Iowa lawmakers advanced two pieces of legislation to aid the state’s ailing child care workforce and childcare centers Wednesday.
Senate File 445 passed by the Iowa Senate in a 33-14 vote Wednesday. House File 623 is the companion bill to the Iowa Senate bill.
The bill will create a pilot program to award competitive grants. The state Department of Health and Human Services will collaborate with Early Childhood Iowa and the state Department of Education to create the $16 million child care continuum partnership grant program.
Preschool providers and child care centers would partner to provide all-day care for children, using funds to transport children and cover additional costs.
The bill is a part of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ initiative to improve child care in the state, as she introduced the legislation to launch the program and offer child care assistance to child care workers on Feb. 7.
Under the bill, community-based providers would be able to directly participate in the statewide preschool program for four-year-old children. Under current law, only school districts could directly participate with community providers operating through contracts.
SF 445 would also require the state HHS to align Early Childhood Iowa areas with the geographic boundaries of behavioral health districts. It would also provide child care assistance for child care workers.
The bill comes as a larger initiative by the state legislature to address Iowa’s child care needs. An estimated 23 percent of people in Iowa live in a child care desert, according to the Center for American Progress.
Iowa Child Care Connect, a website providing real-time information about availability and demand of child care in the state, reports that there are 41,435 Iowa children and their families in need of child care as of April 23.
Iowa Senate Democrats urge that the legislation will negatively impact child care in the state, as the plan does not allocate any new money to improve child care but rather moves funds from existing sources.
In an email in February to The Daily Iowan, the governor’s office confirmed the continuum of care grant pilot program will be funded by existing state Early Childhood Iowa funds as well as funds from the federal Child Care and Development Fund.
“We don’t have to take away from the good work that child care programs are already doing in our state to fund a new program, we need it all,” Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-Windsor Heights said. “And Iowa’s kids, Iowa’s working families deserve so much more than what is being offered here today.”
Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said the bill simply shuffles money around.
“All this body is doing with this bill, if it passes, is moving the money around. It’s a shell game we’ve already heard,” she said during debate Wednesday. “There is no new money, it’s taking money away from existing functional programs and giving it to programs that do not yet exist. It’s not providing real solutions, and I want real solutions. We should all want real solutions for our child care crisis.”
Iowa Senate Democrats also expressed concern about giving more power to Iowa DHS.
Weiner said the state’s local groups and partners have been the ones working to combat the ongoing child care crisis, and the bill will take money away from local programs and exclude licensed home child care providers from receiving grants.
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“It takes away agency from local providers who know their cities, towns, schools and kids, and sucks them up into HHS,” Weiner said. “It’s a power grab, and it’s being shoved through the legislature, House and Senate, in a matter of 24 hours. We’ve seen this movie before. It was called the AEA bill.”
Trone Garriott said she is glad to see the child care assistance for child care providers aspect of the bill. She said without the program, many child care workers wouldn’t be able to afford to continue to work as a child care provider.
“There are some additional opportunities with this program that will be beneficial, but I have opposed this policy because it takes funding and decision-making away from existing local child care programs,” she said. “This policy shifts from local programs and local decision making to put it all into the hands of an ever-expanding Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education.”
Iowa. Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said there are a number of good things in the bill, including the continuation of child care assistance for child care staff.
“I was always very, very willing to partner with local community providers, but there was a little bit of additional work that was put into this,” Evans said. “If they could be their own fiscal agent, this is much better, and it’s also going to allow for more preschool opportunities in our communities.”
Evans said the bill creates consistency across the state on how funds are approved and given out.
Iowa House advances legislation to give child care centers a property tax break
The Iowa House advanced legislation to give child care centers residential rollback for property tax purposes instead of the commercial rate.
House File 991 passed nearly unanimously in the Iowa House Wednesday. The bill specifies that starting this year childcare centers will pay residential property tax rates.
Property owners must apply for the assessment limitation and the county board of supervisors must allow it.