I recently had the opportunity to fill in for the director of the new child care center on Florida Road. It was fun to be in the beautiful new building, get to know the families enrolled there, see the creative curriculum in action, and it was especially joyful to play with the kids.
As I answered the phone, emails and people stopping by, I realized, to my angst, that the majority of the contacts were from mothers and fathers looking for care for their children. I answered five to 10 phone calls per day, several email applications to get on the waiting lists and saw many people who just showed up with desperate pleas.
It broke my heart to hear the stories from some of these parents trying to get a slot for their child. Some are trying to climb out of poverty, have just scored the big job and now can’t find any care, so their downward spiral of poverty continues. Others have just moved here for the big new job in the expanding company, had no idea care was so difficult to find and are now on hold with work. And, there are the families who want some socialization and early learning in a group setting for their kids, to take advantage of the rapid brain development at these early ages. All these people, so many people, are shut out!
The numbers are staggering. There are currently 48 kids for this one child care center waiting to get into the infant rooms, 74 to join the toddlers and 52 for the preschool.
It is upsetting and a bit alarming that our community can’t provide enough quality care for its children. After many years of public work around this issue, I have essentially given up, but here it is right back in my face. No one seems to care unless they work and have a child 6 weeks to 5 years old. Their concern quickly passes, as the child turns 5 and then moves on to elementary school.
In 2011, we had 2,901 kids younger than 5 in La Plata County. State studies have shown that 63 percent of all children in this age group live in families where all parents work. Data shows only about 43 percent of these kids who need care are in licensed child care. I’m not sure what happens to these 1,041 other kids, but they are probably cared for in informal and unlicensed settings, often by extended family members, friends or neighbors.
I have pleaded with businesses to get involved. Quality care for employees’ children only benefits their bottom line, with higher production and fewer absences. I have proposed a mandate to the city that any business with more than 100 employees either provide child care or donate into a fund to create some kind of public care center. Other communities do this and have successfully eased their situations.
It seems the focus for the city and county is “economic development” with not much concern for the ramifications of this rapid growth, only for the dollars.
Good child care affects the whole community. Working families require access to affordable child care to maintain employment and keep the engines of business running. Investments in child care have significant economic returns to children and society. For every $1 invested in quality care, taxpayers save $7! Kids who attend have a 29 percent higher rate of high school completion, a 41 percent reduction of special-education placement, a 33 percent lower rate of juvenile arrest, and earn 33 percent higher wages later in life. Good reasons to support this effort.
So the dire need goes on. I am thinking the new child care center on Florida is a beacon of hope, and that everyone who drives by will be reminded of what can happen, what could be, what we must do.
Martha McClellan has been an early care child educator, director and administrator for 36 years. She currently has an early childhood consulting business, supporting child care centers and families. Reach her at mmm@bresnan.net.
