SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A November 26 informational meeting of the Sioux Falls City Council was the setting for a presentation on child care, presented by councilor Rick Merkouris and Justin Smith of Woods, Fuller, Schultz and Smith.
The key takeaways of the presentation were these:
- Proposals for a “Tri-Share” child care program.
- Recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of the South Dakota Child Care Assistance Program in Sioux Falls.
What is a “Tri-Share” program
Under this model, the proposal would split the cost of childcare in Sioux Falls between employers, employees and the city, for those eligible.
Two options are proposed for a Tri-Share model.
The first is a national model: In this, the split would be even between all three parties, with each entity paying 1/3 of the total child care costs as long as the family’s household income falls between 210-325% of the federal poverty level (FPL).
The other proposal is a sliding scale. The image below is the example provided in the presentation.
You can see an example of how this would apply to actual income on page 4 of the document below.
The proposal notes that it does not intend the Tri-Share option to be a standalone project.
While eligibility for Tri-Share would depend on income for families, the proposal explains that it would also have eligibility for providers as well.
A provider would need to be either a childcare center or a family day care home, be registered with the city and licensed by the state, and would need to sign a memo of understanding with a third party non-profit hub entity which would facilitate the Tri-Share program.
The council asked if businesses would actually have any interest in partaking in such a program. Smith and Merkouris answered that businesses have not been formally asked yet, but that the next step would include having those conversations.
Recommendations
The South Dakota Child Care Assistance Program (SDCCA) is funded through a grant from the Office of Child Care, which is part of the federal Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS).
The SDCCA is managed by the South Dakota Department of Social Services (DSS), which regulates the program.
The proposal notes that in South Dakota, only 7% of eligible families with children aged birth to five receive assistance, a number that falls to 5% for school age children.
The document here recommends three legislative proposals:
- True Cost of Childcare
- Under the SDCCA Program, childcare providers are reimbursed at a set rate. That rate is based on market-rate surveys that reflect the typical cost charged by providers throughout South Dakota. “However, the market rate does not reflect the true cost of caring for a child if higher wages and benefits were factored in.” Legislation is expected in 2025 to propose a cost modeling approach that reimburses childcare providers closer to the true cost of care. North Dakota recently invested $15 million into a state program designed to target the true cost of childcare in paying assistance benefits to families. The South Dakota legislation will be based on the model implemented in North Dakota. One goal of this legislation will be to compensate employees of childcare providers commensurate with an average kindergarten teacher in the public-school system.
- Free Enrollment for Children of Childcare Workers
- For a host of reasons, childcare providers struggle to recruit and retain employees. In an effort to competitively hire staff, many providers offer free or reduced-price childcare services for children of staff members. Modeled after a program in Kentucky, another South Dakota bill is expected in 2025 to pay the full childcare costs for employees working for licensed childcare providers. Similar to the Kentucky program, the South Dakota legislation will propose that this benefit be extended regardless of household income. In Kentucky, the program saw marked success in the first year, with 3,200 parents and 5,600 children benefiting from the assistance.
- Build Dakota Scholarships – Associate Degree in Early Childhood Specialist
- A third bill is expected to be filed that will fund Build Dakota Scholarships for an associate degree in Early Childhood Specialist. This bill could go in several directions, such as funding forgivable loans for such degrees. Currently, recipients of the Build Dakota Scholarship are only required to work in South Dakota for three years following graduation. The legislation to be proposed would provide matching funds of some kind toward these scholarships or forgivable loans. To increase staff for childcare providers specifically, the scholarships could require the recipients to work for such providers rather than for a public school.
While these legislative idea are included in the proposal, Smith was not optimistic about their chance of passing in the legislature this upcoming session, but added that regulatory changes could still be instituted.
You can check out those suggestions in the report below.
