- On this episode of IGI, we take a look at childcare in Kansas and a new initiative to help Kansas employers be more family-friendly, stay with us.

(logo swooshing) (upbeat music) Hello and welcome to IGI.

I'm your host, LeTiffany Obozele, working parents have long been aware of the challenges in finding affordable childcare, openings with childcare providers can be difficult to find and many working families, especially single parents, can't afford the cost.

Joining us today to discuss childcare in Kansas are Sarah Elsen, executive director of Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas, and Trina Goss, director of Business and Talent Initiatives at the Greater Topeka Partnership.

Okay, Sarah, let's start off with talking about what you do for Child Care Aware.

- Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas supports the healthy development of children zero to five years of age by increasing access to high-quality childcare and also, educational resources for families and children.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

And Trina, how about you tell us a little bit more about what you do with the Greater Topeka Partnership?

- So my primary focus of the partnership is workforce development.

And since childcare is a workforce issue, it has fallen under my umbrella, but normally, I focus on identifying barriers that affect businesses in attracting and retaining workforce and then helping them find solutions or community solutions to help solve those problems.

- Okay.

Well Sarah, I wanna start talking with you and we're here to talk about childcare today here in Kansas.

And I wanna talk with you about, if there's a childcare shortage here in Kansas and if there is, would it be appropriate to call it, a crisis?

- [Sarah] There's definitely a childcare shortage, not just in Kansas, but nationwide.

And we are in crisis.

We are losing childcare providers faster than we can get new ones and so this is really a crisis and putting families at a difficult of being able to find high-quality, safe, affordable childcare for their children.

- So I wanna start off and let's talk about when we say, childcare and it being a crisis, what are we talking about and thinking about when we're thinking about folks finding childcare?

- [Sarah] So in Kansas, 46% of children do not have available childcare.

That's half of the population of children from zero to five years of age.

So that's definitely a crisis.

In some of the southeast and some of the southwestern counties in Kansas, there's no available childcare slots, so that's actually a childcare desert when there aren't any available childcare slots.

- [LeTiffany] Okay, so I'm gonna start with that zero to five age group that you talked about.

Are there kids after the five age group that are in afterschool care that are also receiving childcare or afterschool programs that are receiving childcare?

- A lot of the schools now are starting to provide earlier childhood education, kind of at that three year age and up preschool.

So a lot of the gap is being taken care of by the school districts, kind of when they reach that five years and up.

They're also entering kindergarten in the summer, they have summer camps to go to.

We're really focused on that zero to five years of age before they go to school.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

And when you say childcare desert, that also sounds really concerning.

And so tell us a little bit more when somebody is in a childcare desert, what types of things are being done there to address that zero to five aged care group?

- Really trying to find providers and recruit them into the early childhood education field and you know, talk to people that are coming out of high school, talk to maybe, stay-at-home mothers about the opportunity to stay at home and continue to stay at home with their children, but also, maybe take care of another one or two children while you're doing it.

I think it's important when we talk about licensed childcare, that licensed childcare is completely different than asking your neighbor to help out once in a while and watch your child.

We are looking for that licensed childcare, KDHE regulation that is high-quality and safe and goes through all of the regulation and licensing processes and procedures.

- So tell us a little bit more about that licensing procedure when you're looking for those licensed folks and you're talking about the shortage.

- [Sarah] So we make sure that they have all the courses every year, like a lot of different fields that people are in, they have to have professional development courses and these are health and safety courses, but they're also high-quality education.

I think it's important, you know, 20 years ago we always called it, babysitting and right now, it's childcare and there's a difference between putting a child in front of a TV and you know, letting them watch programs all day long and really investing in them and providing a good foundation for their future.

And that's why we call it, childcare because this is early childhood education.

And what is really more important is, third grade reading level is predicted by how well those children come out of childcare or how ready they are to enter kindergarten.

And so when you look at 20 years of research that show that that's the third grade reading level, this is our future, this is, you know, the future of all of us and it's really important that we invest in the youth and realize how important childcare is.

- So I wanna ask you, Sarah, is this an issue?

I think a lot of times when people are talking about childcare, they think about it in the context of the family, right?

And here you are telling us that there's childcare deserts in some parts of our state and we have Trina here talking about workforce.

Is this just limited to families when you think about childcare?

- [Sarah] This isn't a family issue, this isn't a mother issue, this is a community issue and it's gonna take everyone coming together to solve this crisis.

This isn't just something that we can say is a family or a mother issue anymore, it's taking the business community, it's taking the general population to come together and solve this.

When we have research that shows that the national birth rate has declined and it's declining because people can't afford quality childcare or there isn't, that's really scary for our future.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

- [Trina] Yeah, and I wanna jump in and talk about the workforce perspective.

