The cost of Iowa's child care crisis
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A lack of accessible child care options is killing job opportunities for Iowa families, according to a report released Wednesday morning by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
- Between 2020 and 2021, 14% of Iowa children under five had a family member quit, change or refuse a job due to childcare quandaries, according to the report.
Why it matters: The problem can lead to substandard care for children and is an economic drain for individual families as well as the state.
- Gov. Kim Reynolds estimates that annual child care shortages cost Iowa's economy about $935 million.
Catch up fast: Today marks the first time in the report's nearly 35-year history that parents' job stability is factored into the foundation's annual Kids Count Data Book assessment.
- Nationally, 13% of families with kids under 5 quit or rejected job advancements due to child care problems.
What's happening: Quality child care is often hard to find and even when it is available, can be cost prohibitive, according to the foundation.
- The annual cost for toddlers in Iowa child care centers is around $10,500, or about 33% of the median income of a single mother.
The big picture: Iowa ranked sixth highest in the country in terms of overall child well-being, including the best in on-time high school graduation rates and a lower share of children living in households with high housing cost burdens.
- But assessments linked with children whose parents lack secure employment, reading proficiency in fourth graders and child deaths all got worse in Iowa since 2019, according to the report.
Of note: Iowa's overall score is partly credited to things like the Hawki program that provides health coverage for kids of uninsured working families, Anne Discher, director of Common Good Iowa — an Annie E. Casey Foundation grantee — tells Axios.
- She also notes that the state's mostly white population is likely a factor that helps boost its score, since the report doesn't weigh barriers that families of color traditionally experience at disproportionate rates.
- Separately, the foundation's previous "Race for Results" reports showed how Iowa's minority children fare more closely with national index scores.
State of play: Iowa expanded income eligibility this year so that more families qualify for child care assistance payments and increased reimbursement rates are paid to child care providers who accept those kids.
Yes, but: Lawmakers also increased the amount of hours families must work to qualify for child care assistance from 28 to 32 hours a week, making it out of reach for some families, Discher says.
The bottom line: There's still lots of room for improvements, and Common Good advocates that Iowa and federal lawmakers further expand child care assistance programs as part of the solution.