starts for Kids Child Care Subsidy Program, dedicating more than $160 million over six years to ease the cost of care for King County families ineligible for existing subsidy programs.

The Best Starts Subsidy has served over 2000 children since it began in 2022 and has already resulted in positive impacts for families. A survey of families receiving the Best Starts subsidy showed families had more freedom to pursue career goals or advancements; saw reduced stress and improved quality of life; and had increased ability to pay for basic needs, including food, healthcare, child care, formula, diapers, and transportation.

The program is funded by King County and administered by BrightSpark Early Learning Services. Family access and support services are provided by BrightSpark, White Center Community Development Association and Voices of Tomorrow.

To be eligible for the subsidy, families must meet the following criteria:

It depends on your family. The amount of subsidy for each child is based upon:

For some children, attending some programs, this subsidy may cover the full tuition costs associated with that child’s enrollment. In other cases, the Best Starts Subsidy will not cover the full cost of care. Families and providers work together to determine tuition amounts which must be covered by the family. Providers are permitted to require enrolled families to cover all costs not covered by the Best Starts Subsidy.

The average subsidy amount is about $1,200 per month. Some subsidy amounts are much smaller, especially for school-age children, and some monthly subsidy amounts are larger. This vary depending on the factors listed above.

If you are selected to complete the full application for subsidy (that requires income and residency verification), you will receive an invitation via email and/or text message. We anticipate beginning to extend some invitations later this year. The program is unable to give families any more specific indication of when they may be contacted, as selection from the waitlist is by lottery and is not first-come, first-served.

All families who are interested in the Best Starts Subsidy must complete this updated waitlist form. Invitations to apply for enrollment will be selected from this updated waitlist.

An email communication with this information was sent in early March 2025, to families who were on the 2023 waiting list, as received by BrightSpark. Selection from the waitlist will be by lottery and is not first-come, first-served, so the date you join the waitlist will not matter.

For children aged 13-19 with a disability, the family must: 

Best Starts for Kids is a community-driven levy to support every baby born and child raised in King County to reach adulthood happy, healthy, safe, and thriving. Voters overwhelmingly supported this initiative twice, first in 2015 and again in 2021, with more than 62 percent of the vote, when the initiative introduced additional funding for child care and capital projects.

Through investing in community supports from prenatal development to adulthood, Best Starts catalyzes strong starts in early childhood and sustains those gains as kids progress to adulthood, launching King County’s kids on a path of lifelong health and well-being.

Best Starts worked with 345 partners and reached 490,000 people in the first levy. Since the beginning of the second levy in 2022, Best Starts has served 260,789 people.