I think for a long time, as Sarah said, it was a family issue, it was a mother issue traditionally, but I think more and more companies are realizing that there is a need to focus on childcare for their employees and by doing so, it could make them an employer of choice that they cannot attract and recruit the talent that they need if people can't go to work because they don't have a place to send their children.

- [LeTiffany] So what are some things that are being done to incentivize the workforce to assist and make it more desirable?

- So I think right now, the key is just educating the companies, educating the business community.

You know, this is a fairly new hot topic, not just locally, but nationally.

I mean it's something that's being talked about at every level in every single state.

And it is still a new concept though for the business community.

So educating them on all of the ways that they can support the need and educating them in ways that they can become involved and work with their workforce then yeah.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

So you said that this impact Sarah, it's no longer just a family issue, it's no longer a mother issue.

And Trina you're saying, you're telling these businesses and the workforce, getting them used to the idea of ways to make it better.

What about extended family?

How is that being implemented?

You mentioned that in the deserts, the childcare deserts that you are reaching out to mothers to maybe, consider the opportunity.

How is extended family playing a role in helping and assisting with childcare?

- [Sarah] Grandparents are definitely a resource that families are having to use and reach out and ask, you know, the grandparents if they can take care of the children.

I think when you also look at the bigger part of kind of the economic issue and what this is doing to businesses is, we have studies that say 48% of women who are staying at home right now would reenter the workforce if they had quality childcare that they could take their children to.

And also, with the decline of the birth rate.

And we can also see that families are waiting until older and age to start a family.

We're losing out on those high-quality potential employees that you know, have been in the field 10, 15 years and now are having to make the difficult choice of one of the parents staying at home because number one, there may not be childcare, but number two, the cost of childcare is really high.

So not only is being able to track new employees important in being able to have childcare slots, but also, losing current employees because of the cost and availability is also a big problem.

- What other impacts are we seeing because of the lack of childcare?

We've mentioned workforce, we've mentioned folks that wanna get back into the workforce, but they're staying at home.

Is childcare I guess, affordable?

- [Sarah] No, Kansas is one of the top 11 states on the worst affordability where childcare is almost twice the cost of rent for a Kansan.

So when it's, you know, a single parent, they're saying, is spending 38% of their income on childcare.

This is forcing families into the difficult decision of number one, do we buy a house?

Do we have a child for childcare, it's one or the other, or number two, do we both continue to work or does one stay home?

So when childcare is twice the amount of average rent in the state of Kansas, I think that sends a huge message that we have to come together to fix this.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

- [Trina] And also, to answer that question in a different way, Sarah talked about the impact on the families and the affordability, but also, there's a major impact on the economy overall because if those people who... going back to workforce, if those people who want to go into work, can't, then that creates a deficit in workforce for companies that may influence their production levels, which immediately trickles down into the economy and our GTP and yeah.

So it makes a big impact on the economy as well.

- So I wanna maybe, talk about one of the initiatives that's going on right now.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the Family Forward initiative?

- [Sarah] Family Forward is an initiative between Greater Topeka Partnership and Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas, we were really lucky and we received a grant award to kind of come together and do an innovative project on what we could do to solve the childcare crisis.

And out of that carefamilyforward.org, which is a scholarship program to be able to assist families with the childcare needs.

Would you like to?

- [Trina] Yeah, so Family Forward as you said, is an initiative, collaboration between GTP and Child Care Aware and that scholarship fund, which we'll share a little bit more about is a huge component of that.

But the initiative is also to, as I said earlier, educate employers on what they can do to support the needs of their employees and their future workforce as well.

And then also, we are working to build a talent pipeline through this initiative as well for childcare workers because that's another need that there is across the state is we don't have enough people who want to work in childcare.

So we are hoping to grow that pipeline so we can open more slots, we can have more quality childcare available for families.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

- [Sarah] And part of that, we talked about the scholarship, but part of that is also the education piece on family-friendly policies.

So it may be overwhelming and daunting to small business to figure out how can they help invest and support their employees with childcare.

But it's also educating them on those family-friendly policies, maybe, you have an infinite work policy, maybe.

We know a large production company here in Topeka adjusted their schedules to allow it to line up more with the childcare openings and closing times.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

- [Trina] And this is such a huge issue and it's very complex.

So I think a lot of companies and individuals just don't know where to start and sometimes, they can start with something really small such as, offering a more flexible work schedule or allowing someone to bring their infant to work for the first few months.

So we want to make it not such a big issue that nobody knows how to deal with.

There are small steps we can take.

- So you mentioned bringing your infant to work so programs I've seen where infants get to be brought to work.

When I worked for the state, you could bring your child to work for the first six months.

What other types of programs when you're having success with infants being brought to work are you seeing?

