A new report by Gov. Mike Dunleavy's Task Force on Child Care highlights the state's severe shortage of child care providers and proposes solutions to address affordability and bureaucratic challenges.
Child care shortages could be addressed by a combination of actions to help families with subsidies and help providers work through what is currently a daunting bureaucratic process, according to a new report last year by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The Governor’s Task Force on Child Care report, released on Dec. 27, follows an earlier report released last year.
The recommendations put forward are not only responses to immediate challenges but also a roadmap for a resilient infrastructure that serves both working parents that need reliable, safe care, and the licensed facilities that provide that care, said Heidi Hedberg, commissioner of the state Department of Health, in a statement. Removing barriers, especially in rural areas, and supporting the child care workforce, are other areas we expect to see long-lasting improvements, as a result of this important work. The problems became more severe after the Covid-19 pandemic, when Alaska lost 10% of its licensed child care providers, according to state officials. The report also revealed cost differences based on geography. For example, monthly preschool costs per child in Anchorage averaged $1,186, while in northern Alaska the average was $1,749, according to the study. To help address the problem of affordability, one recommendation is for geographical cost-of-living adjustments to be applied to parents’ income, said Leah Van Kirk, a department health care policy adviser. Living costs are higher in rural Alaska than in urban Alaska, and the McKinley Research Group report showed that child care costs in rural areas are particularly high. Currently, a geographic cost adjustment is applied to subsidies paid for child care costs, but that does not extend to the income levels that are used to determine subsidy eligibility
Childcare Shortage Alaska Subsidies Bureaucracy
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