Gov. Kim Reynolds spoke about the state's new child care portal at a news conference Aug. 22, 2024 at the State Capitol. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
The state is launching a new online portal to help parents of young children find available child care throughout Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday.
Iowa Child Care Connect, hosted at iachildcareconnect.org , is an online tool providing information for parents seeking child care assistance. The site includes search functions for nearby providers and those located en route to a parent’s workplace. It also includes filter options available for age, vacancies and acceptance of the state’s Child Care Assistance and participation in the rating system by Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2021, the Child Care Task Force that made recommendations for ways to increase child care access following a directive by the governor. Reynolds said many of the group’s recommendations have been implemented, with the state investing $545 million in child care, as well as creating 24,270 new child care slots in the state. The online hub was one of the “final remaining recommendations” by the task force, she said.
“This is an online tool that’s going to fundamentally change how Iowa working parents find child care,” Reynolds said at the Thursday news conference.
In addition to providing assistance for families seeking care, the website will also help the state better track and assess child care needs across the state, she said. The website features dashboards for vacancies at child care providers and on “ supply and demand ” for child care in different regions of the state.
“This tool will allow the state to pinpoint exactly where and why child care access is limited in parts of Iowa, and that will allow our team to be able to apply data driven decisions to identify solutions,” she said.
Reynolds said Iowa is the first state in the country to display and integrate “near real-time child care data” from multiple sources through a tool like Child Care Connect.
Iowa Department of Health and Human Services director Kelly Garcia said the data will give “decision makers” — including state and local government officials, as well as business owners and human resource directors — the ability to make well-informed decisions about child care provisions in Iowa communities based on availability and need.
“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 — it will be targeted,” Garcia said. “The power of this data is incredibly valuable to all involved — and again, nearly real time — which allows us to make decisions today, but probably more importantly, allows us to invest for our future.”
The state used $5.2 million in discretionary funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to build out the website, with an estimated cost of $500,000 annually for maintenance.
In addition to the most recent announcement, legislators passed measures in 2024 to raise rates for child care providers through the state assistance program, allow child care workers to be eligible for child care assistance outside of income limits, and allow minor workers to perform certain services without adults present in efforts to expand child care assistance options.
Reynolds said she plans to continue pursuing legislative measures to increase child care availability in the state, including reintroducing proposals that did not make it through this year, like a measure to tax child care providers as residential properties instead of as commercial properties.
“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 deserts are at, look at opportunities to continue to build that out.”
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