The interim appropriations committee heard the latest on developments to child care grant opportunities at its latest meeting.
With child care costs a major hurdle for young families, every dollar could make a major difference.
Officials said there are grant dollars already available that could offset some of the costs of child care, but not everyone knows about them.
Brenda Tidball-Zeltinger is the deputy secretary of the Department of Social Services, which regulates licensed child care providers in the state and aids new families.
“Outside of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) and some of the COVID dollars, by in large the largest intersect for us in the child care space for us within the department is a safety net program we call child care assistance," Tidball-Zeltinger said. "Essentially, what that assistance program does is it’s really a work and education program. We will reimburse a portion of a family’s child care expenses so they can work and go to school.”
Qualifications for this program orbit a provider’s monthly income, both earned from work and unearned from social programs and benefits. The program is funded by federal dollars.
“These are small grants," Tidball-Zeltinger said. "The grants range anywhere from $1,500 to a provider with a maximum in some cases of $5,000. So, it’s really a small-scale program – a small component of the work that we do.”
These dollars aren’t reaching every corner of the state though. Rep. Linda Duba, a Sioux Falls Democrat, explained.
“We have several thousand individuals who are eligible for this in the state of South Dakota, but they would also have to go to a licensed child care provider, and that licensed child care provider would then have to be in the program," Duba said. "We are running about 5% of the total eligible population who are actually getting this grant.”