New report praises Ohio saving rescue plan funds, but warns of ‘precarious’ state of child care
A new analysis looking at child care in several states, including Ohio, shows big costs and staffing shortages, but also some proactive actions taken by states to prepare for the expiration of pandemic-era federal funding.
The Century Foundation released a new report showing “a wave of increasing prices, economic damage, staffing shortages and reduced wages for early childhood educators,” and a “dire need for investment at the state and federal levels in child care to lower costs for working families,” according to a release announcing the report.
“The annual cost of care for two children in a center is 93-percent more than the average rent payment and 28-percent more than the average mortgage payment in Ohio,” the study stated.
Julie Kashen, director of women’s economic justice at the Century Foundation said the report showed what many parents are contending with every day: “finding and affording child care is taking a huge toll on families’ budgets and remains a big source of stress.”
“At the same time, we’re seeing these are solvable problems: when elected leaders listen to parents and invest in care, it makes a difference,” Kashen said in a statement.
The states chosen in the study were Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, due to the “outsized political attention right now in light of the 2024 election,” the study stated.
Taking all of the states together, the Century Foundation study showed 30 to 40 percent of child care programs in the five states would have been forced to close without the ARPA “stabilization grants” distributed to the child care sector.
“These challenges existed long before anyone had heard of COVID-19, but were exacerbated by the pandemic and made better by the ARPA funds,” the study stated.
The end of pandemic-era funding began in September of 2023, with the Century Foundation estimated that more than three million children nationally would lose access to child care. Ohio was reported to have 6,265 child care programs which received ARPA grants, with 33 percent that would have closed without them, according to the most recent study by the Century Foundation.
The foundation previously projected more than 130,000 Ohio children would lose child care, and more than 2,000 child care programs expected to close because of the so-called “child care cliff.”
While the study of ARPA funding usages in Ohio showed the state having only spent 2/3 of its supplemental Child Care Development Block Grant from the ARPA monies “left room for longer term investments,” the state’s child care sector is still “in a precarious state.”
Between 2019 and 2023, Ohio’s child care employment levels fell by 26 percent, 11 percent of the state’s programs were lost in that period and 10 percent of the licensed programs have disappeared since 2019.
Citing state data, the study found “worsening” supply shortages. The data showed that in 2024, Ohio had 30 percent, or 2,700, fewer providers compared to 2018 levels.
Alongside the decreases came a 25-percent increase in the price of child care since 2019, with the average annual price for an infant listed as $12,351 in the foundation’s most recent study.
Child care has been a hot topic in Ohio, with advocacy groups and families throughout the state sounding the alarm of the state of child care, including its inaccessibility and high costs. The child care sector’s issues could have longterm impacts on the entire state economy, amounting to billions in impacts, according to policy advisors and advocates brought together by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
Before they left for a summer break that will continue until after the November general election, the Ohio General Assembly saw the introduction of several bills aimed at addressing the child care system in the state, thought it’s unclear whether those bills will see passage before the end of the current GA in December. If they aren’t passed through by the end of the year, all bills would have to be reintroduced in 2025.
Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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