More than 10,000 Wyandotte County kids need child care. Only a third can get it

Community advocates have long known that Wyandotte County has a problem meeting parents’ need for child care.

But the problem isn’t overcrowded classrooms.

“When we ask providers they might say, ‘We have two empty classrooms. I’d open them today if families could pay and we could find the teachers,’” said Dean Olson, president and CEO of the local nonprofit the Family Conservancy.

A new multi-partner community project aims to improve access to all-day, year-round child care by funding solutions for the most persistent problems: the affordability of services, the retainment of teachers and the quality of programs.

The pilot program Start Young, overseen by the Family Conservancy, will support 16 child care providers that serve roughly 1,200 Wyandotte County kids with a $3 million grant to be distributed over the next three years.

“Let’s say I’m operating a child care site in a low-income neighborhood and most of my parents are paying me with a state subsidy and aren’t able to afford anything else or much else,” said Jocelyn Mourning, the Family Conservancy’s vice president of development and communications. “I can’t pay my teachers very well. I can’t keep teachers. If I have slots open … I can’t fund my center.”

Problems with child care spiral into the business community also.

“One of the key barriers to entering and retaining a job in Wyandotte County is child care,” Greg Kindall, president of Wyandotte County’s economic development council, said at a recent press conference for Start Young. “The business community needs a reliable workforce, and part of that challenge is making sure that their employees have access to and can afford quality child care.”

When parents can’t keep up with costs, Olson said, they could pull their kids from care or opt out of getting a job. They might run up bills at a center and then switch to another facility.

Funded partly by a first-year $1 million grant from the state-sponsored Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, the project took off this summer after Olson’s group started required efforts to match the public contribution with private funds. The project can receive up to $1 million for each of the following two years if it raises a matching amount each year.

The program marks the first time the Family Conservancy and other Wyandotte County agencies it partners with, such as the Mid-America Regional Council and the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, have significant funds to try new ideas together.

Wyandotte County only meets 34 percent of its potential demand, according to the 2017 Child Care Supply Demand Report compiled by the Kansas Department for Children and Families. The report uses census data to look at the availability of child care in Kansas, including day care and preschools.

Wyandotte County has roughly 16,300 children under the age of 6 and estimates more than 10,000 need care. But only 500 of those children received a DCF child care subsidy, and current facilities can serve 3,600 children.

Compare that to Johnson County, where officials estimate child care facilities meet at least 71 percent of demand.

“Parents with means find child care expensive,” Mourning said. “Imagine being in poverty and what is offered by the subsidy that you have.”

To combat that, Start Young plans to offer partial scholarships because Kansas subsidies don’t meet the market rate.

The organization plans to hire a child care advocate to help parents navigate the tricky process to get state subsidies.

To help providers retain teachers and workers, the project will pilot a system to give teachers bonuses every six months based on their level of education. Teachers could receive scholarships to complete their associate’s degrees and continue training.

Olson said the stakes are high.

Wyandotte County health officials have already identified jobs and education as key factors in maintaining healthy communities. Research shows that consistent care and education during early childhood are crucial during a child’s brain development.

Olson said Start Young may expand in coming years, depending on state and private funding.

The organization has only $74,000 left to raise before it completes its $1 million match for the state for its first year.

“If you think of child care as an industry or a sector it’s tremendously underfunded,” Olson said. “And that’s an understatement.”

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 10:18 AM.