Parents and guardians from across the Commonwealth voiced their support for expanded child care services during a web conference last week.
It follows the release of a 1300 person survey from the left leaning Kentucky Center for Economic Policy that highlights a variety of challenges keeping Kentuckians from having access to affordable child care.
We, the parents, are all acutely aware that Kentucky is not only a big old child care desert, but the child care that we do find is expensive and often unsustainable for us.
I was on more than a dozen waiting lists at one point, several before my babies were born in 2004 82, and the first real phone call I got were when the babies were about ten months old for a single slot, not two.
I was willing to drive up to an hour away to make it work, and I'm still on at least seven waiting list right now.
And I can personally say that without a shadow of a doubt in all of my past professional roles, I would have left the workforce by now.
This burden of child care costs is leading to significant changes for many families as well.
45% reported that they had to change jobs to gain flexibility related to child care.
39% say they've had to alter their work hours.
22% waited longer to have additional children than they would have otherwise, and 20% delayed having children altogether.
A full 12% actually left the workforce at some point in order to stay home and care for their children.
I am a mom of three kids and under three kids, six and under in Clark County, Kentucky.
It's not just important for families like mine right now that are on the Seacat program, because I am also literally right at the very edge of facing the benefits Cliff.
I would love opportunities to further my career and to pursue those opportunities.
But the reality is, is a very small increase in my pay would shift me into paying the full price of childcare out of pocket.
Realistically, I at that point I would have to decide between turning down a raise or not being able to afford care.
My family and I are expecting twins in May and I, to be completely frank, did not realize how difficult the childcare system in Kentucky was until it became our opportunity to start looking for childcare and quickly realized that and a handful that are available to us in Leger and Pike County where we live and one will only take them when they're three years old.
Which leaves the question of what do you do until they're three?
And then the other is not have an availability until expected in April of 2025.
And my twins are due in May.
I am a grandmother who had custody of her grandson.
I got custody when he was three years old.
I was working a full time job, a salary job.
If it hadn't been for the availability of Head Start, I truly don't know what I could have done.
And I live so far out in the county and didn't know anybody around me.
I was 50 years old and I paid for my health care and I paid for my retirement and now had to pay for raising a child again.
And I said only afford to do two of those.
So I quit putting into my retirement to raise another child at 50.
The childcare cliff before Kentucky this year is totally preventable.
It's a policy choice whether or not to invest in upstream interventions to support the whole health of a person our children, the hardworking families who love them, the local economies who foster them.
We all deserve more.
Well, you know.
Numerous bills have been proposed to address the gaps in child care.
This legislative session.
Among them are Senate Bill 203, also known as the Horizons Act.
The bill would contribute $150 million annually to the industry alongside the creation of grant stipends and employee retention programs for the industry.
The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee.