The child care crisis in South Dakota is continues to put a strain on families and businesses. At a recent town hall hosted by SDPB's Jackie Hendry, a question was posed – what’s next?
The town hall took place at the Black Hills studio and saw many of the areas’ child care leaders assessing the situation.
One of those guests was Callie Tysdal, communications director with the John T. Vucurevich Foundation. She explained the new tri-share model the nonprofit is taking part in.
“It gives everybody a seat at the table," Tysdal said. "We take a family, and employer, and in this case the John T. Vucurevich Foundation, and we each chip in a third of the child care costs. That really makes an impact for the family where their monthly bill goes down to a third of what it was, and this employer is able to offer this benefit to their employees.”
This trial program can make a major difference in a parent’s life, especially when child care costs are only going up – often comparable to a second mortgage payment.
“They look at this program and go – what’s the catch? I’m going to make too much money to qualify for this program," Tysdal said. "Our program is really trying to fill a gap. We have headstart programs where if you’re at 100% of poverty you can qualify for that, child care assistance is up to 209%. We’re the next level, so if you’re a family of four you can still qualify for our program when you’re making a household income of around $98,000.”
Those challenges highlighted in a new survey published by Elevate Rapid City. Community Development Manager Laura Jones broke down the findings.
“In those results we found that 30% of the respondents from our community survey have left the workforce because they could not afford or find child care, and of that 30%, 70% would return to the workforce if they could find child care," Jones said. "So, it goes back to the availability and affordability of child care.”