Utah Is Still Denying Access to Child-Care Subsidies for U.S. Children Living With Undocumented Immigrant Parents

As was recently featured in KPCW’s story, Utah has responded to federal guidance instructing them not to check the citizenship status of the parents when qualifying families for the federally-funded child-care subsidies by instead asking noncitizen parents to declare that they are legally permitted to work in the United States. In essence, Utah has replaced one set of procedural barriers with another, but the result is the same-- U.S. citizen children whose parents/guardians are undocumented immigrants will not have access to the federally-funded child-care subsidy in Utah based upon the immigration status of their parents.

The Office of Child Care responded to KPCW’s inquiry by noting that other states also use legal wages as part of their definition of working. OCC listed three other states that include “legal” in their definition of working during its presentation to the Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee meeting on May 18, 2021: Washington, Illinois, and Montana.

Unlike Utah, none of those other states interprets a requirement for legal work to bar access to the child-care subsidy for mixed-status families. The Early Childhood Alliance provided detailed information about how these other three states allow mixed-status families access to the child-care subsidy even though they include “legal” as part of their definition of working in the public comments submitted to OCC on May 24, 2021.

Utah also often claims that it needs to keep the “wages are obtained legally” phrase as part of the definition of “working” to avoid supporting occupations that are illegal, such as selling opioids. But the full phrase at issue already does this by including the limitation “provided federal or state law does not prohibit the occupations:”

“Working is defined as a job or providing a service that pays wages, a salary, or in-kind
benefits. Additional work activities for purposes of eligibility determination may include
employment in the labor market, on-the-job training or being self-employed provided
federal or state law does not prohibit the occupations and wages are obtained legally.”

— Utah’s Child Care and Development Fund plan §3.1.2

It is unwise and short-sighted to withhold child-care subsidies from some of our most vulnerable and youngest Utah citizens as part of immigration policy or as any type of mechanism to punish parents. Utah should remove all barriers to access to these child-care subsidies.

Utah's Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap

The University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center recently issued its 2021 policy roadmaps for each state. Utah’s roadmap is available here. Unfortunately, Utah is not identified as a state leader on any strategy and is amongst the worst states when it comes to the percentage of children under three whose mother reports fair/poor mental health and that they are not coping very well.

Utah also scores amongst the lowest states of children under age three who are not read to on a daily basis. Expanding Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to a statewide program is one way to help counteract this issue. More generally, Utah needs to invest in its future workforce by allowing children to “be born healthy and raised in nurturing, stimulating, stable, and secure care environments with limited exposure to adversity.”

The Market is Failing Early Childhood

“Children, their parents, and the economies in which they operate are all better off when societies provide easily accessible, high-quality child care and early education options. ”

— U.S. Dept. of the Treasury

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report evaluating the “crucial and underfunded” child care sector and explaining why “relying on private money to provide child care is bound to come up short.” The report details how: (1) liquidity constraints (most parents have children early in their careers when wages and net wealth are low, and unlike college loans, there are no loans available for child care), (2) positive spillover effects (the benefits of high-quality early care and education extend beyond the parents paying for the care, but society typically pay for child care); structural issues (child care is labor intensive, and typically provided by women whose services historically are undervalued and underpaid, and child care centers operate on very thin margins). In an industry where 95% of the workers are women and over one third are people of color, the historical undervaluation of work performed by these groups combined with the high labor costs lead to low wages and high turnover in the early childhood workforce.

Early Care and Education Deserve Public Support

As Congress debates the numerous proposals to support care infrastructure, one thing is clear: we are missing a collective opportunity to invest in our youngest citizens. Part of President Biden’s Build Back Better Act includes investing in the care economy, particularly the care and education of young children. The First Five Years Fund has issued a great summary of the provisions in the current legislation that relate to early care and education. You can read it here.

This funding would support a mixed-delivery system that prioritizes parental choice and would address the current untenable business model that tries to keep child care affordable for parents by paying near poverty wages to early educators. The three-year phase-in period from FY2022 to FY2024 allows states to expand supply and access to families at certain income thresholds. Starting in FY2025, there will be no income limits for family eligibility, but there will be an asset test so that families with over $1 million in assets do not qualify for support. At that point, states will also need to match 10% of the federal funds.

Maternal Mental Health and Suicide--Utah Can Do Better!

The Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance recently distributed their fact sheet about maternal mental health and suicide and it is sobering. Although this fact sheet estimates that one in five women in the United States are affected by mental health conditions as a complication of pregnancy and childbirth, the statistics in Utah are even worse. In Utah, one in three women experience depression or anxiety after giving birth.

That is why it is essential to ensure that people have access to services before, during, and after pregnancy. Read here to learn more about how Utah can address gaps in coverage from pregnancy through postpartum.

