Access to quality, affordable child care may not seem like the most intuitive element of health. However, I ask you to stop and think about how often you have personally experienced at least one of the following situations: a) You or your co-workers have left a meeting to care for young children, b) You or your co-workers had children in meetings because of children’s needs, c) You or your co-workers reduced or lacked productivity because of simultaneously caring for children, and d) you or a colleague were absent from work because of child care needs. As you consider the above scenarios, I ask you to think about how much they affected your individual, family, community, and employer’s efficiency and psychological/emotional health.
The American Rescue Plan, the current proposed plan to help Americans suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic, provides approximately $40 billion to states via the Child Care and Development Block Grant program (CCDBG). It contains $15 billion to expand the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and $25 billion to stabilize the business of child care, a sector shattered by the pandemic. Upon passage of the plan, the state of Kansas is expected to receive approximately $134 million in CCDBG funds and $214 million for stabilization and enhancement funds, for a total of $348 million.
This could be a turning point for child care in Kansas. For child-care providers, Covid-19 has led to enrollment declines, increased costs to operate, and myriad staffing challenges. For many, it has meant closing the doors and folding the business. These stabilization funds proposed to soften the pandemic’s ongoing effects represent desperately needed action. However, it is essential to recognize that returning to a pre-coronavirus baseline would not be nearly enough to create stability for childcare businesses and capacity adequately supporting children, families, and communities. Revisiting how we fund child care in the U.S. could improve the health and well being of all families given the reduced stress, increases in productivity, and economic benefits that quality, affordable child care brings. Health means…increasing the proportion of children who participate in high-quality early childhood education programs.
Contributor: Bradford Wiles
