Latest news with #MarciThen
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Child welfare director addresses late payments to child care providers
Child care worker Marci Then helps her daughter, Mila, 4, put away toys to get ready for circle time at the Little Learners Academy in Smithfield, R.I. (Photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline) Maine helps cover the cost of child care for children who are in the state's foster care system; however, there have been recent reports of untimely payments. While the majority of child care providers are being paid on time, there is a subset who are experiencing delays, said Office of Child and Family Services Director Bobbi Johnson. She shared a breakdown of how that payment system works and what could be causing those delays with the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee Wednesday. Last month, lawmakers asked the Government Oversight Committee to investigate late child care reimbursement payments from the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the child welfare agency. Three Republican senators who serve on the accountability committee asked for a deeper look at how the department handles the payments after hearing from providers who have waited on reimbursements. The office spends about $6 million annually using state general funds to cover the cost of child care for children in custody, Johnson said. In general, the state pays market rate for child care, she said, but there are instances where it pays more, such as for children with complex behavioral or medical needs or living in areas with limited child care options. More than half of the 841 children in state custody who are 4 years old or younger need child care services. And as children get older, the need for those services decreases, Johnson explained. Of the nearly 800 child care facilities in the state, just over a quarter of them are currently caring for children who are in state custody. There are also more than 650 registered providers operating in private homes throughout the state, and about 90 of them are caring for children in state custody, according to data Johnson shared with the committee. When a provider is caring for a child in state custody, they invoice the Office of Child and Family Services, rather than the resource family caring for that child. Johnson outlined a few points in that process where technical snags can cause payment delays. These include the initial process of setting up providers as vendors in the payment system; providers sending an invoice by mail, fax or some other method outside of the dedicated email inbox established by the state office; or when invoices are submitted at different time intervals, which can affect the timeliness of payments. Johnson also acknowledged that staff turnover at the department has contributed to some of the slow down. Although the hold up isn't affecting all child care providers who work with the state, Johnson said the agency has been taking steps to improve this aspect of the child welfare system. Access to child care can be a key factor in being able to place a child with a foster family, Johnson explained. Johnson also said the agency piloted a staff position dedicated to child care invoices who also helped families identify providers and other resources. The temporary position expired, but Johnson said it was helpful to have a centralized approach but said if that position were made permanent, the agency would likely need two to cover the entire state. There have also been efforts to improve the processing of vendors, including the addition of two contracted workers to manage those forms. This allows those individuals to build expertise on the process and navigate any issues, rather than requiring caseworkers to manage that work, Johnson said. In addition to managing child care for children in state custody, the Office of Child and Family Services also oversees the Child Care Affordability Program, which uses federal and state funds to help eligible families pay for child care. Currently, those programs are handled separately, but Johnson said there is discussion about putting them in the same automated system to better manage and streamline child care services. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio business leaders urge support for child care measures in legislature
Child care worker Marci Then helps her daughter, Mila, 4, put away toys. (File photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline.) Ohio businesses say they're ready to implement pending legislation that would improve the child care industry, and in fact, some already have programs in place that they say prove the usefulness of not only business support, but state support in child care. Ron Holbrook, of Sugar Creek Packing Company, said the food manufacturer works as an example of public-private partnerships and their ability to work. The company has 2,400 employees in two states, and already has two child care facilities open on or near company worksites. 'As an entrepreneurial, growth-oriented company … we have become intimately aware of 'barriers to work' that many Ohioans face, and have implemented programs to help overcome them,' Holbrook said during a meeting of the Ohio House Children and Human Services Committee. The committee heard supportive testimony on both House Bill 2 and House Bill 41, bills aimed at increasing the funding and capacity for the child care sector. H.B. 2 is a Republican-led reintroduction from the last General Assembly of a cost-sharing model that would split child care expenses between the state, employers and eligible employees of those companies. Under the 'Child Care Cred Program,' employers would apply for funds to help employees with child care in a first-come, first-served program that would be funded with $10 million, handled by the Ohio Department of Children and Youth. H.B. 41 is also a Republican-led bill, one that would require the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to establish a grant program 'to expand child care capacity, support the state's workforce and aid in business growth and recruitment,' according to a bill analysis by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. The bill would create grants of up to $750,000 to help employers equip themselves with child care facilities and partner with child care providers, governmental agencies, or nonprofits 'on initiatives to create child care capacity.' The basis of the child care program at Sugar Creek's facilities — one of which is at the Washington Court House campus and another near their Indiana facility — is utilizing the skills the company has of building and maintaining property and furniture, allowing licensed child care providers to run the day-to-day operations of taking care of children. In their child care facilities, the first slots available go to Sugar Creek employees, and any leftover slots go to other residents of the community. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Child care and other benefits have been a focus for Sugar Creek Packing Company because Holbrook said the leadership of the company, specifically owner John Richardson, sees support for workers as a foundation for a successful company. 