- [Sarah] So we recently started an infant at work at Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas and it was modeled a lot off of the State of Kansas program, so we allow somebody to bring their infant for the first six months as well, but I think being able to offer flex time is really important.

Being able to change times, when you're looking at manufacturing and you're looking at that first shift or third shift, that really doesn't line up with traditional childcare center hours.

So what can they do to alter those shifts?

Also, we are seeing a lot of families in the systematic divorce when they're working in manufacturing or production because the husband and wife or the two parents are choosing to work opposite shifts so somebody can stay at home with the child, well, that's systematically divorcing the family because both parents are never at home at the same time with their child.

So really coming together and figuring out how do we keep that family unit there and offer some family-friendly policies.

- [LeTiffany] Okay, and when you guys have seen flexible work schedules be successful, how have those been implemented?

What have been some successful ones for that?

- Well, I think the biggest challenge for flexible work schedules is going to be in those shift jobs, whether it's manufacturing or healthcare or other community service like the police department, fire departments.

I think that's where we're gonna find the biggest challenge.

So we've seen companies that create shifts that start and end within childcare hours.

We have seen not so much locally yet, but there are communities that are expanding non-traditional work hour centers.

So centers that stay open until 11 o'clock at night or even some opportunities that are open overnight so they're able to keep children overnight for those shift workers.

I think that those have been pretty successful.

And as I mentioned earlier, that makes them an employer of choice because it is showing that they're creating these shifts that work for the family, that they're focused on the family, not just what they need for their business.

- [Sarah] Employers for so long have invested in health benefits and financial retirement benefits and it's time for them to realize that childcare is a health benefit, it is healthy to the family, it is healthy to our future and it is something that they need to invest in.

And also, on Family Forward, if you visit our website, there's information on how businesses can take advantage of the Child Care Tax credit, which is another benefit for them to invest in childcare and be able to take advantage of a tax credit as well.

- [LeTiffany] Okay, and when you're talking about the childcare shortage, I feel like we should talk about, did COVID play an impact in that?

Have we recovered some from COVID or are we still seeing some of these shortages from when COVID had an impact on childcare?

- [Sarah] COVID highlighted the issue for those of us in the childcare ecosystem, The childcare industry, we saw this bubbling up and coming to bottleneck for years.

COVID just really highlighted the problem and then there was a lot of sustainability dollars and different programs that was helping aid with families and with different things.

And so if they weren't working, they were able to stay at home and take advantage of different programs that were out there.

It is now that those programs have ended and they're reentering the workforce and we've lost childcare providers.

It is really becoming a hot topic in every community across the United States.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

So one of the things I think we saw more of that I'm thinking of when you're talking about flexible schedules, I feel like a lot of people started doing some work from home, if that was a benefit you had, obviously maybe, you don't have that with manufacturing or jobs or you have to be in-person, but how is work from home being incorporated or used to assist folks with their childcare needs?

Is that part of the flexible scheduling?

- [Trina] Yeah, a lot of companies that are able to do offer that hybrid work schedule.

Maybe, a person comes into the office two or three days a week and then they're at home the other couple of days.

I think the concern with the business community on that is that they're not reaching the production levels that they had previously or when they're in the office full time.

I think it's still a new enough thing that we don't have really accurate data, if it's really successful, you know, if it really works because if you're staying at home with your kid and trying to work full time, - Yeah.

- [Trina] You have a lot of distractions and then I think it can in another way produce more stress within the family because that parent might be trying to work late in the night to get caught up on the work that they miss during the day.

- [LeTiffany] Yeah, yeah.

- [Sarah] I think also you bring in the safe quality childcare so if you're working and you're not providing that, you know, 100% childcare of that child, is there some safety issues?

Is there some quality issues of them being taken care of?

And so I think that, you know, also brings in another aspect of it is that you're not fully invested into watching that child, depending on the age, of course, you know, as they get older, they get a little bit more self-sufficient.

But if you are trying to work full time at home and take care of a 2-year-old, we know two year olds get into a lot of trouble.

- [LeTiffany] Yeah, yeah.

- And so, yeah.

- [LeTiffany] I think one of the other things that COVID highlighted, I hear you saying, distractions if you're trying to do multiple things, is that a lot of things went to Zoom and people had a lot of meetings where they were multitasking.

So you had to accept people for whole personness, right?

You no longer kind of just got to be an employee, you were a whole person, you had your cats, you had your kids, you had your spouses, you just got to see everything for everybody.

And so what do you think employers can do to help understand that whole person while understanding the challenges of childcare for those that are jumping in now and they do understand that everybody's not just an employee anymore?

- [Trina] I think, it depends on the size of the company so if it's a smaller business that's more close-knit, I mean obviously, you wanna have that open door communication so you can understand what's going on in the lives of your employees and really have that open communication.

