OKLAHOMA CITY — Lawmakers pushed forward with an initiative that would give more child care workers the opportunity to have care for their own children covered in an effort to address the shortage of qualified employees in the profession.House Bill 1849, authored by Rep. Suzanne Schreiber, D-Tulsa, would allow child care providers at licensed facilities to exempt their household’s income from consideration when applying for the Child Care Subsidy Program as an attempt to incentivize new industry workers and retain current employees.A House budget subcommittee on human services unanimously passed the bill with a bipartisan vote. It can now be heard by the general House Appropriations and Budget Committee.Schreiber said she authored a similar bill during the 2024 session, but the previous version was “too blunt” and this year her bill is more “detailed and advanced.”She said she plans to add an income cap to the bill to limit the financial impact on the state and ensure the families who need subsidized child care are able to receive it.“Let’s say someone had $150,000 household income or something like that, so we’ll have to exempt them, but we’re still having all those conversations,” Schreiber said. “The state of Oklahoma invests a total of $20 million of taxpayer dollars in our child care system. We serve over 65% of our kids in a licensed child care system. So we invest very, very little. This is actually a very small dollar amount for a huge return.”House fiscal staff estimated the bill’s financial impact will be between $10 million and $21 million, although Schreiber expects this number to drop once income caps are included. The $21 million number includes workers who currently qualify for subsidies, so House fiscal staff said the impact will be lower.The Oklahoma Department of Human Services currently bases eligibility for the program on the federal income eligibility threshold per family size. This threshold cannot exceed 85% of the state median income per family size, which the U.S. Census estimates was $63,603 in 2023.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated in 2023 that the average child care worker in Oklahoma made about $12.51 per hour, or $26,010 annually.Arkansas made changes to its own child care subsidy program in 2024 to include child care providers whose households meet the same income requirements and work a minimum of 10 hours per week at a licensed child care facility.Tina Feltman, the director of a ...
