(Des Moines) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has unveiled plans for a new online tool to help families find child care.
During a press conference Thursday morning, Reynolds, along with officials from the Department of Health, announced the Iowa Childcare Connect website. The announcement comes after the governor and lawmakers have attempted to address issues related to the child care shortage in recent legislative sessions, including creating a child care task force after the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the shortage. Reynolds believes the new website will significantly change the way working parents search for child care.
“It’s a centralized online hub for working parents to quickly and easily find child care providers in their area, who have openings right now, and more,” Reynolds said. “This new resource for parents would not have been possible without the state’s launch of a share service platform for licensed child care providers, which was another recommendation of the Childcare Task Force.”
Reynolds said Iowa has invested $545 million in child care since the pandemic and created 24,270 new child care slots across the state. The new online database was one of the task force’s recommendations. Reynolds said the website will also simplify the process of finding available slots.
“For parents looking for options, the website can show locations of centers along their home-to-work commute on a map and identify those with immediate availability or a waitlist,” she said. “It can also provide a side-by-side comparison of multiple providers.”
Kelly Garcia is the director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which helps regulate licensed child care providers in the state. In addition to helping parents find available spots, Garcia said the website will also include data from over 3,000 participating providers across the state to identify where access is lacking.
“This data will show 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 have large quantities or there is a shortage that can be targeted,” Garcia emphasized. “The power of this data is incredibly valuable to everyone involved and is in near real time. It allows us to make decisions today, but probably more importantly, it allows us to invest in our future.”
But Reynolds says efforts to address the child care shortage are still ongoing – particularly to strike a balance between child care workers’ wages and parents’ costs. One of the points Reynolds has proposed in recent years is a change in how child care facilities are taxed.
“I’m trying to tax child care facilities as private rather than commercial facilities because if I can reduce their costs, they can actually invest those savings into the workforce,” Reynolds said. “They’re there to help children and families — that’s what they want to do. So if I can reduce their input costs and help them increase the CCA funding that they may be able to receive, then that can be passed on to the workforce.”
Garcia notes that the website also has a tool available for child care providers if they believe the data is inaccurate.
