Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the first round of Continuum of Care grant awardees and a $5 million commitment that will help expand 19 child care and preschool program partnerships.
The new grants, part of the governor’s efforts to strengthen Iowa’s child care system, garnered overwhelming interest with more than 120 applications, according to a Thursday, July 31, news release from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
By encouraging partnerships between child care providers and preschools, the program helps ensure full days of care for 4-year-olds and strengthens school-aged readiness. The awards will expand the number of children served through supportive staffing, hours of operation, and transportation options for child care and preschool programs, HHS said.
Individual grant awards ranged from $25,725 to as much as $100,000, which was awarded to 11 different programs.
The only recipient in the Quad Cities region was the Muscatine Community School District and Happy Time Child Care. That partnership was awarded $49,719.
In January, Ms. Reynolds announced the $14 million in Child Care Business Incentive Grant (CCBI) grants. They were designed to expand or create new child care options across the state. The grants, which launched in 2022, were reopened last fall.
Filling day-care gaps
“Iowa has a strong and diverse statewide preschool system with many options for Iowa families. We’ve also had tremendous success improving child care access, growing the workforce, and increasing wages for child care workers,” Ms. Reynolds said in the release. “Still, Iowa’s working parents need more flexibility to provide their children with full-day care plus early learning, which has been a gap in our system for too long.”
To address gaps in full-day care, the Iowa HHS launched the Early Childhood Continuum of Care grants. Grants of up to $300,000 over three years will support partnerships between Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program (SWVPP) sites and licensed child care centers to offer seamless, full-day care for 4-year-olds.
“The Continuum of Care grant program provides a strategic solution by incentivizing child care providers and preschool programs to work together to better serve Iowa families,” the governor added. “There’s a clear need for this program – as evidenced by the overwhelming number of applicants – and I encourage state legislators to explore ways to permanently support these partnerships.”
A second round of Continuum of Care grants will be announced this fall for the 2026/2027 school year. For more information on the grants, visit here.