'He's always told me in my position that you can't have a successful business in a community that isn't successful, and a community can't be successful if their businesses aren't successful,' Holbrook said. 'Aside from that, we need the employees.' For the Ohio Association of Goodwill Industries, having the needed services like child care helps the employees of their company, but also brings a solution to areas of the state where residents struggle to pay for child care, but also can't find child care to utilize at all. In 2023, Goodwill of South Central Ohio became the first Goodwill in the state to open a child care center and only the fourth Goodwill in the Midwest to do so, according to Prince Garuba, executive director of the association. 'This center addresses a critical need in Ross County and the broader Appalachian region, which is classified as a child care desert where access to child care facilities is significantly limited,' Garuba said. 'The demand for more centers in this area was, and remains, urgent.' Rick Carfagna, a former Republican legislator who is now senior vice president of government affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, said the cost-sharing model in H.B. 2 is priority legislation for the chamber, and something for which the chamber has heard plenty of support from businesses. 'They want to be a part of the solution, but they also don't want to assume total responsibility for solving the problem either,' Carfagna told the committee. In Ohio, Carfagna said the child care problem is two-fold: child care is too scarce, and 'when it's available, it's too expensive.' 'We support these measures (in H.B. 2) and we believe that encouraging employers to privately invest in such an employee benefit is an innovative solution to address costs and reduce barriers to employment,' he said. That loss of employees due to the rising costs and lack of access to child care has already had significant impacts in the country and in the coffers at the state level as well. The chamber is set to release its version of an annual report conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation showing state-by-state financial impacts due to a lack of child care. The 'Untapped Potential' report has not been released for Ohio quite yet, but Carfagna said he'd seen a 'raw copy' that showed a loss of $5.5 billion in economic activity every year for the state 'because of the child care crisis,' and an estimated $1.52 billion in lost annual tax revenue. The state could be clawing back that money by supporting the child care industry in the areas of cost, capacity, and staffing support, he said. Through the implementation of the grants included in H.B. 41, it could also be funding more programs like those already underway in the state that are using 'dormant or underutilized commercial properties that are ripe for conversion into child care spaces,' he told the committee. Ashland County, for example, has a public-private collaborative called the Women's Fund Childcare Initiative, which plans to use donated land in an industrial park for a 12,400 square-feet child care space, after raising more than $4 million from donors to do so. 'These types of partnerships leverage existing facilities operated by trusted organizations within our communities to increase child care capacity,' Carfagna said. While the measures to improve child care in the state are all important to the chamber, Carfagna also mentioned a component of the governor's executive budget that he and his organization hope to see continue on to the final draft: raising the eligibility for publicly funded child care to 200% of the federal poverty level. When talking about the cost-sharing model in H.B. 2, Carfagna brought up other states which have implemented pilot programs similar to the model proposed for Ohio. He said Michigan has now scaled their original pilot program out to now serve about 700 families, in partnership with about 200 employers. The state is kicking in about $3 million for that effort, but the state is also bolstered by publicly funded child care eligibility at the 200% level. 'We actually support that, top priority, keeping what's in the executive budget, but that's a separate issue,' Carfagna said. Kentucky and Pennsylvania also set their eligibility at 200% of the federal poverty level, though Carfagna acknowledged that raising it from the current level of 145% doesn't come without costs itself. 'If you really want to make the biggest impact, that's the biggest impact,' Carfagna said. 'Now I also know that has the biggest cost to it.' Budget conversations are ongoing in the Ohio legislature, with a deadline of July 1 to get the budget to the governor for his signature. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Child care cost-sharing model brought back to the Ohio General Assembly
Child care worker Marci Then helps her daughter, Mila, 4, put away toys. (File photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline.) Ohio lawmakers are trying again with measures to attack the child care crisis that advocates are warning continue to hurt the state's families and economy, including with a bill that spreads the cost of child care out among employers, employees, and the state. State Rep. Mark Johnson, R-Chillicothe, reintroduced a bill he said came 'late in the game' last year, giving it an uphill battle to passage as the Republican supermajority sought to close up the General Assembly term with other priorities. But Johnson's bill is now Ohio House Bill 2, and has been introduced very early in the new General Assembly, with its first hearing in the House Children and Human Services Committee held on Tuesday. This bill, and its companion bill led in the Ohio Senate by state Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, looks to direct $10 million to a 'Child CareCred Program' within the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, to be distributed 'on a first-come, first-served basis,' according to Johnson. The bill models its child care program after Ohio's TechCred program, which incentivizes employers to enroll employees in skill-building programs and connect them with credential providers in exchange for reimbursement. The child care program would create an application process for employers who identify needs within their employees for child care assistance. A program that engages the employer, the employee, and the state is Johnson's way to address what he and child advocates say is a crisis that only hurts Ohio's economy more the longer it goes on. The average cost for child care has gone up on a yearly basis, and a 2024 report from found 1 in 5 American households are paying $36,000 annually on care for their children. 'This financial strain has forced many parents, especially mothers, to reduce their working hours, or leave their jobs entirely to manage child care responsibilities,' Johnson said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In some areas of the state, workforce participation rates are as low as 50%, according to Johnson, who said that while there are other reasons for a low participation rate, child care is a major reason parents are unable to work or are choosing to leave their jobs. 