The new law incentivizes early childhood educators by providing no-cost childcare to them. Oklahoma is facing a childcare shortage, from costs to staffing – this bill tackles an important part of the solution, aiming to recruit and retain quality early childhood teachers. The legislature has provided a variety of similar incentives for industries that are critical to our economy, childcare is now a part of that list.
“This is a low-cost solution that delivers big results — it supports small businesses throughout Oklahoma and fills our early childhood classrooms with quality teachers to take care of our babies, and allows parents to go to work so our employers can grow our economy. With the average hourly wage between $11 and $12 per hour, it often doesn’t make sense to work in the field if the employee needs their own childcare. And every time we lose a childcare employee we lose between 4 and 20 spots for our kids. With wait lists all over the state of up to a year and the industry having closed more than 135 childcare centers and suffering a loss of over 4,300 slots in less than 12 months, I knew we needed to problem solve quickly,” Schreiber said.
“This type of relief for childcare workers seemed so distant, but it finally happened – the legislature made a huge investment in our childcare system. A huge thanks to Representative Suzanne Schreiber for championing this effort. On behalf of all Oklahoma childcare providers, we are forever grateful,” Rachel Erwin-Proper, Vice President of Child Care Inc said.
The program will be monitored for effectiveness and facilitated through the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness, a statutorily authorized entity tasked with supporting public and private partnerships ensuring our young children thrive. OPSR utilizes data, research, and best practices that engage parents, nonprofit leaders, community partners, and business leaders to inform recommendations to the policymakers. In driving this legislation, Schreiber worked closely with OPSR with their evidence based data to inform this incentive.
“Passing HB 2778 is a big win for all of Oklahoma. Our families and our employers need a strong childcare sector for our economy to grow. We heard from businesses across the state about their workforce challenges due to childcare. We heard from families across the state about their challenges in finding and affording childcare. This new law will ease some of those burdens for constituents throughout the state. I appreciate all of the stakeholders and legislators that came together to get this done and deliver this bill for our families and employers,” Schreiber said. “While I brought the bill forward, without the help of Speaker Hilbert and his staff, Rep. Mark Lawson, Senator Todd Gollihare and the House and Senate Appropriations Chairman, Rep. Trey Caldwell and Sen. Chuck Hall this bill would not have become law. This was truly something we made happen together.”
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