OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) – The Oklahoma Legislature overrode Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill that seeks to alleviate the state’s childcare crisis by giving an incentive to early childhood educators.
Stitt vetoed House Bill 2778, which provides no-cost childcare to early childhood educators. However, the Oklahoma House of Representatives overrode the veto with a 69-17 vote, followed by the Senate with a vote of 36-9.
The incentive was originally written by Rep. Suzanne Schreiber, D-Tulsa, in House Bill 1849 (Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, co-authored), but that language was later transferred to HB 2778, a bill reserved for the budget process.
HB 2778 becoming law is a win for Schreiber, who this year continued her ongoing fight to alleviate the state’s childcare shortage, which is often brought on by high costs and low staffing. The incentive is designed to recruit and retain quality early childhood teachers
“This is a low-cost solution that delivers big results — it supports small businesses throughout Oklahoma and fills our early childhood classrooms with quality teachers to take care of our babies, and allows parents to go to work so our employers can grow our economy,” Schreiber said. “With the average hourly wage between $11 and $12 per hour, it often doesn’t make sense to work in the field if the employee needs their own childcare. And every time we lose a childcare employee we lose between 4 and 20 spots for our kids. With wait lists all over the state of up to a year and the industry having closed more than 135 childcare centers and suffering a loss of over 4,300 slots in less than 12 months, I knew we needed to problem solve quickly.”
The new law will make a difference in the effort to make childcare more available in Oklahoma, according to Rachel Erwin-Proper, Vice President of Child Care Inc said.
“This type of relief for childcare workers seemed so distant, but it finally happened – the legislature made a huge investment in our childcare system. A huge thanks to Representative Suzanne Schreiber for championing this effort. On behalf of all Oklahoma childcare providers, we are forever grateful,” Erwin-Proper said.
HB 2778 was passed thanks to a bipartisan effort, Schreiber said.
“Passing HB 2778 is a big win for all of Oklahoma. Our families and our employers need a strong childcare sector for our economy to grow. We heard from businesses across the state about their workforce challenges due to childcare. We heard from families across the state about their challenges in finding and affording childcare. This new law will ease some of those burdens for constituents throughout the state. I appreciate all of the stakeholders and legislators that came together to get this done and deliver this bill for our families and employers,” she said. “While I brought the bill forward, without the help of Speaker Hilbert and his staff, Rep. Mark Lawson, Senator Todd Gollihare and the House and Senate Appropriations Chairman, Rep. Trey Caldwell and Sen. Chuck Hall this bill would not have become law. This was truly something we made happen together.”
Schreiber also wrote House Bill 1848. That bill sought to give a tax credit to employers who either provide a childcare subsidy to their employees or operates a childcare facility that their employees can use. The tax credit would have been equal to 30 percent of the subsidy amount or operating cost, limited to $30,000 per employer. It may be claimed for tax year 2026 through 2030 and capped at $5 million in total claims each year.
But the tax credit once again did not make it to Stitt’s desk.
HB 1848 is the same as a childcare tax incentive bill Schreiber filed last year. Last year’s bill did not fully clear the legislature before the 2024 legislative session was over.
Members of the State Legislature have become familiar with how the bill addresses childcare needs.
“I think if we can express to them that this is a limited sunset credit that offers a solution, it’s worth investing in it and giving it a try to see if we can meet some of our business, economy, family and constituent needs,” Schreiber said earlier this year. “It has all of the components that it had last year. I think it takes some time for people to internalize those. And so, the second time around, I think they have a memory and an understanding and still hear the of cries for, ‘Hey, we need some help figuring out this childcare puzzle. Maybe this is a pretty cost efficient way to do it.'”
HB 1848 also provided a tax credit to childcare workers, but that part was removed from the bill.
“We took that out to make sure that this was very clean and very focused on just the employers who are seeking the workforce and offering them a tax credit to extend resources to their employees that would alleviate some of the costs of childcare for their employees, but also inject dollars into that industry,” Schreiber said.
The childcare crisis continues to be deeply felt in Oklahoma, with many working families struggling to find accessible and affordable childcare.
American Rescue Plan Act funds from the federal government injected some stabilization into the childcare market.
“But now that those one-time dollars are gone, we’re starting to see some really devastating effects,” Schreiber said.
The state has seen 2,800 childcare spots closed in the last year, according to Schreiber.
“And we’ll probably get a new number soon that will be even more than that,” she said.
Childcare facilities are also closing.
“There’s a multitude of factors that are causing that. Some of it is one-time money. Some of it is changes in the star quality rating method,” Schreiber said. “But the bottom line is, what we need to do as a legislature is look at what we can do in advance. And in particular, HB1848 as an effort to solve problems with things that we can control. There’s some things we cannot control. We’re not getting our market dollars back. That’s not happening. So, what can we do to do our part to shore up this market to make sure that our employers have the workforce that they need to make sure that our kids are getting quality and safe childcare? And we’ve got HB1848 leading the pack on that effort.”
Oklahoma has been experiencing a child care crisis for several years now. Child care facilities are either too few in many areas of the state, too expensive or often both.
An Oklahoma State University report, Understanding Access and Barriers to Childcare in Oklahoma, cited Center for American Progress data, which shows that 55 percent of Oklahoma’s population live in childcare deserts and that such deserts are in both rural and urban areas.
OSU’s report referenced DHS Childcare data that showed Oklahoma having 3,102 licensed child care facilities across the state’s 77 counties in October 2023.
“This number ranged from zero licensed facilities in Cimarron County to 839 facilities in Oklahoma County,” the report states.
Oklahoma Health and Human Services classified 35 counties – nearly half of the counties in Oklahoma – as a childcare desert.
“The implication is that over 66% of children in these communities may be without childcare options,” the OSU report states.
If a parent has a child care facility in their area, they might have trouble finding a spot for their child. The report found that Oklahoma, on average, has 3.5 children for each licensed childcare slot.
“The median is 2.45, which means that half of all counties in Oklahoma have more than two children per available licensed childcare slot,” the report states.
However, a parent might not be able to afford child care even if they are able to find a facility with an available spot.
Child care had an average annual cost of $11,582 per child in 2023. The report described the annual cost as taking 10 percent of a married couple’s median household income and 32 percent of a single parent’s median household income.
Programs such as the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act and initiatives like the Child Tax Credit expansion were enacted to help make child care more affordable for working families, but many families throughout the nation and across Oklahoma still struggle.
“Despite these efforts, challenges persist, and access to affordable, high-quality childcare remains a significant concern for many American families, including Oklahomans,” the report states.
Oklahoma businesses have been adversely impacted by the childcare facility and worker shortage, seeing a 6.1 percent decline in workforce labor participation among Oklahoma mothers who have children ranging in age from infant to four years old.
“Often times, the parent has to either leave the workforce or make a new work arrangement. It’s even harder if a family has nontraditional hours of care that they need; it’s very difficult to find childcare that operates outside traditional hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Carrie Williams, executive director of Oklahoma Child Care Resource and Referral, previously said to Oklahoma Business Voice.
Parents nationwide are exiting the workforce due to diminishing child care options.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study states that 58 percent of working parents reported leaving their job because they could not find viable child care. Also, 32 percent of women surveyed said having to be home to care for family members made returning to work difficult.
