Iowa House Study Bill 511 will raise the maximum number of children each childcare teacher can legally have in their care for all in-home and daycare facilities across the state.

-For two-year-old children, the ratio would increase from 6 children per teacher to 8.

-For three-year-old children, it would increase from 8 children per teacher to 10.

It’s being considered by State Legislature in the first quarter of 2022. Rep. Ann Meyer introduced the Bill to help “ease the childcare shortage” and allegedly help people get back to work. As of this writing, it’s been modified once after heavy push back from front-line childcare providers due to safety concerns. They lowered the proposed two-year-old increase from 8 max, to 7. It is scheduled for further discussion in February.

 

*This petition has a lot of information and is meant to be shared with parents and others who never have much extra time. Here are the highlights:

-Quality childcare from ages 0-5 is essential for kids to perform well in school and grow up to be high-performing adults. Researchers followed kids for 20 years starting in daycare. Data shows that the higher the quality of the early education in that daycare, the more kids had better academic performance, less behavioral problems, more likely to graduate college and have higher paying salaries. It’s a benefit that lasts their whole life!

-Loading more kids onto each childcare teacher lowers quality and increases risk. We are not willing to do that and demand a better solution from legislators.

-It won’t fix any of the underlying causes of the problem, a main one being the lack of daycare teachers. It simply punishes the teachers that have stuck it out this far. It will leave parents, kids, and the whole state worse off as it grinds our experienced front-line teachers out of the industry. Without actual incentives, it doesn’t encourage anyone new to start a now more difficult career in early childhood education. The average pay statewide is between 9-11$/hr. If you work in childcare in Iowa, there is a 1/4 chance you live below the poverty line and technically qualify for food stamps. That's twice as likely as the average Iowan. Are you going to let that slide? Just drop your kids off on Monday and say: "Hey, I hear work is about to get a lot harder. That sucks. Anyway, thanks for teaching lil Johnny how to be a functional human being. Hope you find something to eat tonight!" This bill should absolutely enrage you. But also, please check on the health and well-being of a childcare teacher you know. 

-There are better solutions that support the teachers and the children. This bill supports neither. We charge you, our legislators, to stop wasting time with “solutions” that are cheap and easy. Like rolling back a ratio requirement. Start working with early childhood education organizations, like the ones opposed to this bill, to find a real solution for the children of Iowa. 

If you agree with those points, then you agree with this petition.*

**Legislators have said in media interviews they don’t expect this bill to meet any resistance in the House. They will push this through and make it law by the end of March, lowering early childhood education quality forever. If that makes you angry, and it should, you have to spread the word. Share it on social media, online parenting groups, text it to friends, tell your school and teachers. Most parents don’t even know this is happening. There are also links to printable flyer's below if you can hang one up. Finally, emailing your specific state representative and letting them know this is an unacceptable step back for kids is the most important thing. Tell them you’ll remember when it comes time to vote!

High Quality Early Childhood Education (ages 0-5) has been directly linked with higher academic performance, lower behavioral problems, increased college attendance, higher salary, and improved quality of life. For the recipient’s entire life. It’s a window of opportunity where young minds are growing rapidly and ready to receive vital information required to become functional adults. It dictates how a child navigates difficult social situations, determines if learning is a rewarding experience or not, and influences almost every aspect of the person they will become. Once it closes, it’s incredibly difficult to reopen that window. What you learn before kindergarten is crucial to how you learn for the rest of your life. 30 years of research and data support this.

Children are discovering how to learn new things during this time. It’s a skill. They are laying the foundation for how well they will perform this skill throughout the rest of their lives. All the education they receive after, from kindergarten to job skills, has to travel down that foundation road built before. Are we going to help them build that road into a four lane highway, or a bike path?

