Family and Children

Seventy-seven percent of women in Iowa are or have been married. Many of those women have children that they support either with the help of a partner or alone.

Resources for Family Economic Security:

• hawk-i is a program that provides health care coverage for Iowa children in families with limited incomes.
  
• WIC (Women Infants & Children) is a supplemental nutrition program for babies, children under the age of five, pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and women who have had a baby in the last six months. WIC helps families by providing healthy foods, nutritional education, and referrals to other health care agencies.
  
• One in every four children in the United States is owed child support on a permanent basis. One in two children--every other child in the United States, and at some point before their eighteenth birthday--is eligible to receive child support. Non-payment of child support is a leading cause of child poverty and is the greatest source of financial insecurity for families in the United States.
  
• Iowa Community Action Association helps low-income families throughout the state find resources to assist with basic needs.
  
• The Iowa Department of Human Services has an online application for State of Iowa Services (OASIS), which is for people applying for benefits administered by DHS.

Iowa has one of the highest rates of women with children who work outside the home. Eighty-two percent of women in Iowa with children under 18 are in the labor force.

Resources for Working Moms:

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families has information about child care, including checklists on how to choose childcare.
  
  
• The Iowa Department of Human Services has several on-line resources for child care.
  
  
• To find child care, you may wish to use Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. Each agency has its own website:
  Northwest Iowa
  Northeast Iowa
  Southwest and South Central Iowa
  Central Iowa
  Southeast Iowa
  
  
• Iowa's Quality Rating System is a voluntary child care rating system for child development homes, licensed child care centers and preschools, and child care programs that are operated by school districts.
  
  
• Child Care Assistance is available to the children of income-eligible parents who are absent for a portion of the day due to employment or participation in academic or vocational training or PROMISE JOBS activities. Assistance may also be available for a limited period of time to the children of a parent looking for employment or when the parent who normally cares for the child is unable to do so due to hospitalization, or outpatient treatment for physical or mental illness.
  
  
• Healthy Child Care Iowa's mission is to improve the health and safety of Iowa children who are enrolled in child care and early education settings.
  
  
• Iowa Afterschool Alliance is a statewide network which fosters the belief that learning does not stop at the end of the school day. Working with local area interests groups, Iowa Afterschool Alliance works to advance after-school and out-of-school experiences to enrich the lives of children, families, schools, and communities.