Montana Child Welfare Advocates Meet to Discuss Their Future

The two-day program was anchored by the fundamental notion that child care is essential to the economic growth of local communities and the broader state. To achieve that goal, organizers said, child care providers need support in developing the tools to run their facilities like businesses, because they are.

“The people who do this know what they need to do for the kids,” said Rhonda Schwenke, one of the event’s organizers. “They want to be quality caregivers. They know that side. It’s that other side that causes turnover and burnout because there’s so much of it.”

Organized by Zero to Five Montana, a nonpartisan organization focused on early childhood, Wednesday’s Child Care Business Connect Summit featured nearly two dozen workshops and panel discussions.

Participants could learn how to integrate new software into their businesses to make operations more efficient in the morning and hear how to approach lawmakers in the afternoon. They could spend the first session practicing how to forecast costs or delving into the state’s preschool internship program, then talk about community advocacy or workforce impact in the afternoon.

The industry has long been characterized by high employee turnover and attrition rates, with facilities closing after just a few years. As a result, it has struggled to provide families with affordable, accessible, and high-quality care.

According to a report by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, the average Montana family spent $18,940 on child care in 2023, or about 28% of the state’s median household income. Economists recommend that families spend no more than 7% of their total income on child care.

Organizers hope the tools and conversations from this year’s summit will help make the child care business more sustainable. More consistency in child care means a more stable workforce and greater opportunities for economic growth, advocates say.

The same DLI report estimates that about 66,000 Montana parents are unable to fully engage in work, with many working fewer hours than normal. Based on a survey of businesses, DLI estimates that $55 million in business revenue is lost annually.

“Child care is a community issue,” said Tori Sproles, executive director of Bozeman-based Child Care Connections. “It’s everyone’s issue.”

Zero to Five received a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act through the state health department in June 2022 that helped make this annual summit possible. Funding also went toward expanding the Montana Child Care Business Connect program to provide training and technical assistance to child care businesses and create an online resource center to support providers, workers, and families.

The last legislative session stood out from previous years for its focus on preschool care. Numerous bipartisan bills aimed to help providers expand capacity and make child care more accessible to families.

House Bill 352 created an early intervention literacy program for eligible children. House Bill 648 expanded Best Beginnings, a program designed to help low-income parents afford child care, to more families. It passed legislation to increase staffing ratios and allow home care providers to offer unlicensed care to small groups of children.

Others have failed, such as tax breaks for parents with children or childcare workers.

“Government has a role to play in supporting the child welfare system,” said Caitlin Jensen, executive director of Zero to Five Montana. “We’re not going to have the impact that we want on recruitment, on people coming back to Montana, staying in Montana, if we don’t do anything to address this. We believe state government has a role to play in creating the conditions for that to happen, and we’re here to continue to advocate for that.”

Advocates hope to build on that momentum before the 2025 midterms, but they recognize that a slew of competing interests could come to the fore on Capitol Hill this year, including reauthorizing Medicaid expansion and property tax policy.

During a session Wednesday afternoon focused on legislative policy, participants presented ideas they believe would help both providers and families. Suggestions included tuition waivers for early childhood programs, expanding the Best Beginnings income threshold beyond the current 185% of the federal poverty line, pathways to capital for providers with low profit margins and another attack on the child tax credit initiative.

“We hope that the need for further action to help families will continue to be recognized,” Jensen said.