Unprecedented Challenges for Iowa Kids, special report homepage, Des Moines Register:
- In child care, struggles with cost and quality, By Sara Sleyster, March 17, 2013, Des Moines Register: “Lindsay Trumblee spent a month searching for child care she thought would keep her toddler daughter safe, happy and learning. ‘I had checked out centers and just was really discouraged — there were too many kids. It was not organized,’ said Trumblee, 24, who eventually found an in-home provider where Avri, now 3, has thrived. Like Trumblee, parents around the country have long found the search for child care to be a time of high anxiety. Often, parents struggle to match their desire for the best care for their children with what they can afford. In Iowa, the search can be especially difficult. The state licenses child care centers before they open, but in-home child care businesses that care for fewer than six children can start without any state oversight. Parents must navigate a patchwork of providers with varying education levels and experience who offer uneven care…”
- ‘Child care cliff’ makes it tough for working poor to get ahead, By Sara Sleyster, March 17, 2013, Des Moines Register: “The parents of 4-year-old Jocelyn Fernandez last month faced the threat of losing $600 a month in state child care assistance and having to pull their daughter from the center she attends. The problem? Her mother, Leslie Ortiz, had taken a new job last fall with better pay to help the family make ends meet. With the income of her husband, Luis Fernandez, who works at Auto Zone, the family was earning $200 a month over the eligibility limit for child care assistance. Keeping the job and keeping their daughter in child care would have left the family worse off financially. Iowa experts call the situation the Ortiz family faced ‘the child care cliff.’ All state child care assistance for a family ends abruptly when they reach a certain income. Critics say the sharp cutoff has the unintended consequences of hindering working-poor families who want to climb the ladder of self-sufficiency. Earn even a few more pennies an hour, and a family’s financial situation is suddenly worse…”