Iowa Loses Licensed Daycare Providers

A new report from child care aware of America finds,

Report from child care aware of america finds-- the hawkeye state lost half of their licensed daycare providers this year during the pandemic.

But is it all because covid?

Kimt news 3's alex jirgens reached out to daycare providers in north iowa about what they're seeing this year.

He joins us live from clear lake - alex?xxx can count on amy - for in-home daycare providers like dawn bill here in clear lake - it's been an interesting year.

Daycare-live vo-1 lowerthird2line coronavirus:report: ia lost half of licensed daycares this year kimt news 3 at the start of the pandemic during march - she went down to half capacity for a few months.

Since then - bill - who is licensed as a class b provider - meaning she can only care for a max of 12 kids at a time-says she met that max of 12 and most of the kids are the sons or daughters of essential workers.

She feels the smaller providers like herself fared better during this time.xxx daycare provider "i'm licensed for 12 kids, so the in home providers probably fared better because of smaller groups, a more intimate setting than having all those kids in."

Lowerthird2line talent coronavirus:alex jirgens ajirgens@kimt.com coverage you can count on that report from child care aware of american finds that child care attendance and enrollment remain significantly lower than at the beginning of the year.

17 of 32 states the submitted data for the report lost more than 25 percent of their child care capacity.

Live in clear lake -alex jirgens kimt news 3 thank you alex.

According to the report-as of july of this year - 35 percent of child care centers - and 21 percent of family child care programs remain closed nationwide.

/ can