“High Quality” Early Childhood Education is defined as smaller class sizes, teachers with advanced training, and most importantly: smaller children-to-teacher ratios. You can’t learn in chaos, at least not when you’re three-years-old. When the education is of high quality, it’s the great equalizer. When children receive at least 2 years before kindergarten they have significantly increased college attendance rates, across all socioeconomic levels.

It's an irreplaceable tool that every child has the right to have in order to help them become successful. As parents, teachers, lawmakers, or just fellow Iowans counting on them after retirement; it’s our responsibility to make sure that they have it. Iowa House Bill 511 and raising the ratio cheapens our great state’s Early Childhood Education. It lowers quality, increases risk, and adds to the burden of care shouldered by front-line teachers.

This Bill does nothing to address the root causes of Childcare Scarcity or Caregiver Burnout. It actually aggravates the problem. Passing this bill and raising the ratio will very likely result in the state legislature suggesting another ratio increase this time next year. This problem will not disappear without significant resources, childcare workforce incentivization, and state (not just federal) funding. We expect our state lawmakers to improve conditions for children during their terms, not make them worse.

Safety

Accidents are the leading cause of injury and death in children. Overloaded teachers in higher ratio environments have less bandwidth to recognize and prevent developing accidents before they occur. This bill places front-line staff in riskier situations where they are less equipped to manage that risk. Even though those staff had no part in creating these risky situations, they will still undoubtedly carry the guilt when the accidents do occur.

We don’t solve any other complex societal problems this way. For supply chain shortages, we do not suggest commercial truck drivers haul 20% heavier loads. That’s a dangerous solution resulting in injury and death. For medical equipment shortages, we don’t skip 20% of the quality & safety requirements just to pass out unreliable products faster. When there’s a workforce shortage, we don’t pass laws that would require professionals in that field to choose between quitting their employer or working 20% more every day. That would increase errors and injuries, and only make the whole situation worse!

Yet, state legislature is proposing we do exactly that. With our children. The child-to-teacher ratio for three-year-old’s would increase by 25%.

Supporting this Bill is a conscious and informed decision to make childcare less safe. Whether it’s an acceptable amount of risk is between you and your conscience. The fact remains: on the day this Bill is passed, childcare in Iowa will be more dangerous than it is right now. It is a step backward that will have tragic consequences for some Iowa families every single year.

With all due respect to the Childcare Task Force and their comfort in raising the ratio, The National Association for the Education of Young Children does not agree. They provide national certification for high quality childcare centers and these new ratios are not in line. The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Childcare and Early Education tracks injury data across the country. They don’t recommend raising the ratios either. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends lower ratios. 

Essentially, anyone who has a full-time job in measuring childcare quality, preventing childhood injury, or treating childhood illness views this is a step backwards with lasting downstream effects. The Childcare Task Force may have plenty of well-meaning and educated members, but when it comes to children we side with the experts and the evidence. The fact that the Task Force had no local representation from state chapters of these organizations, and had to walk back their initially recommended ratios after said organizations resisted, is powerful evidence that this increase isn’t in the best interest of children. The following local non-profit & advocacy groups have also come out against this bill: Save the Children Action Network, United Way of Iowa, Iowa Conference of United Methodist Church, and Common Good Iowa.

Raising the ratio will make the situation worse. Immediately. While also diminishing quality and increasing risk.

A root cause in the childcare scarcity issue is the lack of early childhood teachers. It’s demanding work and pays an average of 10.70$/hr. Centers are having difficulties finding staff as things are, today, with our current ratio. Someone please explain how making a low paying job harder is supposed to attract more workers.

If you pass this and increase the ratio 25%, you don’t make their jobs just 25% harder either. The reality is it’s significantly higher than that. Childcare isn’t an assembly line that you can just dial up the speed on a conveyor belt. Teachers are balancing 100 different tasks for each of these kids throughout the day, while also building in time for learning and social activities that are critical for normal growth and development. Adding two additional toddlers adds a disproportionately larger amount of chaos. These learning activities will be squeezed out for the bare necessities of feeding, sleeping, and cleaning. These learning activities are the base that children need in order to be able to succeed in kindergarten and for the rest of their lives!

