DES MOINES – A new state website allows parents to search for and compare child care options in Iowa.

Governor Kim Reynolds and Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, unveiled the new website Thursday during a press conference at the Iowa Capitol.

Reynolds said the website was one of the recommendations of a task force she created to look for ways to improve access to and affordability of child care in Iowa.

The state’s new website is called Iowa Child Care Connect and can be found at childcareconnect.iowa.gov.

“This is an online tool that will fundamentally change the way working parents in Iowa shop for child care,” Reynolds said at the press conference. “It’s a convenient tool that will help working parents make their child care decisions faster and easier than ever before.”

Iowa Child Care Connect was created with $5.2 million in federal pandemic relief funding and will require $500,000 in annual maintenance, a state official said.

Reynolds opposed the federal government’s American Rescue Plan when it was passed in 2021, and during Thursday’s press conference blamed federal policies for rising inflation and, in turn, the cost of child care and other family expenses.

The website was created in collaboration with Iowa State University and data and technology consulting firm Resultant.

A 2019 study by Child Care Aware of America defines affordable child care as a cost that equals 7 percent of a family’s income.

Families with a median income of $79,186 in Iowa pay 16 percent of their pretax income for child care at a licensed facility and 11 percent at a registered child care home, according to the Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral program, which promotes child care quality across the state and helps providers comply with regulations.

How it works

When parents search for child care options through Iowa Child Care Connect, the website shows them which facilities have child care spaces available.

The site also allows users to narrow their search for childcare options, for example by limiting results to those that are close to a person’s commute, and they can view quality ratings and recent complaint reports.

The site allows users to view all of this information in a side-by-side comparison of multiple facilities.

The rates of a childcare facility are not listed on the website.

The information on the website is updated daily and comes from a network of about 3,500 child care providers across the state, both private and licensed facilities, state officials said.

Search results include licensed child care centers, registered child care homes, and unregistered programs approved by the state to accept child care subsidy payments.

“Powerful tool”

Garcia said she was very excited to introduce the program, saying its creation had been her goal since she moved to Iowa from Texas in 2019 and struggled to find child care for her children, who were then 4 years and 18 months old.

“I struggled to find easily accessible locations here in the Des Moines area, even though I had access to the very people who oversee this work every day,” Garcia said. “It wasn’t available immediately, but it will be available now. This tool was born out of those frustrations.”

Reynolds said state officials believe Iowa Child Care Connect is the first of its kind in the country. She and Garcia said the data produced by the program could also be used to help state policymakers identify where in Iowa the need for affordable child care is greatest.

“This information is an incredibly powerful tool,” Garcia said. “This data will help show all levels of government and other decision makers areas where they can really invest in their communities, where they can expand and grow because they have a high supply or a shortage (of child care options).”

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