Immigration enforcement fears were already rising in November when a family at Rise Early Learning Center in St. Louis Park asked Kylie Cooper what they could do to keep their Minnesota subsidy if their child missed more than 25 days.
The state’s Child Care Assistance Program requires kids miss no more than 25 days for a child care center to be reimbursed with the subsidy, and the family was already nearing the limit. Cooper said when she checked with the state case manager about options, she discovered there were none.
Weeks later, federal agents began flooding the Twin Cities for weeks as Minnesota became the center of the Trump administration’s anger over immigration, keeping more kids home and ratcheting up fears across the region from parents afraid of losing access to childcare and child care providers afraid of losing needed income from the subsidies.
“The idea that we should tell them they can no longer access care is just not something that we're willing to consider,” said Cooper. “And I know I'm not alone. As far as child care centers go, we all, a lot of directors, a lot of programs, feel really strongly we're going to do what we can to keep families as stable as possible.”
Some state lawmakers are working on language at the Capitol now that would exempt families from the 25-day absence rule for “extreme circumstances,” including the past few months. That would let child care centers stay afloat and families wouldn’t have to worry about having to pay out of pocket.
Without an exemption, “instead of projecting a budget and anticipating I'll be paid for full-time this week, you're actually going to have three quarters of the pay, or three out of the five days covered, which presents a problem when so many child care programs run on really razor thin margins,” Cooper said.
While the legislation provides a solution should it pass, the problem is already affecting child care centers and staff.
According to a recent survey of 300 metro-area providers from Think Small, an early education nonprofit, 41 percent of centers in the Twin Cities region reported more than half of their students would hit the 25-days absent limit.
‘Not enough kids’
In order to receive aid through the Child Care Assistance or Early Learning Scholarship programs, a parent must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident of the country. Still, child care operators said families feared being unlawfully detained.
“These families quickly went through their absence days, and it's not even April yet. This is because there's no policy in place for handling increased absences due to extraordinary events that are not in the control of a child care center,” said Amanda Schillinger, director of a center in Burnsville.
Average monthly payment for CCAP in 2023 was $1,710. So if a child is out for the flu for a week later this year, that’s a loss of around $400 for a center.
In a statement, the Department of Children, Youth and Families said it understands that fear can lead to “increased and prolonged absences from child care as families are forced to make decisions about safety.”
It added, however, that it will continue to administer the Child Care Assistance Program in line with state and federal law regarding absences unless a change is made.
When a child is absent for more than 25 days from their program, child care centers have to decide whether to absorb the cost of additional absent days, charge families more, or unenroll the child.
Families who use the Child Care Assistance Program have already been verified by the state to be low-income and can not afford childcare on their own.
Tiffany Taylor has worked in child care for more than two decades and said she’s never seen anything like the last few months.
“Now it's like we're working in the afternoon instead of mornings because there's not enough kids in the morning, so kind of gotta just take the afternoon shift,” said Taylor, who usually works the morning shift at South Metro Academy in Minneapolis.
South Metro has lost almost half of its usual attendance and even as things have settled down since DHS announced it would reduce the number of agents in Minnesota, Taylor said the center’s director is struggling to get kids back.
“I think that's what she's still trying to figure out,” Taylor said. “The game plan is to move forward just right now, I just know how I have to pay my bills. I had to get a second job.”
Taylor said she worries this may deter more people from entering the child care sector.
What’s an ‘extraordinary’ event?
Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chair Melissa Wiklund worries this problem could also deter centers from wanting to accept families who use Child Care Assistance Program funding.
“This has an economic impact on providers who are already struggling,” said Wiklund, DFL-Bloomington.
“We don't want there to be incentives for providers to not accept CCAP participants, and if they feel that there's a risk in their being able to stay financially stable, we don't want them to not accept people who need subsidized child care,” she added.
Child care advocates and providers presented a new bill to the state Senate and House last week to establish an exemption for absent day limits for the Child Care Assistance Program.
The new bill would add exemptions for “extraordinary events” defined as something that affects the community beyond the control of a provider.
The bill was presented with the intent for it to help families impacted by the federal immigration agent surge but includes natural disasters, epidemics, mechanical breakdown in a facility or any exceptional circumstance determined by the commissioner of the Department of Children, Youth and Families.
During the hearing, skeptics of the bill including state Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids, and Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, questioned if the bill was really needed and argued that it may give the Department of Children, Youth and Families too much power to say what counts as an “extraordinary” event.
Still, the bill would require the department’s commissioner to put together a formal process to make exemptions and would not allow unlimited absences.
Regardless of how people view the federal immigration crackdown, “the outcome was the same for families,” said state Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville.
“They couldn't safely go to day care. They couldn't safely go to work,” she said. “That is the thing that needs to be addressed.”
