Parenthood before adulthood: Iowa's young parents face poverty, stigma while raising kids
Shelby Fleig
Rachel Scrivner is one of dozens of moms huddled with their babies in a boisterous conference room in downtown Des Moines. They take turns watching each other’s kids and filling their plates with the donated dinner, usually pasta.
“It’s loud. We eat, we talk, we laugh,” said Ashley Ezzio, who runs the Young Moms programs at Young Women’s Resource Center. “It’s like a big family gathering.”
Soon the kids are whisked away to the toy-packed playroom, giving their moms — none older than 21 — much-needed quiet.
Scrivner, 20, is mom to curly-haired Delilah. Young Moms classes are "the reason I'm still sane," she said.
Staff give twice-weekly lessons on childbirth, parenting, and how to find childcare, a job and an apartment. Many in the program are students at nearby high schools and colleges. Roughly half are single mothers, Ezzio estimates.
“They have to juggle school and raising a child and, since they’re young, often there’s this judgment toward them,” said Ezzio, who herself became a mom at 19. That was 10 years ago.
Young parents struggle to find childcare, education and housing, the costs of which are exacerbated by poverty. The nation’s 37 percent poverty rate for children of young parents (ages 18-24) is double the poverty rate for all children, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The report finds that 65 percent of children with young parents in Iowa live in “low-income families.” Those families earn less than twice the federal poverty level — the amount the National Center for Children in Poverty deems necessary to cover basic expenses. That’s currently $32,920 for a family of two, according to federal poverty guidelines.
Rachel's story
Between being a full-time nursing student, working two part-time restaurant jobs and as a doula at YWRC, Scrivner has little time for herself.
"Every day that I'm not at school, I'm at work," she said. "The hours are crazy and they're always changing."
But her eyes light up when she talks about her 15-month-old, who loves animals, dolls and food.
The summer after high school graduation, Scrivner lived in her car.
"The six months between graduation and getting pregnant, my life was ridiculous," she said. "I was doing and selling drugs and partying, and just making bad decisions."
When Scrivner found out she was pregnant, she said she ditched those "bad decisions," and, eventually, a highly abusive boyfriend. She got a full-time office job, bought a new car and moved back in with her parents in Osceola.
Scrivner worked until the day she had Delilah in June 2017.
Now, she commutes to downtown Des Moines for Young Moms classes twice a week.
She often feels stuck somewhere between adolescence and adulthood: She cannot buy a gun, which she said she wants for self-defense, or rent a car, but is fully trusted and expected to raise a child, she said.
And she knows it might sound silly to some, but dating is a huge source of stress.
Still, the hardest part is the stigma that follows young parents, Scrivner said.
"A lot of people assume that because I'm gone from home so often, I'm not mothering her enough, which really hurts because I'm gone so often to make a better future for us."
Room for improvement in Iowa
Iowa’s teen pregnancy rate is much lower than in past decades — down 42 percent since 2000, according to Iowa's Child & Family Policy Center (CFPC). But young parents here still struggle to find and afford child care and education, said CFPC senior associate Mike Crawford.
“Compared to other states, we do quite well,” said Crawford, who leads data collection and analysis at the research and advocacy nonprofit.
Iowa is ranked fifth best in the nation for overall child well-being by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual ranking, released in June.
“It’s nice to look at those rankings, but it’s more important to compare Iowa to Iowa,” Crawford said. “There are obviously things we need to improve on.”
Poverty raises stress levels, he said, in both young families and single-parent families, which are increasingly common in Iowa and nationwide.
“Single parenting is not necessarily a bad thing, but over time, more than half of single parents live below the poverty level at one time or another,” said Crawford. And the median income for young parents is “barely enough to make ends meet.”
A 'childcare desert'
Nearly one in five young parents don’t have their high school diploma, according to the report.
The biggest obstacle blocking young parents from continuing schooling, Crawford said, was the lack of affordable childcare.
More:Childcare is now more expensive than housing for many Iowa families
“If they can remain in school, there’s more of a chance they can secure a better job and earn more income, which will help their families,” he said.
Many young parents work and go to classes at odd hours, leaving them to rely on family to babysit, according to the report. Forty-one percent of young parents blamed their unemployment on trouble finding childcare, the report said.
"Childcare is expensive, and some people actually live in what we call a 'childcare desert,'" where there aren't options nearby, said Shelia Hansen, policy director at CFPC. "And once they find it, it's trying to afford it."
The average cost of childcare for one infant and one toddler in Iowa is $16,000 annually, according to an analysis by Business Broker Network.
Scrivner said there isn't one childcare option in Osceola that covers all her shifts. Her mom watches Delilah while she is at work and school. That saves Scrivner hundreds of dollars each month, which, in addition to a scholarship from YWRC, helps her save money, she said.
"It's basically necessary (that my mom watch her) since I leave so early and come back so late, and work weekend hours," she said. "There's no providers that do that."
What could help?
CFPC supports a number of policy recommendations that address poverty among young parents, Crawford said. Those include:
- Enhancing state childcare subsidies for low-income parents, and providing childcare for those who cannot afford it. Just 5 percent of the nation's young parents receive childcare subsidies, according to the Annie E. Casey report.
- Expanding the earned income tax credit to include workers ages 18 to 25. Qualifications for the tax break currently include those between the ages of 25 and 65.
- Expanding Medicaid to include more low-income parents. The current income cut-off in states with expanded Medicaid is 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
- Enhancing voluntary home visitation programs for parents. "It's not available to all families in all counties that need it right now," said Crawford.
Several Iowa lawmakers are loyal supporters of CFPC's recommendations, said Hansen, the center's policy director.
Last Thursday, Hansen sat in on a Children’s System State Board public meeting at Johnston Public Library where state Sens. Liz Mathis, D-Hiawatha, and Jeff Elder, R-State Center, and Reps. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, and Michael Bergan, R-Dorchester, participated in a summit on children’s mental health.
More:Families struggle with lack of children's mental health care in Iowa
All four are part of a small group of lawmakers who consistently back such policies in the state, she said.
“There's a handful out of 150 legislators," said Hansen. "We'd love to say that there were more.”