(DES MOINES, IOWA) – Aug. 27, 2024 – The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services has announced the launch of Child Care Connect (C3) in partnership with Iowa State University and Resultant. C3 offers near real-time views of childcare supply and demand, as well as geographic areas where supply is misaligned with economic need. In addition, C3 also powers public-facing tools and dashboards intended to help families needing child care find providers with vacancies. Iowa Child Care Search offers the public the ability to search for child care providers along day-to-day driving routes and view supply and demand by county and child age. This is accomplished through a data warehouse solution and application programming interface (API) that connects provider Child Care Management Systems (CCMSs) with state systems.
It is expected that visibility into this information in real-time will allow for actions and programming that will ultimately increase in child care supply across the state.
This new, innovative solution is just one way we are meeting the critical child care needs of working families in our state. Iowa Child Care Connect is a game changer and I am so proud of all the partnership and work that has gone into its creation.
– Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds
C3 diverges from existing solutions because it seamlessly integrates with local provider CCMSs. Previously, reports on child care vacancies were conducted once per year, rendering the information outdated and irrelevant upon delivery. In pulling attendance and vacancy data automatically, C3 removes the burden of reporting for providers and ensures child care data is always up-to-date. This also removes the extra tracking and reporting that often de-incentivized providers from serving families receiving subsidies, thereby making it simpler for providers to serve these families.
The child care supply-and-demand crisis is a complex, multi-faceted problem that no existing technology solution was equipped to solve. C3 is truly a first-of-its-kind solution and we’re excited about its enormous potential to positively impact Iowans and Iowa’s economy in the coming months and years.
– Curt Merlau, senior director of Resultant’s education practice
The crisis of insufficient supply to meet the demand for childcare is a national issue. The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that 13 percent of families with children under five years of age quit or rejected job advancements due to child care problems. The State of Iowa alone reports losing $935 million annually in tax revenue, employee absences and turnover due to the child care crisis. Further, 23 percent of Iowans (and 35 percent of rural Iowans) live in areas with a shortage of licensed child care providers. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds created the Child Care Task Force after her Economic Recovery Advisory Board to examine strategies to help Iowa’s economy not only bounce back from the pandemic but build sustainable business practices and grow.
