As China enters an era of low fertility rates, childcare services have become a crucial measure for alleviating the burden of family child-rearing and safeguarding women’s equal employment rights. The potential demand for childcare services is constrained by factors such as the number of institutions, supply of childcare slots, price levels, and service quality. A policy-driven regulatory framework struggles to provide stable, systematic, and binding institutional guarantees, making it imperative to accelerate the legislative process for a dedicated Childcare Services Law. While central policies advocate for the “republicization” of childcare services, and local legislatures have actively explored related regulations, their efforts are limited by legislative philosophies and jurisdictional constraints, leading to significant deficiencies in legislative coverage, hierarchy, and content coherence. Enacting specialized legislation at the national level has thus become an inevitable choice for the legal governance of childcare services. Such legislation must address key issues including the lack of a clear value orientation, inadequate coordination between childcare and early childhood education systems, and the incomplete regulatory framework surrounding the registration-based filing system and professional qualification standards. The future law should establish an infant and child rights-based approach, promote the integrated development of childcare and early childhood education, and refine the regulatory framework by implementing licensing and professional qualification systems. This would provide the necessary legal safeguards for the high-quality development of childcare services in China.