This is how many children in Iowa don't have access to child care, according to a new state website

DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) – In economics, they talk about supply and demand. In Iowa, the reality is that demand for child care is significantly higher than supply.

Last week, Governor Kim Reynolds and Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, unveiled a new website: www.childcareconnect.iowa.gov. The site allows parents to search for child care options near where they live or work.

The website allows adults to enter the area where they are looking for childcare and then compare facilities. The challenge is to find facilities that are not already at full capacity.

According to the website, 163,771 people need childcare, but there are only 106,937 places available.

Reynolds has implemented a number of initiatives to expand child care options in recent years.

These include increasing the number of children that educators are allowed to care for, expanding the tasks of daycare centers for 16- and 17-year-olds, increasing the contribution obligation for low-income families receiving state support for childcare, raising the income requirements for receiving childcare benefits, providing free daycare places for children and providing state subsidies to companies that offer childcare for their employees.

The state's new child care website, which Reynolds funded with some of the state's federal pandemic aid, includes information from 3,495 providers, 2,400 of which report they are already at capacity.

Here is a sampling of some counties in the state's larger metropolitan areas with information on how many of their providers have exhausted their child care capacity:

• Sioux County: 83%
• Pottawatami County: 55%
• Polk County: 69%
• Scott County: 71%
• Wapello County: 82%
• Linn County: 63%
• Cerro Gordo County: 70%

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