HERE TO HELP
ones, you need more people. We can cram 500 [college] students with one professor, but we can’t do that when it’s babies,” Kofran said. However, the child care industry is also facing a shortage of quali ed workers, Muse said. A survey released in September 2021 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children reported 86% of child care centers in Texas are experiencing a staªng shortage; 79% of those surveyed identi ed wages as the main recruitment challenge. In May 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the average annual wage for a child care worker in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area was $24,150—the ninth lowest-paying occupation out of the 709 occupations in the region that receive an annual wage. “The pay is just not there to meet those higher-costing educations,” Xu said. “This student might have $30,000-$40,000 of student loan debt, but the median pay ... for child care in
Advance Child Tax Credit payment, which allowed parents to receive an average $250-$300 monthly payment per child starting July 15, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The payments were advances of about 50% of the child tax credit parents would have received in 2022 on their federal income tax returns. The Advance Child Tax Credit pay- ments oered nancial relief to U.S. working families with annual incomes under $112,000-$150,000 up until December. President Joe Biden has proposed renewing the initiative for “years and years to come,” according to The White House, but the payments have yet to be extended. For families struggling to aord child care, there are some other federally funded options available through the Administration for Chil- dren and Families. Early Head Start, which serves pregnant women or families with children under age 3, and Head Start, which serves families with children ages 3-5, oer low-income families free early educational opportunities and services. Additionally, Humble ISD partners with the Lake Houston YMCA to oer after-school care at the district’s
As the cost of child care continues to rise across the U.S., there are some resources available to help local low-income families.
HoustonParksDepartment • Meals program for children age 18 and younger www.houstontx.gov LakeHoustonYMCA • Financial assistance available for program fees • Humble ISD after-school care program located at HISDs elementary schools www.humbleisd.net L.I.F.E. Houston • Emergency formula assistance for
METHumbleHeadStart • Free early educational opportunities and other services for low-income families with children age 5 and younger www.metinc.org Texas ChildCareSolutions/ Houston-GalvestonWorkforce Solutions • Financial assistance with child care www.wrksolutions.com TexasWorkforceCommission ChildCareRelief Fund • Financial assistance for child care providers www.twc.texas.gov
children under age 1 www.lifehouston.org
SOURCES: MET HUMBLE HEAD START, HUMBLE ISD, HOUSTONGALVESTON WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS, TEXAS WORKFORCE COMMISSION, HOUSTON PARKS DEPARTMENT, LIFE HOUSTONCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
elementary schools for students in grades K-5. The program is avail- able for district parents on weekdays after school; nancial assistance is available. Making child care more accessible is important, Kofran said, and right now, 1 in 9 children who qualify for federal assistance are receiving funds. “We’ve adopted this public good for our K-12 system, and not that we need
to replicate our K-12 system for child care, but ... it really takes all of us to support young families so that they can make the best choices for their family,” Kofran said. Ally Bolender contributed to this report.
Texas is $24,000 a year.” Resources for families
An initiative through the American Rescue Plan Act oered to aid fami- lies during the pandemic was the 2021
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