Oklahoma child care owners ask DHS for funding to stay afloat through the pandemic

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — For moms like Jessica Duncan, the ability to send their kids to daycare allows her and her husband to keep their jobs.

"If she wasn't open, either myself or my husband would have to stay home from work and lose our jobs," Duncan said.

It's not an option for Jessica, but something she could be forced into if the daycare shuts down.

"The daycares still need to stay open for the ones who are still able to go to work and need to be at work to help with this COVID virus and help the patients," she said.

She takes her kids to Jessica Morris' two child care centers in Coweta. Bright Beginning Learning Center and Before & After Care. Morris says the state has offered to pay daycares for ten absent days per month for each student enrolled by the DHS.

"Once we hit that ten absent days, that's it. There's no more pay for our DHS subsidy children that are staying home. They were approved for childcare benefits, and the state budgeted for their childcare benefits, but they're not paying out on it," Morris said.

That's why Tuesday night, daycare operators from across the state joined into a Zoom conference call with legislators to get answers. Lawmakers on the call said they will be talking to DHS to get that funding moving.

"There needs to be a re-evaluation, DHS, and reconsideration of revamping many of these rules and regulations and more importantly how daycares are paid per child. We need to make sure when this pandemic is over, that our parents have a place to take their children," said Representative Lundy Kiger of Poteau.

But there is still a need that exists now for essential workers.

"Without us, the hospitals shut down, the grocery stores shut down," said Morris. "The Kum & Go, and QuikTrip, and McDonald's, they all shut down because they can't have enough workers."