Leading Practices

Leading Practices

• In 2021 and 2022, Michigan enacted a series of bipartisan childcare bills that include $1,000 bonuses to 38,000 childcare workers, expand access to quality affordable childcare for working families and cut the red tape for childcare businesses looking to open or expand.

• In 2015, voters approved “Best Start for Kids” levies, with the most recent local measure generating $800,000,000 to expand access, affordability and quality of the region’s childcare system, including a childcare worker wage-increase demonstration project. The King County Department of Community and Human Services is leading implementation focused on increasing access and affordability for high-quality childcare for working families and for job quality for childcare workers.

• The Lehigh Valley Workforce Board operations are integrated with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program with streamlined Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act(WIOA)/TANF co-enrollment to allow TANF to pay for childcare subsidies for many American Job Center customers. The WIOA/TANF integration began in 2014 with the implementation of WIOA reauthorization.

• Since 2018, the region’s workforce development board, county elected leaders and the San Diego Foundation have jointly published research and policy positions and host annual convenings to increase investments in the childcare system for working families. These efforts have led to $25,000,000 in American Rescue Plan investments and $10,000,000 in philanthropic funds to support new partnerships for workplace-sponsored childcare for working families.

• The Boulder County Health and Human Services Department recognized that the lack of access and high cost of early child and infant care was contributing to turnover and creating significant stress for parents of new babies who continued to work. In 2016, they created a Babies at Work policy to allow employees to bring their infant children to work with them, reducing attrition and use of sick leave and increasing employee satisfaction.

• This national nonprofit works with childcare workers and owners to increase the number of employee-owned childcare businesses and cooperatives, such as the Rose Garden in Buffalo, New York. Workforce and economic development agencies can partner with groups like ICA to create more resiliency, equity and wealth building opportunities in the childcare industry, helping childcare businesses grow and expand to create more spots for working families.

• Since 1983, this private company has provided onsite childcare for working caregivers and has published a book to make the case that on-site childcare for working families is at the heart of responsible business today.

• This family-owned manufacturing company pays 33% of childcare costs for employees’ babies up to 12 months as a retention benefit for new parents. The only requirement is that parents choose a center that is rated as a level 3 or higher in Paths to QUALITY, the state’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system for childcare.