The Family and Social Services Administration has added another round of its employer-sponsored child care grants. The $25 million child care fund uses a part of the state's unused COVID-19 relief money from the pandemic.
James Vaughn is the FSSA deputy communication director for child care. He said the grants are up to $750,000, and provide several child care options.
“So employers can use that $750,000 with 10 percent of their own money to support the sponsoring of dependent care assistance plans, providing onsite or near-site child care, or offering child care tuition benefits to their employees,” he said.
Vaughn said this newest round of grants was added last week. He said this was intended to give employers “more time” to invest in these options.
“A lot of businesses and organizations are still trying to figure out what they want this to look like, what exactly they want to apply for, what exactly they want partnerships to look like,” he said. “And so we wanted to give them some additional time.”
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Vaughn said the state wants to encourage more organizations and businesses to apply for this program, as it helps encourage a work and family-life balance for employees.
“When you take a step back and you think about why child care is so important, obviously it's the development and growth of our kiddos throughout the state, right?” he said. “But it's also finding a way to allow their families to work and not have to worry about where they're going to find childcare or whether they're going to find child care.”
Vaughn said 25 percent of the funding for these employer-sponsored child care grants will be reserved for applicants in the second round.
To apply, the business must be based in Indiana and have at least 20 employees. Employers must also agree to contribute at least 10 percent of the money they request from the state to be eligible.
The deadline for the first round of these applications is Wednesday. The deadline for the second round of applications will be Dec. 15.
Violet is our daily news reporter. Contact her at vcomberwilen@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @ComberWilen.