Nicolai Haugsted
Nebraska families face weeks of uncertainty as tougher verification rules consume state resources.
For working parents, childcare can be the piece that keeps everything else standing.
Lose it, even temporarily, and the morning commute can quickly become the least complicated part of the day.
Families in Nebraska are now reporting longer waits and frustrating communication problems while trying to secure or renew childcare subsidies. State officials acknowledge processing times have temporarily increased, pointing partly to additional verification work stemming from federal benefit rules enacted under President Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending law.
For Omaha father Josh Wigginton, the bureaucratic squeeze nearly disrupted a routine his family had relied on for years.
“We’ve never had this problem before,” Wigginton told the Nebraska Examiner.
Two months of waiting and a deadline approaching
Wigginton and his wife, Amanda, both work.
Their 7-year-old daughter Nayeli attends a childcare center that also transports her to and from school. A state subsidy helps cover the cost under an arrangement connected to the family’s adoption of Nayeli, who had previously been their foster child.
Problems began when the annual reauthorization failed to arrive as expected.
Wigginton said the couple had started the process more than two months earlier. Attempts to find out what was happening produced little reassurance.
“An email to our caseworker came back undeliverable. I’ve been calling. I get hung up on. … I’m nervous,” he said.
Without approval, the family faced an unpleasant menu of options: pay the childcare bill themselves, have one parent miss work or ask a grandparent to step in.
Their case was eventually resolved after the Nebraska Examiner contacted the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Wigginton then learned that his previous caseworker no longer worked for the state and that another employee would handle the family’s case.
“It’s a big pressure off of me,” he said.
“I feel bad for people who don’t know the process.”
Nebraska says federal rules are consuming staff time
Wigginton’s experience is not isolated, according to childcare providers and advocates.
Nebraska DHHS says subsidy applications for eligible families may take as long as six weeks. Providers and advocates told the Nebraska Examiner that recent waits have sometimes reached 45 days, two months or longer.
State spokesman Jeff Powell acknowledged a temporary increase in processing times across programs, including childcare assistance.
Part of the explanation reaches back to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025.
The law introduced changes affecting programs including SNAP, while Nebraska subsequently strengthened verification requirements as the state seeks to keep its SNAP payment error rate below the federal threshold of 6 percent. Nebraska’s rate stands at 5.9 percent.
States exceeding the threshold beginning in fiscal 2028 can be required to shoulder part of their SNAP benefit costs. Nebraska officials say maintaining accuracy is therefore financially important for taxpayers.
More verification also means more work.
“The move away from the honor system to verification for certain eligibility criteria is requiring more staff time to process,” Powell told the Nebraska Examiner.
Some resources previously dedicated to childcare subsidy applications have consequently been shifted toward the additional SNAP workload, according to the state.
Parents are not the only ones waiting
Childcare operators say the slowdown leaves them in an uncomfortable position too.
Shannon Burks, who owns Creative Corner Child Care in Grand Island, said the change has been noticeable.
“All of a sudden everything just kind of got backlogged,” Burks said.
“I have some very frustrated parents.”
First Five Nebraska, an organization focused on early childhood policy, has heard similar complaints from providers around the state.
Staff cited facilities where roughly one-third of families were waiting for subsidy approval at the same time.
Long waits matter because childcare providers still have employees, buildings and other bills to pay regardless of how quickly the government processes an application.
Families without enough money to cover the full cost themselves can meanwhile face a more fundamental question: whether going to work remains financially possible.
One phone call lasted nearly four hours
Tasha McNeil, director of Brilliant Brains Learning Center in Omaha, recently helped an employee navigate the subsidy process for the worker’s own family.
The phone call with the state lasted three hours and 41 minutes, McNeil said.
Approval eventually came, although additional documentation was required first.
“They’re probably short-staffed,” McNeil said.
“But a lot of us are. That doesn’t stop us from having to do what we have to do.”
Nebraska officials say additional help is coming.
Powell said DHHS is “aggressively recruiting and hiring additional staff” to reduce workloads and speed up processing, despite a broader hiring freeze requested by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen as Nebraska deals with a budget deficit.
State officials have emphasized that tighter verification is intended to prevent fraud, protect public money and ensure assistance reaches eligible recipients.
Nebraska has already implemented additional SNAP verification requirements covering matters including household composition, citizenship, work exemptions, housing costs and utility expenses.