'If we want to remain known as a business-friendly state, we need to address the child care crisis,' the representative told the House committee on Tuesday. Johnson mentioned the proposal by Gov. Mike DeWine in his proposed executive budget, released on Monday, to increase eligibility for publicly funded child care from 145% to 200% of the federal poverty level. But Johnson said that by just increasing the eligibility level 'we are rewarding employers who pay meager wages.' The Children and Human Services Committee chair, state Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, is no stranger to pushing the legislature to address the child care issue, having successfully championed a wide-ranging bill in the last General Assembly that directs different state agencies to study processes and programs on everything from infant mortality to child care programs such as Head Start. Though she's still hoping to see the funding that was left out of her bill come in the new operating budget, White isn't done addressing aspects of child care and child welfare. On Tuesday, White and fellow Republican state Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworth, introduced House Bill 7. The legislation seeks to 'increase the number of stable, safe family foster homes and long-term kinship care options by providing publicly funded child care for children in the foster care system in these placements,' White told the committee. Ray said that about 14,300 children are in foster care in the state, with 4,000 of those placed with a relative or family friend in kinship care. 'Across the board we have a need for more foster families, whether very young children or teens,' Ray said. 'Let's take the objections off the table by removing the things that get in the way for current and potential foster and kinship parents, so that more loving, caring families can say yes to our children.' Both bills will see further hearings to allow supporters and opponents to give their opinions of the bills before they are voted on by the committee, and if approved, moved forward to votes of the full House. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio voters support state and federal backing for child care, new poll shows
Child care worker Marci Then helps her daughter, Mila, 4, put away toys. (File photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline.) New polling of Ohio voters shows vast support and demand for action to improve child care access and affordability on the federal and state level. The research firm Public Opinion Strategies has released poll results taken in 2024 asking questions about child care and its impact on family dynamics, the ability for parents to work and the implications for the overall economy if child care solutions aren't found. 'This has an undeniable impact on the state economy,' said Jarrett Lewis, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, in a joint meeting with child advocacy group Groundwork Ohio on Tuesday. Parents who participated in the study said they are buying fewer groceries, deferring or delaying medical care, and struggling to pay housing costs because of the high costs of quality child care. But that's just for those who can afford it. Many parents polled, including 61% of non-full-time working mothers said they would gladly go back to work if not for the need to stay home with their kids because child care is out of reach. According to the polling, nearly 5 in 10 parents surveyed said they've had to cut back on work hours because they needed to care for their children. Lewis said using U.S. Census data numbers, that accounts for more than 1 million parents in the state. 'Ohio voters agree that labor shortages in the state are in part due to a lack of access to quality, affordable child care,' Lewis said. In fact, 86% of those polled agreed that increasing access to good quality child care that's affordable 'will help strengthen Ohio's economy and help its workers.' Lewis said Ohio parents saw work performance decline, have refused a job opportunity or promotion, had to call off or miss a shift, or have had to leave the workforce all together, all due to the lack of necessary child care. The study found that 68% of Ohio parents with children under five noted at least one of those impacts on their working life. For all voters in the study, controlling inflation and the cost of living rose above other issues like reducing the tax burden or reducing illegal drugs flowing into the state. Looking at parents of young children specifically, inflation and the cost of living topped a list of concerns, but early childhood education programs and child care ranked higher than they did for overall Ohioans in terms of priorities for the state to address. Reports of issues accessing high quality child care have gone up since the survey was conducted last year. In December 2024, 66% of parents with children under five or who were pregnant said they were having access issues, compared to 56% in February 2023. The lack of access is also leading Ohioans to express concern about the readiness of children to enter school, with 86% of voters polled saying 'we can do a better job of preparing young children for learning when they enter kindergarten.' The survey showed overwhelming and bipartisan support for child care tax credits and increased funding for childhood education programs. 'Voters who support increased state funding focus on building the next generation of Ohioans who will form the backbone for the state's workforce and leadership,' according to Lewis. 'Further, they argue that increased access to affordable, quality child care allows more parents, particularly women, to remain employed, providing economic benefits to their families and to businesses in the state.' The desire for a child tax credit above the federal child and dependent tax credit spans political ideologies, with 84% of all voters supporting a state-level tax credit. Of those, 83% of Republicans supported it, along with 78% of independents and 94% of Democrats. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Having state support through a tax credit might become even more important since the federal tax credit is 'up for debate,' as Brittany Boulton, Groundwork's managing director of advocacy and engagement, put it. A list of options being considered during federal budget reconciliation and obtained by Politico shows the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee could be considering eliminating the child and dependent care tax credit, under which taxpayers can claim up to $2,100 in credit for child and dependent care expenses. Troy Hunter, managing director of policy for Groundwork, said the study's findings came as no surprise to the group, which has been advocating for improvements to child care access and the system of child care workers as well for years. Goals to improve child care in Ohio were included in Groundwork's newest policy agenda for the Ohio General Assembly. Hunter said one of the biggest priorities Groundwork has, and the group thinks the state should have, is increasing the publicly funded child care eligibility window from 145% of the federal poverty level to 200%. Increasing access to full-time public preschool slots and creating a better payment practice for child care programs are also on the list of goals for Groundwork, Hunter said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
