Child Care

Child Care

Child Care

To eliminate the child care shortage in Greater Minnesota, the GMNP supports legislative initiatives that:

1. Improve the ability of child care providers to provide high-quality care while operating a financially sustainable business model; this could include grants and low-interest loans for training and capacity expansion, regulatory and inspection improvements, and business development support and training.
2. Create markets where families have access to high-quality and affordable child care; this could include enhancements to the state’s child care tax credit program.
3. Build a stable child care provider workforce. This may include providing business development support for providers starting or growing in Greater Minnesota, training for providers, financial incentives to encourage workers to enter and remain in the industry, benefits for families to decrease the financial burden of accessing child care, and other policies and programs that will increase the supply of both center-based and home-based child care options.

Studies/Research/Informational Handouts

• The Child Care Conundrum: Exploring solutions to the child care shortage in Greater Minnesota
• The Economic Impacts of the Child Care Shortage in Northeastern Minnesota (July 2018)
• Legislative Task Force on Access to Affordable Child Care (January 2017)
• A quiet crisis: Minnesota’s child care shortage (Center for Rural Policy and Development, September 2016)
• Greater Minnesota’s Child Care Center Wage & Rate Survey Results (Minnesota Initiative Foundations, March 2017)
• Southwest Minnesota Child Care Center Wage and Rate Survey Results (March 2017)
• Workforce of Today, Workforce of Tomorrow (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, June 2017)
• Kids Can’t Wait: 2017 Legislative Agenda (Children’s Defense Fund, January 2017)
• It’s time for an ambitious national investment in America’s children (Economic Policy Institute, April 2016)
• United Way of NE Minnesota Child Care Study Results
• Information on the Quality Child Care Program (from Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation)

Bills to Watch

• SF 537/HF 422 – $3 million in grants to the Minnesota Initiative Foundations for the planning, coordination, training and education necessary to expand child care access
• SF 538/HF 423 – $10 million to DEED to provide grants to child care providers, local governments and regional economic development organizations in Greater Minnesota to cover up to 50 percent of the costs to build, upgrade or expand child care facilities to increase capacity and meet state requirements