Court Restores Daycare's Federal Food Program Eligibility

Indiana's highest court sided with a church-based Indianapolis daycare that the state had tried to remove from a federal child nutrition program.

Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Child Care

Court Restores Daycare's Federal Food Program Eligibility

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The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the Indiana Department of Education improperly terminated Mt. Zion's Loving Day Care Ministry from the Child and Adult Care Food Program, reinstating its eligibility. The decision came in a split ruling on October 26, 2026, reversing a lower-court decision.

Why it matters

The ruling restores federal meal support for a daycare serving more than 100 infants and children, most of them African American, and clarifies how the state must weigh corrective-action efforts before terminating a provider. It also shows how recordkeeping failures tied to a food distributor can escalate into program removal.

Mt. Zion's Loving Day Care Ministry has participated in the Child and Adult Care Food Program since 1999 and serves four meals daily to more than 100 infants and children. The state had proposed a seven-year program disqualification for the daycare and three administrators, and the extraction does not say whether that proposal remains in effect.

The players

Indiana Supreme Court

The state's highest court, which issued the split decision reinstating the daycare's eligibility in the food program.

Indiana Department of Education

The state agency that administers the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program and proposed terminating Mt. Zion's participation.

The details

The state's termination followed a 2022 review that cited missing nutrition labels, inadequate food quantities and insufficient milk purchases, after earlier reviews in 2015 and 2018. Mt. Zion blamed COVID-19-related problems with its food distributor, Sysco, and said it hired a food-program specialist and meal-planning software while pursuing missing labels.

2015: The state conducted an administrative review of the daycare and identified deficiencies.
2018: A second administrative review identified further meal-portion and nutrition violations.
October 2022: A review identified labeling, nutrition and milk-purchase violations.
Early 2023: The state accepted Mt. Zion's revised corrective-action plan.
October 26, 2026: The Indiana Supreme Court issued its split decision favoring Mt. Zion.

Legal Context

The case turns on how Indiana applies the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program's corrective-action requirements to a long-participating provider. The decision reviews whether the state gave adequate weight to fixes the daycare made after earlier violations.

Parents using Mt. Zion's daycare can continue to receive meals subsidized through the federal food program without interruption. Other licensed child-care providers in Indiana face clearer expectations that corrective-action plans will be weighed before termination.

The takeaway

Child-care providers facing program removal should document corrective steps promptly, since courts may weigh those efforts against the state's termination decision.