This Bill will also rob experienced teachers accustomed to the current ratios of any remaining job satisfaction they may have left. These are people that have stuck it out for three horrible years in the industry. Certainly not for the pay, but for the kids. How would it feel to clock into a job every day, knowing you’ll never provide as high quality of a service as you did yesterday? What does it do to your personal self-worth to be forced to deliver a sub-standard service when you know it can be better? Now, imagine delivering that service… to children.

The majority of our state’s childcare teachers are over 40. Any teacher feeling the financial strain of this year’s inflation, the physical strain of the job, or happen to be close to retirement will exit the childcare workforce. A library of insight and experience into childcare will leave with each one of them. They’ll be replaced with low or no experience childcare workers that, without advanced education or experienced coworkers to help them, will continue to have high turnover.

This Bill will leave us worse off one year from now than we are today. First as our experienced childcare teachers finally throw in the towel. Second as the renewed childcare scarcity causes employment issues again. Finally leading to a second brilliant proposal to raise the ratios further.

Whether that occurs or not, we are simply not willing to begin the erosion of Iowa’s early education quality or increase the burden of the compassionate teachers that make it all possible. We will not shrug off our responsibility to make tomorrow’s Iowa a better place for children. Nor will we watch as some childcare centers increase ratios up to the new legal maximum in order to keep their doors open, creating a divide that forces some Iowans into lower quality education than others. Rep. Anne Meyer has stated that raising the ratio is all optional. We understand exactly how things will go and don’t condone allowing the option. We will not go backward on our children. Not once.

As our State Legislators, we’re counting on you to come up with a solution that will incentivize entry into the Early Childhood Education field, not punish it. If it’s a cheap solution, it’s probably not going to work. If the average childcare teacher can earn better compensation in a fast food restaurant, then you haven’t done enough to support and advance the industry of early childhood education. Party lines are irrelevant here. Everyone has children, or is counting on them somehow. Take the time and funding to fix this in a meaningful way that builds on Iowa’s commitment to education. Investing in our children is investing in everyone’s future. The return on investment is worth it! The National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs has found up to a 12X return for every dollar spent on early childhood education programs. Programs targeting ages 0-3 have the most value. Ask yourself if this bill helps that age group.

 

If after reading this novel of a petition you find yourself agreeing with it, please sign and share with someone. There is an automatic letter feature in place near the bottom of this page that goes to the Gov, House, & Senate. If we want to keep early childhood education from backsliding in this state we're going to have to speak up. The kids cannot. 

Feel free to copy and paste the below to your individual State Representative,

Or use the automatic letter feature below to send it to all of them:

The People of Iowa are friendly, amenable, and cooperative. However, we do not make compromises when it comes to children and their future. We believe that every child in this state has the right to the same high-quality early education, regardless of their family’s annual income, race, religion, or creed. We respect our early childhood teachers and appreciate them. We do not accept trading away the life-long benefits of the high-quality early education we are so privileged to receive in this state for any short-lived economic gain. Most of all, we will not tolerate even one additional injury or death of a child that occurs due to raised childcare ratios. Iowa House Bill 511 is the opposite of those things. We are very concerned by this bill and will remember who supported it. Vote NO.

As our State Legislators, we’re counting on you to come up with a solution that will incentivize entry into the Early Childhood Education field, not punish it. If it’s a cheap solution, it’s probably not going to work. If the average childcare teacher can earn better compensation in a fast food restaurant, then you haven’t done enough to support and advance the industry of early childhood education. Treat them like the professional educators they are!

Party lines are irrelevant here. Everyone has children, or is counting on them somehow. Take the time and funding to fix this in a meaningful way that builds on Iowa’s commitment to education. Investing in our children is investing in everyone’s future. The return on investment is worth it! The National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs has found up to a 12X return for every dollar spent on early childhood education programs. Programs targeting ages 0-3 have the most value. Ask yourself if this bill helps that age group.

