ASHLAND — It takes a village to raise a child — and, in some cases, a village to pay for child care.
In Ohio, the average annual cost for care is $12,351 for infants, $11,125 for toddlers and $9,580 for preschoolers, according to Groundwork Ohio, a statewide policy and advocacy organization.
Qualifying for state assistance in Ohio
In Ohio, qualifying for publicly funded child care through the Department of Job and Family Services requires a family to be at or below 145% of the federal poverty level. That’s about $45,240 annually for a family of four.
Child care advocates argue that bar is too low. Ohio Kids First, a lobbying group focused on child care, has advocated for raising it to 200% of the federal poverty level, but that bump wasn’t reflected in the House-approved budget.
Groundwork also estimates the average household with two children spends 29% of its income on child care — far above the 7% recommended threshold from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Meanwhile, Ohio has one of the lowest income eligibility thresholds in the nation to receive public child care assistance, according to an analysis by Policy Matters Ohio.
In order to qualify for public child care assistance, families can make no more than 145 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL).
Meanwhile, 37 states have an income threshold of 200 percent of the FPL or greater.
In its version of the state budget bill, the Ohio House of Representatives allocated $10 million to create a Child Care Credit Program.
The proposal was removed from the most recent version of the budget, a substitute version written by the Ohio Senate, according to an analysis by Policy Matters Ohio.
The program would have provided a state match for child care costs of 20 percent for employers willing to cover 40 percent of child care costs. The additional 40 percent of child care costs would be up to families, with households earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level eligible.
While it was cut from Ohio’s latest budget proposal, other states have been able to make a Child Care Cred model work.
A similar program exists in Michigan, though it’s known by a different name: “Tri-Share.”
Making moves in Michigan
It does so by splitting the cost of childcare between an employee, their employer and the state. Employers get to opt into the program.
Michigan launched a pilot Tri-Share program in 2021.
Shannon Garrett, the senior program advisor for MI Tri-Share, said the COVID-19 pandemic inspired officials to take action to address child care access.
“That helped really drive home a point, but I think the idea — the concept — was being tossed around before that,” she said.
The pilot began with an aim of flexibility. The program would adjust as necessary to meet the needs of participants. Garrett said the program was established to target a specific set of people: mainly middle-class families who were struggling to afford child care.
To that end, participating employees had to lie within a certain income band, which was adjusted during the pilot. The final threshold for employees’ incomes increased the allowed maximum from 200% of the federal poverty level to 325%.
Any employer could opt to participate in the program. Providers had to be licensed. The program was run by “facilitator hubs” in charge of recruiting employers to participate in the program.
In Michigan, participating employers, employees and the state split the cost of care evenly.
An evaluation of the pilot program revealed strong employee satisfaction with the program. Surveys also found that, on the employer side, the program appeared to have a strong impact on employee retention and a potential impact on recruitment.
But the program had limitations as well. Employers said participating businesses didn’t receive guidance on how to vet and enroll employees in available child care slots. Employers could choose the number of child care slots they were willing to support, which gave them flexibility, but might have limited participation from families.
Child care providers reported the pill program didn’t have a large effect on their sustainability, but it didn’t have detrimental effects.
Changing the game
Garrett said that first evaluation caused the program to make changes. One of the largest was bringing on a third party to facilitate the program at the state level. United Way of Northwest Michigan took on that mantle as a statewide administrative partner.
After the pilot, the state expanded its Tri-Share program from three hubs to 13. It now exists in 59 of the state’s 83 counties. As of March 2024, the program included 203 employer participants, 550 employee participants and 371 child care providers.
Where Tri-Share stands out, in Garrett’s view, is that it’s one of the few programs tackling child care from the perspective of workforce development.
“We have the employers at the table,” she said. “Buy-in isn’t the right word, but they’re invested in the program themselves, literally, by creating their budgets for the program.”
Anecdotally, Garrett said she’s heard stories of families who were able to save for a down payment for their first homes or take promotions at work without worrying about being ineligible for child care assistance thanks to the program. She’s also heard several stories of employers who were better able to retain employees thanks to the program.
The program is continuing to change as it grows. Garrett said they’ve expanded the income level for participating employees, for example. So, those up to 400% of the federal poverty level are now eligible for Tri-Share.
States following suit
Michigan’s implementation of the Tri-Share model caught the attention of other states and counties. Similar proposals have been approved, or are in process, in New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio and Noble County, Ind.
Alyssa Fortner works as a policy analyst for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), a D.C.-based “nonpartisan, anti-poverty nonprofit advancing policy solutions to improve the lives of people with low incomes.” When it comes to child care, the center aims to ensure all children have access to free or affordable child care and early education.
We have the employers at the table. Buy-in isn’t the right word, but they’re invested in the program themselves, literally, by creating their budgets for the program.
Shannon Garrett, Senior Program Advisor for Mi Tri-Share
Fortner has researched Tri-Share and said the policies do differ a bit across state lines.
“All of the different areas, of course, have the same angle, but we do see some differences in how states are implementing,” Fortner said.
For example, Michigan and North Carolina both require employers to contribute one-third of the cost. Kentucky, however, doesn’t have a minimum or maximum for employers’ contribution, Fortner said. Kentucky also uses its state’s median income to determine employee eligibility, while several other states use the federal poverty level.
Stephanie Schmit, who works as the director of child care and early education at CLASP, said she’s not positive about why states are leaning into Tri-Share.
In her eyes, it could be a way to ensure a limited budget can meet the needs of as many people as possible. Plus, she thinks bringing employers to the table also makes more people invested in the issue.
Schmit applauded the fact that states like Michigan are working to creatively attack child care issues. She argued states coming up with innovative solutions is symptomatic of a lack of value placed on child care nationally.
While there are several lessons to take from Tri-Share, Schmit said she’d like to see the federal government make more substantial investments in the sector to adequately address child care needs.
“What I think is really necessary to face all the challenges and the problems is investment at a level that we’ve never seen before from public dollars, primarily federal dollars, to provide a workforce that is appropriately compensated and valued, and also to provide child care — either free child care or very inexpensive out-of-pocket costs for families — to be able to really solve all the problems we’re talking about here,” Schmit said.
“I think, in terms of the near future, I don’t know that this is something we’ll see soon.”
Meanwhile, some researchers believe there are more effective ways to tackle child care affordability for families. In a press release analyzing the Ohio Senate’s substitute budget bill, Policy Matters Ohio said it supported the removal the Child Care Cred program.
“Tri-share programs in other states have had lackluster results and the funding would have a greater impact if directed toward Senate Bill 177, a bill to provide free childcare for childcare workers,” the press release said.
The organization also called for increasing income eligibility for publicly-funded child care — a measure that was included in Gov. DeWine’s proposed budget, but not the versions put forth by the House and Senate.
A piece of the puzzle
The fact that the program is not a silver bullet is something Garrett acknowledged, too. Michigan’s Tri-Share program is only meant to be part of addressing child care accessibility and affordability issues.
In her state, Tri-Share is paired with several other policies that are either in place or in the works addressing other child care challenges: pre-K for all, policies tackling low wages for child care workers and policies expanding the number of providers.
“A number of states call and ask us to see how it’s going, they’re looking at it and thinking about doing similar programs,” Garrett said.
“The one piece of advice that I give to everyone is to understand that this is not the answer to everything, so it’s helping a certain set of stakeholders, that being employers and working families.
“And two, manage expectations about the program and how long the startup is. So, once you start the program, you can’t expect that it’s overnight gonna have these grand results.”