The Council Bluffs Community School District is constructing an Early Learning Center to expand preschool services to an additional 175 students in full-day preschool programming, as well as an additional 30 children in infant and toddler child care rooms. The Center will also provide health, safety, mental health, medical, dental, and nutritional services to children and families. The Early Learning Center will not only expand childcare offerings to working families in Council Bluffs, the program will help to create a more sustainable model for delivering high-quality, affordable childcare services in communities across the state. In a unique partnership with the State of Iowa Governor’s Office and Department of Education, the district has been awarded a $7 million grant to explore offering childcare services. In addition to funding for capital and operating expenses, the grant will provide a consultant to help build a new childcare model that can be scaled to larger and smaller communities, and implemented across the state. While it is rare for school districts to provide childcare services to infants and toddlers, we believe school districts are uniquely positioned to develop a more sustainable model, by sharing human and capital resources. Additionally, the model will improve the conditions for childcare workers, most of which are women, who will benefit from school district pay, benefits, and support services not typically offered by childcare providers.
