At the Johnson County Board of Supervisors work session on Wednesday, county officials discussed its growing child care services through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA funds. Staff reported funding child care initiatives, assisting low-income families the most.
Johnson County has received a total of $29.3 million in ARPA funds. ARPA was signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2021. This funding is directly given to cities and towns for local relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. The county has since used the funds for a variety of projects, including housing, business development, and child care, among others.
Laurie Nash, the youth and family services manager, said at the meeting that it can be difficult for families to find child care facilities that are accessible due to cost.
Child care programs are eligible to receive up to $300 a month, an increase from the $200 reimbursement to make up the difference between the child care tuition rate and close the gap some centers were still experiencing.
With this incentive, they have also increased the age eligibility from up to 36 to 48 months old to allow for more families to access the program.
The budget for the child care assistance incentive is $400,000, and in fiscal 2024, the county spent just over $31,800. Now, at the midpoint, they’ve spent $82,000.
Nash said all the funds that have not been spent are encumbered in contracts with providers. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, ARPA funds are expected to be spent by Dec. 31, 2026. June 30 marks the end of the fiscal year, and Nash said the county plans to allow the organizations the freedom to spend the money how they choose.
“Most of them will run out [of money] before June 30 of 2026, but we wanted to give them the ability to manage their own budget,” Nash said.
This incentive has successfully increased the number of slots available to and occupied by children receiving child care assistance, and it has supported 121 children to date.
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They have also implemented infant and toddler scholarships to increase access.
This pays 80 percent of private-pay tuition for households with income over 161 percent of the federal poverty level, but who are still not able to access quality child care. For reference, 100 percent is the benchmark for income at the federal poverty line.
The county’s budget for the Infant and Toddler Scholarship Program is $750,000, and the county has obligated $228,000.
This program has successfully increased the number of children from low-income families who participate in quality early education, and 83 percent of students are still enrolled in the scholarship.
The third program ARPA is funding is the Wage Enhancement Program to increase wages by $2 for full-time child care staff to improve the recruitment and retention of quality staff, and it is budgeted for $848,313.
Any licensed child care centers that participated in this program had to first be paying their staff a minimum of $11.56 to be eligible for this enhancement.
This program has partnerships with the University of Iowa National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice, Greater Iowa City, and the Community Foundation of Johnson County.