With larger companies, employee resource groups are pretty key.

I know of manufacturers who have working parent employee resource groups.

So those employees come together, they talk about the struggles that they're having with, you know, finding childcare or you know, when their child gets sick or whatever.

And the representatives from those resource groups can talk to the management and say, "Okay, this is what our people are saying, this is what they need."

And then the management can take those and come up with some ideas to help solve problems.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

And I've seen some companies that have like daycare like available.

- [Sarah] Yes.

- I don't know if that's like a company benefit or if somebody else is running it, but is that a thing that some employers are considering or is that a benefit to some companies?

- [Trina] Yes.

We have two companies in Topeka right now who do have their own childcare center for their employees.

And we have a couple others that are really considering it, I think the thing that stands in the way for a lot of companies is it is a very big investment.

They're probably not gonna make money on it.

And there are those regulations, I mean, they have to become licensed, they have to go through all of those steps that any other childcare center would need to go through.

So it is a huge benefit for those companies.

I know that they run into not having enough slots to fill the needs of all their employees.

And so there's a wait list and that's a challenge that they're willing to face, but you still have those employees that have to look elsewhere.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

- [Sarah] Trina, I know that she said that they're not gonna make money on it and they're not, but we also have information that shows that there's a 400% ROI on it because of the recruitment and retention benefit that it does provide employees.

So if they know that they've got childcare, but they leave this company and with it, they lose their childcare slot, that's a retention benefit.

Also, if you're recruiting a high potential employee and they're looking at moving to different community, but they see that it might be a childcare desert or there are no available childcare slots and you say, "We've got onsite childcare and we can immediately get your child in," that's a recruitment benefit as well.

And also, some employers are also subsidizing some of the costs, but also, what a great benefit if it's onsite to be able to allow those employees to go over and have lunch with their children, to attend the different, you know, parades and holiday events, for mothers who breastfeed to go over and have that time with them.

So it is a big ROI just when it comes to recruitment and retention, but if you're looking at doing it as another business line to make money, you're not gonna make money on it.

You're gonna make it on the recruitment and the retention piece.

- [Trina] And you're right because recruitment and retention is a huge expense for companies.

I mean, I think it can be up to like $36,000 to have to recruit and then onboard and train another employee, so yeah.

- [LeTiffany] So I wanna start with you, Sarah.

What's something that if somebody's watching and now they know this isn't just a family issue, this is an everybody issue.

We are seeing extended family participate, we're seeing childcare deserts, we're seeing getting mothers to stay at home and consider doing childcare or other people to consider doing childcare.

If everybody has to care and participate, what's something you want them to know that they can do to help participate and start caring to get involved?

- [Sarah] I think visiting familyforwardnow.org is a huge place that they can go and get some resources.

Of course, we invite them to donate to the scholarship fund, this would allow some families who are going back to work, but they don't get that first paycheck for two weeks.

And so how do they pay that childcare for those first two weeks to allow them to reenter the workforce again.

But also, there's information to link us back to Greater Topeka Partnership and Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas.

So you can stay informed about what we were doing in Shawnee County to come together and address the childcare shortage.

And maybe, you know, someone that you can talk to, maybe you have a neighbor who has been a stay-at-home mom and is looking at staying at home, but they could also take care of one or two extra children and it adds some family income while also being able to help solve this.

So talk to them as well.

- [LeTiffany] And Trina, what about you?

- [Trina] Yeah, I agree.

The familyforwardnow.org website is the place to go for a lot of different information.

Whether you wanna work in childcare, you wanna be a business that supports in any kind of way, you can learn ideas there.

And then also, that scholarship fund Sarah mentioned, you know, it's to help fill that gap also for families who might still be struggling even after receiving other subsidies or if they just have a one-time need.

They have a major unexpected expense pop up in their life and they have to choose, which do I pay for childcare or this.

And so yeah, just go out to that website and find a way that you can help support the cause.

- [Sarah] And I think also just putting value on our childcare workers.

Our childcare workers are small business owners.

A lot of them do not have benefits and a lot of them, you know, make less than $10 an hour when they're raising our future and investing into the education of our children.

And so I think, we really need to take the time to appreciate how important they are and what they provide our children and our families every day.

- Sarah and Trina, thank you so much for being here.

Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas and the Greater Topeka Partnership and its workforce initiative.

You guys are really doing some great things and you hear that it benefits us all to care.

That is all the time we have for this episode of IGI, if you have any comments or suggestions for future topics, send us an email at issues@ktwu.org.

If you would like to view this program again or any previous episodes of IGI, visit us online at watch.ktwu.org.

For IGI, I'm LeTiffany Obozele and thanks for watching.

(upbeat music)