Resources:

Petition Ad - Simple Straightforward word doc
Petition Ad - Simple Straightforward PDF
Petition Ad - Dramatic but Accurate

Petition QR Code Printable

References:

Early Childhood Education Return on Investment

“How big are the returns to early childhood programs?
They can be large.For example, the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs has found that high quality early childhood programs can yield a $4 – $9 dollar return per $1 invested. A 2009 study of Perry Preschool, a high-quality program for 3-5 year olds developed in Michigan in the 1960s, estimated a return to society of between about $7 and $12 for each $1 invested (see Figure 1 below).1 It is important to note that different assumptions can shift estimates and that different studies often rely on different assumptions, limiting comparisons across studies and programs. That said, early childhood stands out as a particularly notable area for investment precisely because so many interventions appear to save money in the longer term.”

 

The NICHD Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development (Largest longitudinal study at the time, graded quality of childcare received by over 1,000 kids and followed them for over a decade.)

It matters how you start: Early numeracy mastery predicts high school math course-taking and college attendance

“this study measures children's mastery of three numeric competencies (counting, concrete representational arithmetic and abstract arithmetic operations) at 54 months of age. We find that, even after controlling for key demographic characteristics, the numeric competency that children master prior to school entry relates to important educational transitions in secondary and post-secondary education. Those children who showed low numeric competency prior to school entry enrolled in lower math track classes in high school and were less likely to enrol in college. Important numeracy competency differences at age 54 months related to socioeconomic inequalities were also found. These findings suggest that important indicators of long-term schooling success (i.e., advanced math courses, college enrollment) are evident prior to schooling based on the levels of numeracy mastery”

Do Effects of Early Child Care Extend to Age 15 Years? Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

“Higher quality care predicted higher cognitive-academic achievement at age 15, with escalating positive effects at higher levels of quality. The association between quality and achievement was mediated, in part, by earlier child care effects on achievement. Higher quality early child care also predicted youth reports of less externalizing behavior.”

 

Child Care and the Well-being of Children – JAMA Pediatrics
“Children in day care centers had higher language scores and early school achievement, especially if they came from disadvantaged backgrounds and the centers offered high-quality care. Attending arrangements with 6 or more children increased the likelihood of communicable illnesses and ear infections, albeit those illnesses had no long-term adverse consequences.”
This study was conducted pre-COVID. Raising the ratio does not actually widen access when it results in the entire class having more frequent periods of home quarantine due to exposure.   
 
High-quality early child care and education: The gift that lasts a lifetime

“Remarkably, children from low-income backgrounds who had access to 24 months or more of high-quality early childhood education in their first five years were more likely to graduate from college and had higher salaries at age 26.”
 
American Academy of Pediatrics Recommended Ratio

The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Childcare and Early Education

National Association for the Education of Young Children Recommended Ratio

Iowa Lobbyists For or Against HSB-511

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/lobbyist/reports/declarations?ga=89&ba=HSB511

 

Internationally, the US continues to place in the bottom tier for Early Childhood Education investment, quality, and performance. Now is not the time to settle for even less.

Tracing the U.S. Deficit in PISA Reading Skills to Early Childhood: Evidence from the United States and Canada

“One way of gaining leverage on this issue is to understand when U.S. students fall behind their international counterparts. I first compare reading/ vocabulary test scores for U.S. and Canadian children (ages 4-5) using National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979–Children and Youth (NLSY79) and Canada’s National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth (NLSCY). I then compare the magnitude of these differences to similar cohorts of students at ages 15 to 16 using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Findings indicate that while the Canadian advantage in PISA is substantial (0.30 standard deviation units), this advantage already existed at ages 4 to 5, before formal schooling had a chance to matter.”

Quality Matters in Early Childhood Education and Care – Finland Report