Child care group responds to state's plan for disbursing funds,

The Licensed Child Care Association of Oklahoma has released a statement calling on the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to “revoke” its plan to allocate the $ 50 million given to the state through the CARES Act.

The Department of Human Services on Friday announced that the money would be used as a fund to give families seeking employment 60 days worth of child care. The money from the fund would go to child care providers, but families would be able to only use providers who are contracted with DHS for subsidized care.

The association released a statement on its Facebook page Sunday detailing its problems with the planned use of the $50 million.

“This is a blatant disregard for the Child Care industry ,” the or ganiza ti on wrote in its statement. “Child Care providers across the State are suffering like every other industry.”

The $50 million was given to Oklahoma through the CARES Act to go toward the Child Care and Development Block Grant. The U.S. Office of Child Care lists intended uses for the money as helping childcare providers with decreased enrollment remain open or reopen, or providing child care for the families of essential workers.

“Your rent doesn't go away, your insurance doesn' t go away, your vehicle payments don't go away when your facility closes or has low enrollment,” association board member Jane ll Wheat said .“So some sort of compensation to help with that relief is what the bill was intended for.

“It was very broad in the sense that it could be used for, and I'm disappointed that the state decided to put it into one hole and it wasn't even a hole that was intended.”

As of April 20,772 Oklahoma childcare providers had temporarily closed. Childcare homes and centers have struggled financially as a result of decreased attendance because parents are working from home, furloughed or unemployed and not bringing their children to day care.

But child care providers are trying to remain open because they have been deemed an essential business to provide care for the families of essential workers. The plan put in place for the $50 million does not address the needs of child care providers, according to association.

“They just missed the ball on the intent of this relief money that was passed,” Wheat said.

In the release, the association said it has been in contact with groups in 43 other states and learned the different ways those states have allocated the money from the CARES Act to goto childcare homes and centers. These plans included flat payments to providers, payments per child enrolled and paying providers based on their January income.

When announcing the plan, state DHS Director Justin Brown said officials decided the best use for the funding was to help families in need, and listed other funds and programs that child care providers could access. Likewise, the child care association's statement points to other programs for unemployed families seeking child care to use.

“As a board member of one of the largest child care industry or ga niz at ions, we were not contacted,” Wheat said. “We had tried to push our way through and let our opinions be known, representing our membership and some different ideas that could be done. We also let them know what other states were doing with no response back.

“So it's extremely disappointing to us that our industry has been ignored.”