North Dakota’s Senate Minority Leader says child care is a very important part of workforce development.
And Fargo Democratic Senator Kathy Hogan said there are a number of bills dealing with child care. One of them would continue a program that started during COVID, and was initially paid for through federal dollars.
"We want to offer direct payment to a licensed child care for simply being open," Hogan said. "Stabilization grants started during COVID, and that's what kept our facilities open."
Hogan said the goal of SB 2301 is to operationalize, set policy standards an establish it as an on-going way for the state of North Dakota to support workforce through child care. She said she's heard from some people who want to return to work, but need child care, and can’t find it. And she said right now, North Dakota is in danger of losing child care providers.
"The COVID funding is going away, and the number of facilities that are closing right now terrifies me," Hogan said. "I think we could lose those facilities over the next six months, and suspect we would lose 20 percent of them."
Hogan said other measures include speeding up fingerprint checks for child care hires.
