The Child Care Business Incentive 2.0 grant opportunity is open to any Iowa business or entity that pays W-2 wages to a minimum of 75 full-time employees and is not in the business of providing child care.
Donor Name: Iowa Workforce Development
State: Iowa
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/23/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
The Child Care Business Incentive Grant Program, first established in 2022, is targeted at helping employers offer or expand child care options as a benefit to their employees. Funds have supported local infrastructure investments and arrangements between employers and child care facilities to expand child care options.
Awards are administered as a reimbursement only and require a 50/50 private match for all grant funds provided.
Grant funds provided to employers can be used to support the following projects:
- The expansion or new construction of child care and/or daycare facilities for employees, with the employer as the provider or in partnership with a local child care provider.
Priorities
Priority funding will be given to applicants who are:
- Located in an Iowa county classified as a high-demand area for child care.
- Counties with a greater demand for child care will receive additional priority. Applicants should also take into account the child care age groups based on the supply/demand gaps within the community.
- Planning to utilize funding to increase the capacity of the child care center by creating additional child care slots across multiple age groups.
- Applicants requesting additional funding to maintain current slot capacities will not receive priority.
- Planning to build onsite child care centers.
- Not recipients of the previous Child Care Challenge or Investing in Iowa’s Child Care (IICC) funding from either 2021 or 2022.
Funding Information
Projects that propose building a new facility will have a $3 million maximum award amount. Projects that propose expanding, retrofitting, and/or renovating a facility will have a $1.5 million maximum award amount.
Grant Period
The period of performance for this program begins February 1, 2025, and ends June 30, 2026, providing up to 17 months for the award period.
Eligible Applicants
- Eligible applicants include businesses and consortiums of employers in good standing with the State of Iowa. Applicants must have a minimum of 75 full-time employees and has not held layoffs or layoff extensions within the past six (6) months from 12/01/2024.
- Individual employers included in a consortium application are not required to each have 75 full-time employees; however, a minimum of 75 cumulative, full-time employees among the employers included in the consortium is required and no consortium partner may have held layoffs or layoff extensions within the past six (6) months. One employer must apply on behalf of all employers that are joining the consortium, and that entity will be the subrecipient and be responsible for consolidated reporting and funding requests. Documentation of all employer partnerships in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement will be required to be submitted with the application.
Ineligible Applicants
- Businesses that are in the primary business of providing child care services and already licensed with the state of Iowa are ineligible for this award.
- Registered home-based child care programs are not eligible child care partners under this award.
Additional Considerations
Awarded applicants will be required annually to provide evidence to IWD of maintaining a State of Iowa child care license and continue child care operations at over 50% capacity for a minimum of five (5) years after the period of performance ends to maintain compliance with the federal interest period.
For more information, visit IWD.
