MT childcare advocates discuss future

Hosted by Zero to Five Montana, a nonpartisan organization focused on early childhood, Wednesday’s Child Care Business Connect Summit included nearly two dozen workshops and panel discussions.

Attendees could learn how to integrate new software into their businesses to make operations more efficient in the morning and hear how to contact legislators in the afternoon. They could spend their first session practicing how to project costs or diving deep on the state’s early childhood apprenticeship program, followed by conversations about community advocacy or workforce impacts in the afternoon.

Long characterized by frequent worker turnover and high rates of churn with facilities closing after just a couple of years, the industry has struggled to provide families with affordable and accessible care that is also high quality.

As of 2023, the average Montana family spent $18,940 on child care, or about 28% of the state’s median household income, according to a report from the state’s Department of Labor and Industry. Economists recommend families spend no more than 7% of their total income on child care.

Organizers hope the tools and conversations from this week’s summit can help make the business of child care more sustainable. More consistency in child care means a more stable workforce and greater opportunity for economic growth, advocates say.

That same DLI report estimates that about 66,000 Montana parents are unable to fully engage in the workforce, with many working fewer hours than they would otherwise. Based on a survey of businesses, DLI approximates that $55 million in business revenue has been lost annually.

“Child care is a community issue,” said Tori Sproles, executive director at Bozeman-based Child Care Connections. “It’s an everybody issue.”

Zero to Five received a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act through the state health department in June 2022 that helped make this annual summit possible. Funding also went toward growing the Montana Child Care Business Connect program to provide training and technical assistance to child care businesses as well as create an online resource hub to support providers, workers, and families.

The last legislative session stood apart compared to years past for its focus on early childhood care. Numerous bipartisan bills aimed to make it easier for providers to grow capacity and make child care more accessible to families.

Others failed, such as tax benefits to parents with children or to child care workers.

“There is a role for the government in helping to support the child care system,” Caitlin Jensen, the executive director of Zero to Five Montana, said. “We’re not going to have the impact that we want to see on recruitment, people coming back to Montana, staying in Montana, if we don’t really work to address this. We do think that the state government has a role to play in creating the conditions for that to happen, and we’re here to keep advocating for it.”

Advocates hope to build on this momentum going into the 2025 Legislature, but they recognize there’s a spate of competing interests that could take up oxygen in the Capitol this year such as the reauthorization of Medicaid expansion and property tax policy.

At a session on Wednesday afternoon focused on legislative policy, participants floated ideas they thought might help providers and families alike. Suggestions included tuition waivers for early childhood education programs, expansion of the Best Beginnings income threshold above the current limit of 185% of the federal poverty line, pathways for facilities with tight profit margins to access capital, and another stab at the child tax credit initiative.

“We’re hoping there will be continued recognition that we need to keep doing more to help families,” Jensen said.