> New Mexico has expanded access to no-cost child care to families with incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, reducing financial strain on tens of thousands of families.

This is confusing me, is this the same as "at or below the federal poverty level" or is there something I'm missing with that 400%? Do you have to be 400% below the federal poverty level to qualify?

The federal poverty level is unrealistically low ($20k for two people, which would be difficult to make rent and eat three meals on even in LCOL areas), so they set their own “poverty line” to 4x the federal one.

It means that the current system provides free child care if your household income is less that 4x the federal poverty level. The new scheme doesn't restrict by income.

The federal poverty level is defined by the feds.

Many programs use that, or variations on like (like this 400%) - to index. So if the poverty line for a family of four is 32,150$ - then this program is available to your family of four until you make over 128,600$.

Others will say "below 200% FPL OR qualifying condition" (think newborn, pregnant, etc). So some programs are open to baseball player families, as long as the qualifying condition is there.

The federal poverty level is very low so typically means testing programs add multipliers that are appropriate for the incomes in their area.

I would assume take the poverty line and multiply by 4? if you earn less than that you get this program

at or below 400% of the poverty level. so if the povertly level is 1k/month for a family of 4, anyone making 4k or less with the same size of family is included