Jennifer and Travis Klath, pictured Aug. 16, 2026, in Moorhead, Minnesota, benefit from the ND Working Parents Child Care Relief Program. The program, which uses matching dollars from participating employers and the federal government to subsidize childcare, ends in September. (Photo by Dan Koeck/For the North Dakota Monitor)
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A pilot program designed to attract and retain workers in North Dakota by assisting with childcare costs will stop in September, ending financial support for hundreds of families.
The ND Working Parents Child Care Relief Program began in 2023 using federal COVID-19 relief funds. The goal of the program, which is administered by the state Department of Health and Human Services, was to make it easier for parents to join or rejoin the workforce after the pandemic.
“We knew that quality, affordable childcare was a key infrastructure needed for parents to return to work after COVID,” said Jennifer Prince, early childcare workforce administrator at North Dakota’s HHS. “This was one way we could meet that need.”
The program requires participating employers to contribute up to $300 a month per child for eligible families. Then the childcare relief program matches those employer contributions.
Those subsidies have made a difference for some families.
Jennifer Klath started looking for a new job when her oldest turned 3 but hesitated because her family received discounted childcare through her former employer.
In 2024, she accepted a position with Tellwell, a creative agency in Fargo. She accepted the position largely because of the benefits the company offered, including participation in the Working Parents Child Care Relief Program.
Since then, Klath’s husband has accepted a different job. The family also switched daycares and added a second child. All of these adjustments were easier because of childcare assistance, Klath said.
“It helped us stay afloat through all of the changes we’ve had to and wanted to make in the past few years,” she said.
Overall, there are 524 working parents representing 61 employers enrolled in the program, according to HHS. Seventy-two of those parents work in the private sector. The others work for the state of North Dakota or the state university system, which were granted matching funds by the Legislature.
Bismarck State College is one of the public colleges that participates in the program. The college has six parents who receive assistance, according to a written statement from Juanita Lee, the college’s spokeswoman.
Matching funds have been available to working parents with qualifying household incomes less than 150% of the state median and whose children are younger than 5 years old. Those children must attend licensed childcare in North Dakota.
Health and Human Services allocated $5 million to the program for the 2023-25 biennium, according to data from Donna Aukland, chief financial officer for HHS. Unused funds were carried over to cover costs for 2026. All funding will be used by September.
Prince said parents have told the department the benefit has made a difference in their ability to succeed at work. She has also heard from businesses that successfully recruited workers because of the benefit. Over the program’s three years, the number of private employers has increased slightly by about 1.5%, she said.
Still, HHS doesn’t have funding to extend the program beyond its deadline, said Tim Eissinger, executive director of HHS.
He said the department recognizes the impact of reducing or ending assistance on families but must prioritize new budget realities.
“If we had the ability to continue programs like this, we would,” he said.
In April, Gov. Kelly Armstrong shared guidelines that included a 10% budget cut for the state’s largest agencies, which includes HHS. That means the agency needs to evaluate programming, Eissinger said.
“We’re committed to honoring his guidelines to make sure we don’t have governmental creep,” he said. “We need to look at creative ways to realign programs.”
That said, the pilot program served a valuable purpose, he said, and suggested the department can be a resource for businesses that want to start their own childcare assistance programs.
“We’d like to see this balance out, so it’s as much a private initiative as a public initiative,” he said.
For some businesses, however, the program not only relieved financial stress among employees, but also provided a benefit that might otherwise be difficult to afford.
Max Kringen, founder of Tellwell, said the program allowed his company to better compete with larger companies that offer higher wages and extensive benefits.
It also gave employees opportunities to be more selective about childcare rather than simply choosing the least expensive care option, he said.
“We would love the state to continue something along these lines,” Kringen said.
Prince said HHS has been transparent about the deadline for the pilot program and has directed families toward other state-supported childcare assistance programs.
One of these is the Child Care Assistance Program, which faced an unexpected $35.5 million funding deficit in December 2025 because of increased enrollments. Nearly 1,900 families were on a waitlist for the program as of Aug. 9.
Klath said her family hopes to see a natural easing of childcare costs since her oldest will begin school this year and doesn’t expect her family will qualify for other programs. She will continue to work and remains grateful for the months they did receive help.
“My employer has been adamant about providing real life benefits, and the WPCCR one is one among many that allow my family to live with a little less stress,” Klath said. “I wish more employers adopted that mindset.”
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