Child Care Action Plan Produces Results

Less than a year after west central Missouri communities completed a regional Child Care Action Plan, two major pieces of the plan are moving from ideas to implementation: Helping working families afford child care and helping child care businesses start and succeed.

The progress comes after a community planning process gathered insights and ideas from parents, child care providers, employers and community leaders from Cedar, Henry, Polk and St. Clair counties. The West Central Early Childhood Education Action Plan identified strategies to address the region’s child care challenges, with an immediate focus on affordability for families and increasing the supply of child care in the rural region.

Now those strategies are beginning to produce tangible results.

39 Children to Benefit from Child Care Works

The four-county region has secured State of Missouri support toward child care costs for 39 children whose parents work for seven participating area employers.

The funding comes through Child Care Works, an employee benefit program designed to make child care more affordable while helping employers recruit and retain workers. It covers a critical working family gap: Employees who often leave the workforce to care for children because they earn too much to qualify for low-income child care subsidy.

Child Care Works uses a cost-sharing approach. Participating employers contribute toward an eligible employee’s child care costs, the state provides matching support, and the family pays the remaining portion. The regional action plan identified the program as a way to bring public and private dollars together to address one of the biggest barriers identified by local families: the cost of care.

“This is a great program to offer to our partners here at Schreiber Foods,” said Angel Himes, Human Resources Director for the food manufacturer’s Clinton, Missouri, location. “We are grateful for the opportunity to provide additional funding through this program for child care. It is essential for our partners to have appropriate care for their children while they are away at work.”  

Additional employers can still participate. Businesses interested in strengthening employee recruitment and retention can explore offering Child Care Works as an employee benefit. Employers may also be able to claim a federal tax credit equal to 50% of qualified child care expenditures.

Area employers should contact the New Growth Women’s Business Center to get started. The rural nonprofit organization serves as the community intermediary for Child Care Works. Contact project manager Patty Cantrell: pcantrell@newgrowthmo.org, 660-476-2185 ext. 6500.

Building More Child Care Businesses

Making care more affordable only works if families can find child care in the first place.

The regional plan found a particularly severe shortage for the youngest children. Across Cedar, Henry, Polk and St. Clair counties, existing providers could accommodate only 28% of the estimated infants and toddlers needing care.

New Growth Women's Business Center is, therefore, also working to help create and sustain child care businesses.

Four aspiring child care providers in the region are now enrolled in the Family Child Care Champions program, which helps participants work toward launching licensed, home-based child care businesses.

Participants receive a mentor experienced in operating family child care, one-on-one assistance with business setup and licensing, a pre-licensing home visit, training and peer learning, and access to up to $2,500 to help prepare their space. A licensed family child care home can serve up to 10 children, meaning even relatively small home-based businesses can become an important part of increasing rural child care capacity.

Learn about the Family Child Care Champions program

Helping Existing Providers Become Stronger Businesses

New Growth is also launching its Child Care Business Accelerator, designed to strengthen the businesses that already provide care to rural families.

Child care providers face a near-impossible business equation. They must meet staffing, safety and regulatory requirements while keeping tuition within reach of local families. The regional cost analysis showed just how difficult that can be: The amount families pay can fall substantially below the actual cost of operating a program, particularly when adequate wages and employee benefits are included.

The Business Accelerator responds with business tools and support providers need to save time and money essential to operating sustainable and growing child care operations.  

“We signed up for the Accelerator program to become more efficient and effective at managing the business,” said Christy Foster, Director of Golden Valley Daycare in Clinton. “This will help us continually improve service to our families and their children.”

In addition, Golden Valley Daycare is one of seven employers in the area that will offer the Child Care Works employee benefit. “It’s a critical piece of making sure our staff have the support they need to do their jobs well,” she said.

Learn about the Child Care Business Accelerator

From Plan to Action

The regional Child Care Action Plan was never intended to sit on a shelf.

It grew from research showing that child care shortages affect children and parents, but also employers and the economic health of rural communities. Families reported long waiting lists and high prices. Employers reported workforce disruptions. Child care providers reported difficulty hiring and retaining staff and making the finances of child care work.

The first months of implementation show how the region is beginning to attack those interconnected problems from several directions.

• The families of 39 children will receive help with child care costs.  

• Seven employers have stepped forward to make child care an employee benefit.  

• Three prospective family child care entrepreneurs are working toward opening businesses.  

• Seven existing child care providers are gaining access to new business support.

There is much more to do. But Cedar, Henry, Polk and St. Clair counties are beginning to demonstrate what the action plan envisioned: Child care becomes a community and economic development strategy when families, employers, providers, community organizations and government share responsibility for making it work.

About New Growth

New Growth is a nonprofit rural community development corporation based in west central Missouri. We build rural opportunity by fostering entrepreneurship, expanding child-care access, building local food systems, and sustaining a volunteer driver network.

Help Build the Next Step

This progress is possible because people across our region are choosing to be part of the solution. There is still much more work ahead to make sure rural families can find and afford the child care they need.

You can help move that work forward.

Donate to New Growth to support efforts that help child care businesses start, strengthen and grow, or volunteer your time and expertise to help build stronger rural communities.

Whether you give your time or make a financial contribution, you become part of the network of people investing in solutions that help families, businesses and communities thrive.