The relationship between child care access and a healthy workforce in South Dakota is a primary focus of a forthcoming report.
The South Dakota Child Care task force, in partnership with the Hunt Institute, plans to release its 2024 findings shortly before the launch of the next legislative session.
Republican state senator Tim Reed of Brookings is among lawmakers who've examined potential policy solutions to the state's ongoing child care shortage. Reed said the task force focused much of its attention on the multifaceted impact of child care on the workforce. First, there's the high turnover among child care workers. Then there's the economic hardship on working parents.
"We know that when there's parents that aren't able to work, or maybe they have to take the day off because there's a child care issue—either the child care is not available or their child is sick—that there's an economic result to that," said Reed.
For example, a 2023 study from the nonprofit ReadyNation estimated South Dakota loses $329 million a year because of insufficient child care.
Finally, Reed points to the impact child care has on the state's future workforce.
"There's a high return on investing in children when they're young," he said. He points to a correlation between low literacy rates and adult incarceration rates.
"We're looking at building a new prison, and that price tag is extremely expensive," Reed explained. "So, what can we do to mitigate the number of beds that we do need, or number of cells that we do need in our prison system in the future?"
The task force includes legislators, child care providers, and other organizations with a stake in South Dakota's economic and educational future. They worked in partnership with the Hunt Institute, a nonpartisan organization that specializes in early childhood education policy.
Policy recommendations and other details from the task force report are expected to be released on January 10th.
