BOISE, Idaho — Tuesday morning, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved $28 million in federal funding for Child Care providers in Idaho. The funding was a part of COVID-19 federal relief money that had come in the form of monthly facility grants and monthly wage enhancement grants for individual providers.
The approval will now go through the legislature to be passed. Those funds are set to expire in July if passed.
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Last month, there was doubt that the funds would be approved which made today's announcement very welcome.
"A huge relief for us here at the Y," said Teresa Wood-Adams, the Senior Executive Director of Child and Youth Development at the Treasure Valley YMCA.
Wood-Adams says that they had planned their entire year with those funds in mind and so when they were in jeopardy, there were concerns. The funds are part of the reason the YMCA was able to keep some programs running throughout the pandemic.
“We couldn’t have done that without the support of the dollars to make sure that we were keeping our doors open, to be able to support the workforce and all of the businesses in our community as we all came out of the pandemic," Wood-Adams said.
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At the beginning of March, there were protests around the state about the funding. Wood-Adams thinks that organizing and speaking out helped the message get to the lawmakers.
The funding is still set to end in June, which brings concern to Wood-Adams.
"We’re doing all that we can, but if anything changes, if anything slips, that’s what I’m most concerned about," She said.
