(Radio Iowa) – More than 13-thousand people used a new Iowa website to search for child care in its first nine months of operation. Iowa Child Care Connect lets Iowans search for child care openings specific to their kid’s age, and policymakers can use it to see which parts of the state have a higher need for more child care options. Ryan Page is director of child care at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. She says the website’s succeeding and other states want to replicate it. “There are a lot of states that have a search function, most do, however, they don’t have the near real-time availability,” Page says. “They also don’t have that supply-and-demand data in real time to help navigate policy decision making.”

Paige Smothers is the owner and director of Sprouts Early Learning Academy in Carlisle. She says it’s easy and quick to submit her center’s availability to be displayed on the state website.  “I was surprised that, as a center, I’ve been able to use that information too, like when we were trying to explain some differences in our enrollment numbers,” Smothers says. “It’s just been very, very attainable, very accessible, and very user-friendly, for both the family and the centers.”

Smothers says since the website launched, she’s noticed more families that drive through Carlisle to get to work each day are reaching out to her child care center. The website was built with about five-million dollars in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.