A child care center director in Iowa knew how close she was to the edge.
Not because of money. Not because of enrollment. It was because 15 of her staff members couldn’t afford to keep working there. She ran a center that served around 200 kids, but she was about to lose the people who made that possible.
That director was one of many who shared her story with the Iowa Child Care Coalition. Her story, and many like it, drove a three-year push that ended on April 9, 2026—the day the governor signed a bill making Child Care Assistance permanent for child care workers, no matter their income.
The problem hiding in plain sight
Iowa, like most states, has a child care workforce problem. Centers had open slots they couldn’t fill. Not because families weren’t looking, but because there weren’t enough teachers to staff the rooms. Sheila Hansen, a senior policy advocate at Common Good Iowa and a leader of the Iowa Child Care Coalition, saw this play out across the state.
“They had lots of openings,” Hansen says. “But the openings were because they didn’t have any staff to cover the rooms. They could have filled 50 to 100 slots in some centers, but they just didn’t have the qualified teaching staff to do that.”
The shortage made sense when you look at the pay. Child care is one of the lowest-paid jobs in the country. It mostly employs women, and a large share of those women are women of color. In Iowa, a family had to earn 160% of the poverty level or less to get child care assistance. Many child care workers earned just a little more than that, especially if a spouse also worked. The math didn’t work. Going to work meant paying for child care, and paying for child care ate up most of what they earned.
“It just wouldn’t make sense for my family to have me outside the home,” Hansen says, sharing what she heard from workers. “When I’m paying most of my income in child care costs.”
A model from another state
The idea that changed things didn’t come from Iowa. Advocates were watching Kentucky. Kentucky had recently passed a law allowing child care teachers and providers to get child care assistance, no matter their income. Hansen and her team thought it was worth trying in Iowa.
They brought the idea to a state lawmaker. That lawmaker brought it to the governor, who said she would support it. The state launched it as a pilot program in 2023, funded for one year, to see how it worked.
Providers responded right away. Center owners said it was the tool they had needed for hiring and keeping staff.
“The only reason a lot of providers said, I would work, but I can’t afford child care,” Hansen recalls. “I can’t even afford to work in a child care center and afford child care.” Once word got out, centers used the benefit to recruit workers who had been staying home. By fiscal year 2025, the program served more than 2,500 children.
Making it the number one priority
From the start, the Iowa Child Care Coalition had one goal: make it a law. A pilot tied to the governor’s yearly budget wasn’t something centers could count on. You can’t list a benefit in a job advertisement if it might be gone next year.
The coalition, which includes more than 30 groups, made this bill their top goal for the session. That meant one message, sent everywhere, all session long.
“Our Day on the Hill was focused on this item alone,” Hansen says. “So that wherever a lawmaker went, whether at a town hall or at the Capitol, they were hearing the same thing. Wow, this child care pilot is really a big thing. I need to learn more about it.”
Key members of the coalition included Save the Children Action Network, the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children, and Child Care Resource and Referral.
The setback
The coalition moved the bill through the House with little pushback. Then it stalled in the Senate. A small group of senators, five or six by Hansen’s count, were against it. Some thought mothers should stay home–others didn’t think child care was a basic need. The bill never came to a vote. And Senate leaders had other important priorities and didn’t want a fight.
The coalition didn’t leave empty-handed. The House HHS budget chair helped get word from the governor’s office that the pilot would keep its funding. But a year-by-year extension isn’t the same as a law. Centers still couldn’t plan around it. Workers still couldn’t count on it.
“If they don’t know from year to year that it’s going to end, how do they recruit?” Hansen says. “How do they retain someone if something else comes up and that other job offers certainty?”
The strategy shift
When the next session started, the coalition came back ready. Between sessions, they had met with lawmakers often. They built new ties in the Senate. They sharpened their case. One message worked well: “If they wanted people to work,” Hansen says, “then you need to put some money into child care so people can work.”
“It was the economy that really turned this.”
A key ally, the chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, introduced the bill as House Study Bill 500, the first House bill of the 2026 session. That was a signal. The final bill signed into law was House File 2514.
The coalition also had a new Senate ally. The chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Budget panel pushed the bill in her caucus and helped link advocates to the governor’s office when they needed a push.
The bill passed both chambers with wide bipartisan support. The governor signed it into law on April 9 at Stepping Stones Child Development Center in Slater, Iowa.
What the win makes possible
The difference between a pilot and a law is simple. Centers can now put this benefit in writing. They can list it in recruiting materials. They can tell a new hire: this is here to stay.
“Everyone that I’ve talked to so far,” Hansen says, “tells me this has been a relief. They can now tell folks and put it in a brochure, or put it in their recruiting information.”
Jillian Herink leads the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children. She spoke when the bill became law. “So happy to finally see that the Child Care Assistance for Providers pilot has passed into law,” she said. “As part of the Iowa Child Care Coalition under the direction of Sheila Hansen, I appreciate the leadership and direction she has provided for us all to work together to achieve this goal.”
What comes next
The win came with work still to do. Home-based providers care for children in their own homes. Right now, they can only get the benefit if they send their child to a different provider. Their own child counts toward their provider ratio. That means they lose a slot but don’t get the benefit. Hansen said reaching home providers is a top goal for Common Good Iowa in the next session.
The governor also pushed to raise co-pays for workers in the program. Some would have gone from about $60 to as much as $120 to $150. Advocates pushed back and the idea was dropped. Center owners said they would have covered the cost themselves. They weren’t going to charge their own staff fees that wiped out the benefit.
The new law also requires HHS to study the program. They must report on who it serves and what the results show. That data will help shape the next push.
What other states can learn
The Iowa campaign built slowly. Then it all came together. Three years of meetings, lawmaker visits, and story sharing looked like quiet work. Until the day the governor signed the bill at a child care center with the people who made it happen standing all around her.
Hansen says the coalition worked because they stayed focused. They met every week during the session. Each week had a clear action: a call-in day, an email push, a round of visits to lawmakers.
“Sharing our talking points, having our Day on the Hill focused on this,” she says. “Getting the stories, and making sure that wherever a lawmaker went, they were hearing the same thing.”
Other states are watching Iowa the same way Iowa watched Kentucky. The question is what they do next.