Iowa child care workers may qualify children for state assistance

The law allows a child to qualify for state child care assistance based on a parent’s, guardian’s, or custodian’s child care job. The adult must work at an Iowa child care facility or home with an agreement to accept state assistance payments. They must average at least 32 hours a week in a job whose main duty is direct child care and be regularly counted in required staff-to-child ratios. Facility directors, co-directors, and other administrative staff may qualify if regularly counted in those ratios. The department must find that the adult needs child care, and families must make copayments set by department rules. For a child care home or child development home, the adult generally cannot provide care to their own child; a qualifying co-provider at a child development home is an exception. Substitutes, assistants, and owners of the child care location where the child is enrolled do not qualify.

The department must report each year to lawmakers on participation in this child care assistance program. The report covers families and children participating under this section, state and federal spending on provider payments and administration, and participating families’ income. The department must adopt rules to administer the section. The department must send the report by December 1 each year, covering the immediately preceding fiscal year.