NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Representatives with the Reno County Child Care Task Force spoke to the Board of County Commissioners at their meeting Wednesday. The Task Force has leveraged ARPA dollars both from the county and from the state to increase slots in the county for birth to school age kids, especially with institutions like school districts and Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System, but there is still more work to be done. One way to increase capacity would be to make it easier for licensed home providers to start. That concept is still being thought through.
"Something that we've been aware of is some barrier to, specifically home providers, is the business portion of running a home provider," said Abby Stockebrand with the Task Force. "We are kicking around the idea of, what if we could decrease that barrier? Not only with the fee, we're actually, we were in conversations this last week about what we're going to do about that. I anticipate that's going to happen, publishing that very soon about how we're going to cover that. What we are actually kicking around, too, is how can we make basically, a business foundational model for those home providers, so that, instead of having to take on the whole thing, the whole accounting, how do I set up a business, how do I budget for it, how do I do all of those things? If I just want to make a little bit of income, I want to watch children. I think there is a way, and again, this is not all fleshed out. I think there is a way that we can take some of those barriers and that burden off of those home providers and see how we can plug them in easier and faster for them and kind of meet people where they are in that. That could be a sustainable model, as well."
The fee Stockebrand was referring to is the $20 fee that the Reno County Health Department has been charging for its monthly child care class. There is still a lot of math to be done to make this as easy for new providers as they can. There are other barriers, though, especially outside of Hutchinson.
"If you're in the county, you can't use the city fire marshal, you have to use the state fire marshal," said Heather Faulkner with the task force. "Just the timeline to get that accomplished is a bit of a struggle. Abby has worked a lot and miss Megan from the Health Department has really helped, as we've identified those barriers. The City of Pretty Prairie was hit with that, as we were trying to get grant paperwork and we needed things from a state fire marshal, but their timeline was so far off."
In addition, for home providers, there is another issue that has increased their expenses.
"Property taxes has come up as those have increased," Faulkner said. "Again, I know, taxes is a tough conversation, but that has been the one thing home providers, I have heard more from home providers is just the increase in their own home expenses has had a negative impact on their overall business model. What can be done about that? I don't know."
Commissioner John Whitesel did clarify that the county has been revenue neutral in its budgeting and so that issue is not being caused by the county, at least as much as possible. It could be part of the larger discussion when counties go to the state regarding the restoration of LAVTR, as if they could give further tax relief by getting those funds, it might help a little in these situations.
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