“Dan Funston, superintendent of Concord Community Schools, said he thinks Concord and Baugo together produce the most youth apprentices in the state. Concord has 22 apprentices, while Baugo has 20 apprentices who work on and off campus, according to Funston and Byron Sanders, superintendent of Baugo Community Schools.”

“Effective evidence-based interventions to promote family strengthening are those in which parents are active partners in community mental health interventions, social protection schemes, supportive case management, and parenting skills development programmes. Bias, discrimination, and stigma experienced by marginalised families must be recognised and overcome for parents to be empowered and adequately supported to care for their families. Inclusion of young people's voices is essential, and wishes around their care and welfare must be taken seriously. Culturally appropriate approaches to raising children and facilitators of family healing must be prioritised and led by the communities affected.”

A 2024 study by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce found that over half of Hoosier parents miss work or class because they cannot find child care. Absenteeism and employee turnover caused by this struggle creates an estimated $3.05 billion in losses for Hoosier employers each year.

Vanessa Green Sinders, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber, told TheStatehouseFile.comin January that child care deserts like Indiana deter potential workers from coming to the state.

“We are such a great state to do business in, and we have so much economic development going on, … but that enthusiasm and that economic development is going to take more workforce,” Sinders said.

The Indiana General Assembly did not allot funding in the state budget to give Hoosiers universal, affordable child care through the CCDF, On My Way Pre-K or any other program. Instead, lawmakers wrote piecemeal legislation that addressed small parts of the larger problem.

“I never anticipated that programs and services and opportunities for young people wouldn’t be funded at all by the federal government,” Ryan said, adding that local children’s organizations likely can’t go to states, whose budgets are already underwater, to make up the funding gap. “When you look at this alongside what they’re doing at HHS and the Department of Education and to Medicaid, it’s undercutting every single effort that we have to serve kids.”

“We made a great step forward last summer in giving families the ability to purchase the food that they need for their kids when they need it. And it just feels like a giant leap backwards to take this program away that the federal government is still operating and we could opt into it,” said Kate Howe, the executive director of the Indy Hunger Network. “But Indiana has decided that they don’t want to.”

“Partnerships matter right now. CDF is one of seven partners involved with the Early Learning Nation Collective and we serve in the backbone role, thinking about how to have the sum be greater than the parts. The collective’s [goal is] creating a nation where local leaders, parents, caregivers and community leaders really have a say in what’s happening. We help local leaders unlock the power that they have to create and to have agency over the things that matter to them.“