ONC – In Appalachian Ohio, quality childcare is increasingly scarce or prohibitively expensive for working families.
Even before COVID-19, 60-percent of rural Ohioans lived in a child-care desert, or an area with three times as many children as licensed child-care providers.
Noble County mother Erin Finley says she’s struggled to find care for her son over the past month, despite being on several waitlists. Since her income is too high for Head Start, she expects to pay an extra 300-dollars a month for the day-care facility.
“I’m a single parent and household, and we only have one income, and I now pay more for childcare than I pay to rent my home, that I paid to have my car.”
As many as 100-thousand Americans have been forced to stay home from work each month because of child-care issues, according to the U-S Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Finley adds that without options, working parents are forced to rely on babysitters or unlicensed in-home providers.
“I think it even makes it more difficult to find care when you’ve been in a few situations and had to remove your child due to safety concerns.”
Earlier this year, Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, introduced the Expanding Childcare in Rural America Act of 2023. The legislation would create and expand federal loan and grant programs to boost the availability, quality and affordability of childcare in rural regions.