State officials announced a new website Thursday with the goal of making it easier for Iowans to find child care.
Iowans can now visit Iowa Child Care Connect to search for open child care slots near their home or on their route to work. The search can be filtered by location, type of child care, quality ratings and more. The website does not include prices.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said the website will "fundamentally change how Iowa’s working parents find child care.”
"We believe Iowa is the first state in the nation to integrate and display near real-time child care data from multiple sources in this way, while also improving our child care system statewide,” she said at a news conference Thursday.
The website includes about 3,500 child care providers across the state. Reynolds said it was made possible by the state’s implementation of a shared digital service platform for child care providers that helps automate functions like enrollment and payroll.
State officials said the website cost $5.2 million to build and was paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. It will take an estimated $500,000 per year to maintain.
Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Director Kelly Garcia said she struggled to find child care for her own kids, and she said the website will be an important tool for parents. She said it will also help inform future child care policies and investments.
"This data will help give all levels of government and other decision makers areas where they can really invest in their communities, where they can expand and grow because they’re experiencing high volume or shortage,” Garcia said. "It will be targeted. The power of this data is incredibly valuable to all involved.”
Since the pandemic, Iowa has invested $545 million in child care, creating 24,270 new child care slots across our state.Gov. Kim Reynolds
Reynolds said the number one recommendation of her Economic Recovery Advisory Board during the COVID-19 pandemic was to empower workforce by addressing the shortage of available and affordable child care. That led her to appoint a Child Care Task Force in 2021.
She said creating the new child care search website completes one of the task force’s final recommendations.
"I’m proud to say that nearly all of their recommendations have been successfully implemented,” Reynolds said. “Since the pandemic, Iowa has invested $545 million in child care, creating 24,270 new child care slots across our state.”
That funding was provided to Iowa by the federal government in response to the pandemic — first by the Trump administration, and then by the Biden administration.
Reynolds highlighted other child care initiatives and changes the state has led over the past few years, which include:
- Putting funding into child care workforce recruitment and retention
- Raising the income limit to qualify for child care assistance
- Starting a pilot program to give child care workers child care assistance
- Loosening staffing rules and expanding teacher-child ratios at daycare centers
- Providing grants for communities to expand child care options
"We’ve made great strides, but we still have a lot of work left to do, and we know that,” Reynolds said. “So, we’re not going to pause or rest. We’re going to continue to really identify where the [child care] deserts are at, look at opportunities to continue to build that out.”
Reynolds was asked how her actions on child care would make it more affordable for Iowans. She said the state is continuing to work through balancing the cost of daycare and the cost of providing it.
"That is the issue that we continue to struggle with, and we’re trying to approach it from a lot of different perspectives, a lot of different programs,” Reynolds said. "But we’re continuing to look at that and see what’s available.”
She said the high cost of food and housing is part of the problem, and she said that is a result of spending decisions made in Washington, D.C.
