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Child advocates unveil roadmap to expand child care access in Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Several Alabama-based child advocacy organizations have unveiled a comprehensive plan to help state lawmakers address the state’s severe shortage of child care providers.

Dubbed the ‘Roadmap to Support Alabama’s Parents, Children, Employers and Economy,’ the 80-page document was unveiled during a Feb. 27 press conference in Montgomery by representatives of several of the collaborating organizations, including VOICES for Alabama’s Children, Alabama Partnership for Children and the Alabama School Readiness Alliance.

“What you’ll find from the road map is that we need to provide a lot more support, resources and effort so that child care programs can move to implement not only the high-quality education part of it, but all the other aspects that go into developing children to age five,” said Bob Powers, board president of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance.

Bob Powers, board member of Alabama Partnership for Children, Board president of Alabama School Readiness Alliance, and chair of the Business Council Education Committee.

The plan outlines dozens of policy proposals to address either short-term or long-term goals in expanding access to child care, a majority of which center around state-subsidized support for child care providers and parents in need of child care.

Some of those proposals include child care workforce wage supplements, or for the state to offer child care center start-up and expansion grants. 

Heidi Cawthorne, who runs Bell Road Preschool in Montgomery, said rising costs have forced child care providers to increase wages to levels that at times threaten the ability of such facilities to expand.

“If it had not been for grants given to us from DHR through Partnership with Children, there is no way we could continue to operate at the level in which we are operating now,” Cawthorne said at the press conference.

“I hope that the state, all those in charge, will understand that we’re an important part too, and I hope that we’ll work together to continue to have places like myself continue to stay open, helping our future generations as they learn to love school.”

Also among the proposals is for the state to offer refundable child care workforce tax credits, something some state lawmakers are already working on introducing as legislation.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, introduced a bill in 2023 to award tax credits to companies that pay for their employees’ child care services. 

Though the bill was unsuccessful last year, Daniels told Alabama Daily News as recently as Feb. 27 that he intends on re-filing the bill as soon as possible, with Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, carrying the bill in the Senate.

“The credit goes to the employer, the employer then either puts it into the employee’s check, or they pay directly to the provider,” Daniels explained.

The legislation is expected to be part of a larger workforce development package backed by legislative leaders including Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth.

Alabama’s lack of child care services has also had a significant impact on the state’s workforce, with the state having among the lowest labor participation rates in the country.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics included in the roadmap plan, Alabama has the single-highest rate of parents missing work due to child care problems in the nation. 

Nearly 20% of Alabama parents had missed work due to child care challenges in 2021, far higher than the rates of Alabama’s neighboring states of Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, who saw rates of 11.1%, 12.5% and 12.7%, respectively.

Among those parents is Tametria Conner Dantzler, a mother of four children, three of which have special needs that have exacerbated the struggle of finding adequate child care.

“It had been quite the challenge and the struggle to find quality child care, and child care that provides accommodations for children with unique abilities and special needs,” Dantzler said.

“What I have noticed is that not much has changed over the last decade, even here in the capital city. I had to resign from my professional job that I loved because I could not find adequate childcare for my son.”

Alabama also has a lower rate of employed mothers when compared to national rates; in 2022, 72.3% of mothers of children up to 14 were working nationally compared to 70.6% in Alabama.

“We know that we need more childcare, but the centers are just not there, people are still maxed at capacity,” Dantzler continued. 

“So how can we really fix this broken system? I hope that this message will lead to action, where we’re having real, sustainable solutions.”

According to a study by the Bipartisan Policy Center included in the roadmap plan, Alabama has a child care supply gap of 40%, meaning that existing child care providers are only able to meet 60% of demand. That gap is higher in Alabama’s rural communities, and is over 50% in 11 of the state’s counties.

Reforming state and local zoning barriers was another policy proposal included in the plan. Dawn Owens, community engagement specialist for VOICES, explained to ADN that home child care providers are typically licensed to service up to six children at a time, but can be licensed as a family group home provider to service up to 12 children. Certain zoning laws, however, can often prevent home child care providers from being awarded licenses to expand. 

That’s the case for Sharon Jackson of Array of Light Home Care in Millbrook.

“In my ten-mile radius, we could service 16 more families if our zoning barriers were lifted in my municipality,” Jackson said. “Throughout Alabama, providers are facing these (barriers) that are not allowing us to do what we can do to the capacity of what we can do.”

 

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