Study Focuses on Oklahoma Child Care

Scott Inman

An interim study on Tuesday revealed some of the hurdles parents across Oklahoma face when it comes to accessing child care. House Democratic Leader Scott Inman spearheaded the study.

A point was made that rural areas suffer from a lack of child care facilities. Community Development Support Association Director of Early Childhood Services Dianne Juhnke was on hand to provide information to the House Committee on Children, Youth, and Family Services. She said a lack of sufficient child care has an adverse effect on the economy. Her organization is based in Enid. She added that businesses find it difficult to recruit workers to rural areas because there is not access to quality child care.

Size also plays a factor for child care in rural areas.

“In order to be profitable a child care facility ‘has to be of a certain size,’” said Juhnke. “That might mean 30 to 40 children, when only 15 to 20 who qualify are in the community.

Oklahoma’s changing demographics plays a role his access to quality child care. The Oklahoma Child Care Resource and Referral Association has found an increasing role in matching Spanish-speaking families with providers who can address their needs.

Recruitment of qualified child care workers is another hurdle facing facilities today.

“It’s difficult to recruit people to go into the field of child care because of the hours, the licensing requirements, and the compensation,” said Juhnke.

According to Oklahoma Department of Human Services Director of Child Care Services Lesli Blazer, the turnover for child care employees is in the range of 30 to 40 percent.

The state paid more than $124 million to child care providers during FY 2015. One in five dollars came from state funds, more than 50 percent came from grants, with more than a quarter of the funding supplied by the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program.

“Access to affordable, quality child care in rural and urban areas alike is critical to businesses and to families,” said Inman. “Issues we need to pursue include how those facilities are funded, ways we can provide greater subsidies for low-income families, how we can help counties that are struggling to recruit child-care operators, and boosting reimbursement rates for child-care providers which have not been adjusted for nearly a decade.”