Kim Reynolds announces new child care initiatives after lawmakers fail to pass her bill

• A new grant program announced by Gov. Kim Reynolds would provide preschools and child care centers with $300,000 over three years to offer all-day care for 4-year-olds.
• Reynolds also proposed a new fund to solicit donations from businesses to boost child care workers’ wages. And she extended a pilot making child care workers eligible for child care assistance funds.
• Reynolds proposed similar initiatives in a bill that failed to pass the Iowa Legislature this year.

Gov. Kim Reynolds is launching a new grant program for preschools and child care centers to partner and provide all-day care for 4-year-olds and boost Iowa’s child care workforce.

The move comes after state lawmakers ended the 2025 Iowa legislative session without passing Reynolds’ proposal to add similar programs to state law.

Reynolds announced a range of child care-focused steps in a May 20 news release. They include:

• Creating a new continuum of care grant program to provide grants of $300,000 over three years to preschools and licensed child care providers to offer all-day care for 4-year-olds.
• Establishing a Statewide Child Care Solutions Fund that matches donations from businesses to boost child care workers’ wages.
• And extending a pilot program that makes child care workers eligible for state child care assistance funding, even if they exceed the program’s income limits.

“When individuals, businesses and government all work together to solve a problem, Iowans benefit. Nowhere is this more evident than in child care,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Programs like the Child Care Assistance pilot and the Statewide Solutions Fund will continue to increase our child care workforce and capacity. And the Early Childhood Continuum of Care grant will help give working parents what they need — a full day continuum of care for their children.”

Several of the initiatives Reynolds announced Tuesday were in her bill to incentivize partnerships between preschools and child care providers. The legislation passed the Iowa Senate April 23, but it never received a vote in the House.

Democrats had criticized the bill for redirecting existing funding that went to Early Childhood Iowa programs instead of providing new money for child care and preschool programs.

Grants would incentivize preschool and child care partnerships for all-day care

The continuum of care grants will be available to licensed child care centers and participants in Iowa’s statewide voluntary preschool program.

The grants are worth up to $100,000 per year for three years.

An online request for proposal page said “the source of funding is a combination of state and federal funding sources.”

“This first-of-its-kind grant opportunity supports partnerships between high-quality preschool and child care programs, providing a full day of care that meets the needs of children and working families,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a statement. “We know that about 90 percent of a child’s brain develops by age 5, and Iowa’s new Continuum of Care grant will expand family access to high-quality early childhood options that lay the foundation for learner success in school and beyond.”

Statewide fund seeks donations to boost child care workers’ wages

Reynolds is seeking donations from businesses and individuals for a new Statewide Child Care Solutions Fund, which would provide money to hire new child care workers.

The program would build on a 2024 pilot program that created regional child care solutions funds in several counties around the state.

Reynolds cited a study by the Common Sense Institute of Iowa that examined the pilot program and determined a statewide fund could add 11,000 new child care slots around the state, create 8,000 jobs around Iowa and allow 5,000 more women to enter the workforce.

Restricted donations would go towards the local fund in the area specified by the donor while the state will provide a 2-to-1 match for unrestricted donations.

A spokesperson for Reynolds could not immediately answer questions about the cost of the state match or how it would be funded.

Reynolds extends pilot program letting child care workers access child care assistance

Reynolds will also extend a pilot program begun in 2023 that makes all child care workers eligible for child care assistance, regardless of their income level, to try to keep more child care workers in the workforce.

Iowa’s child care assistance program subsidizes the cost of child care for low-income families.

The pilot program currently serves 900 families and 1,500 children, according to the state’s news release.

A spokesperson for Reynolds did not immediately answer questions about how Reynolds would fund the extension of the pilot program.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.