Iowa businesses, schools receive grants to expand child care

VINTON, Iowa (KCRG) – Tuesday, Iowa awarded grants to businesses and schools to “jumpstart new child care opportunities and make it easier for Iowans to find child care options through their employer,” according to a release from the governor’s office.

Below is a map of the recipients.

The Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District is one of the recipients. Superintendent Kyle Koeppen said the district received $1.5 million after proving it had the funds to match that.

“The people that are like 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. type child care needs, we’re going to be able to have it all on one site at the school,” said Koeppen.

The district will use that money to offer care for 52 kids.

Koeppen said the program will likely be housed in Tilford Elementary School, and it will be open to kids throughout the community, not just those whose parents work for the school district.

Koeppen said more child care was a dire need for the community. “The city of Vinton itself is not a— ‘child care desert’ is kind of the the phrase that they use— but all of our surrounding area is. And so with the employers being in town, we actually sometimes lose enrollment as a school district, because of childcare.”

Jessica Fisher is a parent who lives in Vinton and works during the day. She has four kids, ages eleven, 9, 7, and 5. She said child care in the area is “scarce, it’s few and far between, it’s really hard to find a good provider here, close to here.” She added that, because of the scarcity, only two of her kids can go to child care.

She hoped having care for 52 more kids would relieve the strain on the community as a whole. “Hopefully having something like this open up is going to take away some of that stress,” said Fisher.

There is a second round of funding for the Child Care Business Incentive slots grant. The link to apply can be found here.

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