Legislation to Encourage Foster Family Home Placements and Improve Child Care Access to Support Families and Workforce Introduced

COLUMBUS – State Representative Andrea White (R-Kettering) joined several of her colleagues in announcing recently introduced legislation to address the workforce, child care and foster placement crises occurring in Ohio.

“Ohio’s workforce, child care and foster care crises continue to loom large. Today parents seeking to enter or remain in the workforce are struggling to access affordable, safe, quality child care and early learning for their children, while at the same time employers are wrestling with finding qualified workers to meet their business and customer needs,” said Rep. White.

“Removing child care barriers for foster families also means we will open more doors for our children who need safe, caring temporary homes. We need a multifaced menu approach to solving these crises and we need all hands-on deck.”

Currently, the average cost of center-based child care for Ohio families ranges from $8,580 to

$11,438 per year depending on the age of the child. For example, a mom with two young children – an infant and a preschooler – would spend almost $10 an hour on child care alone, making a return to work unaffordable for many Ohioans. A recent survey found 70 percent of working moms would return to work or work more if they had access to child care at a more reasonable cost.

Among bills introduced to address these issues is House Bill 580, jointly sponsored by White and Rep. Sharon Ray (R-Wadsworth) to provide publicly funded child care for foster children placed with working foster families and long-term kinship caregivers. Ohio currently has approximately 16,700 children in foster care, yet there are only just over 7,000 licensed family homes to meet this need. An additional 3,400 live in foster family homes with a relative and approximately 1,800 children live in foster group home settings.

“State leaders tell us the number one reason many families turn down a foster child placement is lack of access to affordable child care,” Rep. White said. “By removing this barrier, we will help more of our most vulnerable children find a stable, safe and nurturing foster home.”

“We have a responsibility to support those who are caring for our most vulnerable children,” said Ray. “I believe this legislation will provide caregivers peace of mind that their children are taken care of as they focus on providing for their families.”

Currently, the average cost of center-based child care for Ohio families ranges from $8,580 to

$11,438 per year depending on the age of the child. For example, a mom with two young children – an infant and a preschooler – would spend almost $10 an hour on child care alone, making a return to work unaffordable for many Ohioans. A recent survey found 70 percent of working moms would return to work or work more if they had access to child care at a more reasonable cost.

HB 484, jointly sponsored by Rep. White and Rep. Bill Roemer (R- Richfield) will help stimulate public private partnerships to increase access to on-site and near-site child care for Ohio families and employers. The bill creates a new state grant fund and training initiatives to help employers partner with child care providers, non-profit, government and community organizations to expand affordable, quality options to meet workforce needs.

The proposed legislation would allocate just over $10 million for Public-Private Partnership Child Care Grants and the creation of an Employer-Based Design Learning Lab, toolkit and other resources to increase affordable, quality child care capacity near Ohio businesses and work

sites. The initiative would be administered by the Department of Children and Youth, in conjunction with JobsOhio and the Department of Development. Grants will be capped at $750,000 per grantee to assist employers in retrofitting or equipping their onsite or near-site child care facilities, building new child care facilities, or partnering with other providers, government entities, or non-profits on community initiatives to increase child care capacity.

“Our goal is to support our workforce by helping employers and community partners develop innovative, affordable, locally-tailored child care solutions in communities across Ohio,” White said. “It’s no secret that Ohio is experiencing a child care crisis right now, which in turn creates enormous challenges for businesses seeking to attract workers and sustain economic growth. It’s an issue that impacts not only the workforce of today, but the developing young workforce of tomorrow who need access to quality early learning. Only 35% of our children are entering kindergarten ready to learn. That’s why we need to act now to help our communities partner together to solve this problem – both for our families and for our businesses.”

“We are diligently working to create a space where families can afford child care without leaving the workforce altogether,” said Roemer. “If the imbalance of wages to child care costs remains, our workforce will continue to see shortages. We don’t want to negate the work Ohio has done to become a business-friendly state with numerous job opportunities for families to thrive. We must continue to work with parents and businesses to establish affordable on-site and near-site child care facilities.”

Another bill focused on encouraging more businesses to support employees through child care benefits or expenditures is HB 576, jointly sponsored by Rep. White and Rep. Cindy Abrams (R- Harrison). While a current federal tax credit allows employers to reduce their income tax liability by up to $150,000 per year for qualified employee child care expenditures, HB 576 creates a new state tax credit of up to $500,000 per year. The new tax credit can be used for a wider array of employee child care benefits and, while not refundable, can be carried over for five years.

“Across the country, employers are investing in new strategies to attract and retain workers, including expanding their support for employee child care,” White said. “It’s time we come alongside our businesses in this arena as they seek to strengthen our local communities and provide the jobs that fuel our state’s economic engine.”

“We’ve been working hard to spur economic development and create job opportunities throughout our state,” said Abrams. “This legislation will support our workforce and provide parents peace of mind that their kids are taken care of while they are working to provide for their families.”

To help working parents stave off the impact of inflation and rising costs, Rep. White introduced HB 577, which offers tax credits for families paying for child care. The tax credits offer families up to

$3,000 per child or a maximum of $6,000 per family and are refundable on a sliding scale, aligned with the proration offered through Ohio’s recently expanded K-12 educational choice voucher program. Families making up to 450% of the federal poverty level (FPL), for example, $111,870 per year for a three-person household, would receive a refund if their taxes owed were less than the child care credit, whereas families making up to 750% of the FPL would receive a refund of just 10% of any tax credit above taxes owed.

One additional bill designed to spur investment in child care family home and center-based providers is HB 578. The legislation provides a nonrefundable tax credit for contributions by individuals and LLC’s to a qualified child care provider. While the donor cannot claim a credit for contributions to their own family’s child care provider, an employer can receive a discounted rate for their employees’ child care in exchange for their donation.

White indicated that several of the new bills stemmed from the issues and ideas offered by stakeholders around the state through the Child Care Study Committee she co-chaired with Senator Jerry Cirino last General Assembly. “The parents, child care providers, advocates and business leaders are the ones closest to the problems and the thought-leaders who can generate the best solutions,” she said.

“We’re talking about a delicate ecosystem that supports our children, our families, our businesses and in essence our communities. It’s about balancing the needs of our developing children and their parents who seek to enter or remain in the workforce with the needs of our businesses and organizations. Strong families create strong communities, but without strong businesses our communities can’t thrive.”