Summit County Early Childhood Needs Assessment Available Now

Utah's Unacceptable Childcare Gap

The Bipartisan Policy Center recently evaluated the childcare gap across 35 states. and calculated Utah’s gap to be over 64%, double the average of 31.2%. It found that there are 98,750 more children in Utah who need childcare than there are child care spots available. We must prioritize access to high-quality, affordable childcare if we expect our communities, families, and economy to thrive.

Letter to The Editor Explaining Why Early Education Is a Worthwhile Investment

In case you missed our letter to the editor in the July 28th edition of the Park Record, it is posted below for convenience.

Research shows that early childhood education provides an enormous return on investment for communities. As the Early Childhood Alliance Coordinator, parent of three PCSD students, and a member of the Building Bridges Task Force, I have seen firsthand the commitment of PCSD to expanding opportunities for our younger children.

The first few years of childhood are critical years for education, whether children are in preschool or cared for in a family setting. PCSD’s facilities plan includes an expansion of access to preschool to help prepare younger children for future success as PCSD students and beyond. Facilities improvements will provide the space to offer additional preschool and an expansion of wrap-around services at two of the elementary schools. A cross-sector family support hub helps families connect with needed services and tackle bureaucratic challenges, and would add considerable value to our community.   

Preserving parental choice is important. For children who are not in a preschool setting, the Early Childhood Alliance is working with PCSD and Park City Preschool directors to pilot a program offering free training to their caregivers, such as their family members, friends or neighbors. PCSD will provide caregivers with an age-appropriate curriculum to support children’s development and growth while in their care. The Early Childhood Alliance also supports:  (1) home visiting programs to help parents be their child’s first and best teacher, (2) affordable, high-quality private childcare opportunities, and (3) free books mailed each month to children under age five as part of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.  There are so many impactful ways to support our youngest community members and their families, including PCSD’s planned facilities investment in our youngest students.   

PCSD is student-centered, with a focus and emphasis on the whole child. By supporting early-childhood education, we can further PCSD’s mission to inspire and support all students equitably to achieve their academic and social potential.

Fix the Hole in the Bucket With ARP Funds

The Administration for Children and Families released guidance today regarding the $15 billion in supplemental CCDF Discretionary Funds included as part of the American Rescue Plan. Of this amount, Utah is receiving approximately $163 million. Recognizing the systemic underfunding of the current child care patchwork, the guidance “strongly recommends” that recipients use the funds to support the early childhood workforce.

“OCC strongly recommends that lead agencies prioritize increasing provider payment rates and workforce compensation so that child care providers can retain a skilled workforce and deliver high-quality care to children receiving subsidies.”

— Administration for Children and Families Information Memorandum ARP ACT CCDF Discretionary Supplemental Funds

Utah has a chance to use these funds to fix what the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at Berkely refers to as the “Hole In the Bucket” shortage of qualified early care and education workforce.

Utah should invest these funds to meet the developmental needs of children, provide parents with true choice and equal access to child care services and appropriately compensate an essential and skilled workforce to facilitate a robust child care sector by:

(1) providing bonuses and wage supplements directly to the early childhood workforce, one of the allowable uses of these funds; and

(2) designating the early childhood workforce as eligible workers who performed essential work during the pandemic so that they qualify for premium pay and so that their children can qualify for child-care assistance without regard to the income eligibility requirements.

Utah provided bonuses to K-12 teachers, but nothing for our early education workforce. These funds can correct this mistake.

2020 Tax Filing Will Determine Child-Tax Credit Periodic Payments in 2021

Everyone’s least favorite Spring-time task has an extension this year since 2020 taxes are not due until May 17, 2021.  It is especially important to file taxes this year to take advantage of the periodic expanded child tax credit payments available to many families in the second half of 2021.  The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 modifies the child tax credit in several significant ways:

• Allowing 17-year-olds to qualify;

• Increasing the credit to:

  • $3,600 per child up to age 6 (based on the age at the close of the calendar year);

  • $3,000 per child age 6 to 17;

• Allowing half of the credit to be paid in advance by periodic equal installments beginning in July and ending in December (families can opt out of the advanced payment); the second half would come when filing tax returns in 2022 (for 2021 tax year);

• Removing the $2,500 earnings floor; and

• Making the credit fully refundable, meaning no matter what you owe in taxes, you will get a refund of either $3,000 (or $3,600, depending on a child’s age), or half that amount if you take the other half in the July-December periodic installments;

Payments will be made to the tax filer who claimed the child on a previous year's tax return (most likely 2020 or, if not available, 2019).  Child tax credits are available for children who have a social security number so long as their parent or guardians file taxes, using either a social security number or an ITIN.  Since the payments will be based on 2020 tax filings, it is important to file 2020 taxes by the deadline of May 17, 2020, in order to receive the periodic child-tax credit payments this year.  People can apply for an ITIN using Form W-7.   If you don’t have an ITIN by the due date of your return (including extensions), you may not claim the child tax credit.  However, if you apply for an ITIN on or before the due date of your return (including extensions) and the IRS issues you an ITIN as a result of the application, the IRS will consider your ITIN as issued on or before the due date of your return.