Stories of the desperate quest for child care abound in La Plata County.

“We just don’t have availability, and when we do, it’s costly,” said Tamara Volz, executive director of the Early Childhood Council of La Plata County and Southwest Colorado Child Care Resource and Referral. “We had 270 calls last year from people looking for a space and nowhere to refer them to. I’ve had people in my office in tears because they couldn’t find child care for their child.”

La Plata County is not alone in facing this problem. It’s a national challenge – mentioned by President Barack Obama during his State of the Union address in January. Study after study keeps asking the question the U.S. Department of Labor raised in its 2013 report, “Who’s Minding the Children?” In the United States, about 67 percent of children are in homes where both parents work, according to the department.

“It’s worse here because especially in Durango, both parents need to work to live here,” Volz said. “Unfortunately, we are only able to track licensed and license-exempt providers. We don’t know what happens underground with family and neighbors.”

License-exempt providers care for the children from one family.

Statistics also don’t differentiate between children who need part-time and full-time care.

But as of September 2014, La Plata County had spaces in licensed and license-exempt facilities for 54 percent of all children 5 and younger whose families need it.

The gap is wider for infants and toddlers. Between 500 and 600 babies are born to La Plata County residents at Mercy Regional Medical Center every year, statistics from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment say.

Carolyn Tinsley, who began as executive director of the Riverhouse Children’s Center four months ago after moving here from the Front Range, says she receives two to three calls a day, and the first question is usually, “Do you provide infant care?”

Riverhouse does – two infant classes with eight spots each – but the waiting list is long, with about 300 people looking for spaces for all age groups.

“It is so disheartening to have to tell them ‘no,’” she said. “But our families tend to make arrangements with us before their babies are born, and unless they move or mothers stop working, they tend to stay with us until their children start school.”

Volz said waiting-list statistics can be misleading.

“Some families are on waiting lists at six or eight places,” she said. “But there’s nothing misleading about the challenge to find care.”

Tinsley said she is astonished at the lack of availability here. While it may be expensive in Denver and Colorado Springs, parents can usually find a quality provider, she said.

“Young parents aren’t expecting that child care costs the same as college tuition, either,” Volz said. “And it comes at a time when they’re working at the lowest pay of their careers.”

More than safety

Early-childhood care is about more than keeping kids safe and fed.

The Abecedarian Project randomly assigned students to either an early-childhood education program or a control group, and it has tracked participants since the 1970s. The project found that attending preschool had long-term benefits for academic performance, career development and health. The benefits may be even stronger for children from lower socioeconomic levels, according to a Head Start study.

People need to look for certain things, especially when evaluating infant care, Volz said.

“Parents should look at the interaction between the caregiver and infant,” she said. “Not only do they need to be fed and diapered, but held, cared for, talked to. Caregivers need to be able to determine why they’re crying, and the infant needs to learn to form social attachments.”

Coloradans should perhaps be asking for more. A 2013 update of the “We Can Do Better” report by Child Care Aware ranked the state 35th in the country on 10 benchmarks including licensing requirements and oversight.

Dollars are tight

On the other hand, Colorado ranks eighth in the nation for having the most expensive child care, according to a PEW Research Center study in 2014.

A study commissioned by the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and performed by Qualistar Colorado in 2014 found that a significant part of the problem is the basic financial structure of child care in the country.

Staff is generally the highest cost, with small adult-to-child ratios required (1:5 maximum for infants, for example), but the average salary for someone working in early-childhood education is $21,490.

“Our child care is subsidized on the backs of our early-child care providers, who rarely make a living wage,” Volz said. “My husband, Bill, works in family services for Tri-County Head Start, and he tells people he took a vow of poverty when he got involved in early-childhood care.”

In a resort town like Durango, the cost of the facility, whether it’s freestanding or in someone’s home, is also high. Food costs can also be substantial because in a 10-hour period, children need multiple healthy meals and snacks.

Would it help parents and providers if school districts begin offering preschool?

“It will help parents of preschoolers,” Volz said. “But many providers subsidize infants and toddlers with their preschool income. Without that, it will make their infant and toddler programs unsustainable without raising prices significantly.”

A workplace issue

The Pew study found that the rising cost of child care in America may explain a recent increase in stay-at-home moms, rising from 23 percent in 2000 to 29 percent by 2012. Adjusted to 2013 dollars, those average weekly costs increased from $87 in 1985 to $148 in 2010.

Some major employers in La Plata County, such as Mercy Regional Medical Center and Fort Lewis College, offer child care for employees, often at reduced rates.

Does it aid in employee satisfaction and retention?

“We don’t have hard data,” said Cathy Roberts, Mercy’s vice president for mission integration, “but we do know it supports patient care and makes it easier for us to train and retain staff. The stories people tell us are really moving.”

The Mercy Child Care Center was the result of a grass-roots effort, she said, which came out of a staff idea, with staff working to make it happen.

“As roles of dads and moms are changing in our society,” Roberts said, “the workplace hasn’t been as supportive of dads. We’re hoping to see that change.”

Why don’t more businesses offer child care?

Mercury, a Durango-based credit-card payment-processing firm, for example, considered putting a day care in its new building but found the licensing and certifications would have been expensive and difficult based on the size of its business, director of public relations Lori Stafford-Thomas said.

“One reason most businesses don’t do it is because they can’t make money,” Volz said.

Roberts agreed, saying that Mercy is always trying to at least make its child care center break even.

What can we do?

“There’s no easy fix,” Volz said. “We need teachers, and we need facilities. They both take time and money.”

Volz has a dream of what early-childhood care should look like.

“I wish we could be like Reggio Emilia, Italy,” she said. “They pay their teachers well, and they’re really respected. And their facilities are beautiful – they don’t stick young children in a basement.”

abutler@durangoherald.com

The caption on the main photo has been corrected to identify Jed Snitselaar, the first child at the left being read to by teacher Marin Huskey.

Colo. child care report 2014 (PDF)

Child care 101

Understanding the child care dilemma requires understanding child care terminology:

Colorado licensed child care has demonstrated that it has complied with basic health and safety standards and meets certain criteria for staff training and background checks. Licensing requirements also include staff-to-child ratios (generally 1:5 for infants and young toddlers, 1:7 for older toddlers, 1:8 for young preschoolers and 1:10 for 3- to 4-year-olds) in different settings, age range of children who may be cared for and how many children may be cared for in different settings.

License-exempt providers may care for the children from one single family.

Visit www.ecclaplata.org to learn more about the Early Childhood Council and its resource and referrals. In 2015, under a state grant coupled with a grant from El Pomar Foundation, the council will educate about 14 providers from a five-county area to take care of infants and toddlers.

Visit www.epicemployertoolkit.org to get a tool kit on how employers can develop internal policies to support employees’ child care needs.

Improving the situation

The Colorado Cost of Care Report 2014 commissioned by the Women’s Foundation of Colorado recommends six strategies to address the availability and affordability of child care:

Expand access to the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program.

Invest in and expand other programs, both statewide and local, that support child care, including the Colorado Preschool Program.

Expand federal investment in child care affordability, which has been declining in real dollars in the last decade.

Provide incentives to help businesses adopt family-friendly practices to help employees address child care needs.

Develop new practices to improve efficiency and help families afford child care.

Make it easier for parents to find information about child care options and assistance.