Client Story

Indiana Office of Early Childhood & Out of School Learning (OECOSL) is a division of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and oversees early child care, education, and out-of-school-time programs in the state of Indiana.  

OECOSL’s vision is that every Indiana community will have a strong network of Early Care and Education and Out-of-School Time programs that support the child, the family, and local schools. Programs will be high-quality, affordable, and accessible to enable families to work effectively to obtain economic self-sufficiency. Children will thrive in programs that meet their developmental and educational needs and make them feel welcome, encouraged, and supported. Professionals teaching and caring for children will have the resources, including training and education, needed to operate and maintain high-quality programs.

Every year, businesses lose $1,640 per worker due to a lack of child care options for families. Employees miss work, are forced to leave their positions, or are fired due to child care. There are wide-ranging effects on children’s well-being, family financial security, and local and state economies when parents are faced with cutting back on their work hours or quitting their employment entirely because there is a lack of affordable and accessible child care.

Employer investments in child care not only benefit their employees and the broader community but also yield positive returns for their business, including strengthened recruitment and retention, increased productivity, growth in workforce diversity, improved employee relations and satisfaction, and enhanced corporate reputation.

In response to Governor Holcomb’s 2023 Next Level Agenda, the Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund was created to mobilize employers and communities to create or expand childcare offerings that address the needs of working Hoosiers. This $25 million grant program provided seed money to be used to support employees’ childcare needs in a variety of ways, including sponsoring dependent care assistance plans, providing on-site or near-site childcare, or offering childcare tuition benefits. OECOSL hoped to increase childcare access and propel program expansion through this Employer Sponsored Child Care Fund.

OECOSL sought TCG’s support in the development and launch of the Employer Sponsored Child Care Fund. OECOSL also sought support from TCG to complete a process evaluation of how the grant program was administered to inform future programming. Through this process, TCG:

• Developed a Business Case for Employers to Invest in Child Care, which OECOSL used to promote awareness of this funding opportunity with employers.
• Developed a summary overview of Employers-Sponsored Models: Boost Your Workforce Through Family Focused Practices 
• Webinars to promote awareness of this funding opportunity and for employers to learn more about the different employer-sponsored child care partnership models 
• Formative Evaluation of Indiana’s Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund
• One-Page Overview of the Evaluation of the Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund

TCG developed a business case for employers to invest in child care. We summarized the research that is most compelling for employers to understand the importance and value of investing in child care.

In order to develop the Employer-Sponsored Child Care Partnership models, we researched how the programs are defined and implemented. We gathered data to inform the benefits of each model as well as how to operationalize them for an employer. We also identified case examples for each employer-sponsored child care program model.  

To build awareness and interest in participating in the employer-sponsored child care fund program, we created two webinars for employers. We summarized the information we gathered in the two reports to present and discuss in the webinars. The second webinar included a panel of peers who have implemented an employer-sponsored child care program. We reached out and identified a variety of Indiana employers to share their learnings and recommendations with potential applicants for the grant program.  

For the formative evaluation of the TCG, we gathered the program grant information from all grantees and conducted a survey of grantees. We also reached out to other states that have implemented a similar employer-sponsored grant program to share insights on program implementation for the state.