Brace yourself for some intimidating numbers, though these may not surprise working parents. Montgomery County had 1,983 children under six who may need care and only 638 childcare seats in 2023, reported the Child Care Resource and Referral Network. That leaves a gap of 1300 kids. Where are they going for childcare?
Here are more numbers. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of infant care is $12,612 and the cost for a 4-year-old is $9,557 for each child. For median family households, childcare can eat up 22% of their budget, but for a minimum wage worker, it’s 83.6% of their earnings. And for the typical Hoosier childcare worker, who earns between $10-15 dollars an hour? Childcare accounts for 62.2% of the worker’s earnings if she has just one infant to put into childcare, the EPI reports. In fact, 11.8% of childcare workers live in poverty compared to the 5.8% national average of households in poverty.
A year ago, the nation faced a childcare cliff. In September 2023, the $24 billion Child Care Stabilization Fund allocated to covering the wages, benefits, facilities and supplies, ended.
While pandemic support continued, childcare providers could provide pay increases, bonuses, and sick leave for staff, all of which increased their ability to attract and retain staff. The quality of the childcare could improve when funds were used to increase education for staff. The cost of providing care in Indiana for one child is $14,000 per year, reported the Indiana Capitol Chronicle, citing testimony from Adam Alson, president of Appleseed Childhood Education.
“The system is broken from every single angle. It does not work for providers. It does not work for parents, and clearly, employers are struggling to find a workforce,” said Erin Emerson, president and CEO of Perry County Development Corporation in testimony to the Indiana State House in August 2023.
Many providers in low-income communities serve families who fall below the median $62,937 income line for Montgomery County.
Indiana now provides Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) vouchers for those earning 150% of the federal poverty level. (Think about a family of four living on $45,000 a year.) 109 MoCo kids received such vouchers, according to Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration. More could likely qualify, considering the poverty rate for people between 18-64 is 11.8%, the US Census Bureau reports.
While some two-parent households report that one partner stays home with the kids, childcare is not negotiable in single-parent households. With the high cost of care and frequent need for non-traditional hours, many turn to a patchwork of options to work out something affordable - family or friends for infants, babysitters, childcare swaps, unlicensed (sometimes even unregistered) home daycares, after-school programming and summer camps.
The patchwork adds time and stress to parents’ lives. They have to sort out pickups, drop-offs, and backups when providers are sick.
Also, many options do not offer high-quality care with age-appropriate, social-emotional and educational activities.
Center-based care means more certified staff, better training for developmental activities, and built-in backup when a caregiver is sick. Most don’t offer non-traditional hours for parents who work swing shifts, twelve-hour shifts, or second and third shifts. Seats are tight, as noted before, so parents sit on waitlists. According to Care.com, over half of parents surveyed nationally report the lists are longer than in the past, and 81% are on multiple waitlists.
Members of Indiana’s Land Use Task Force explored whether childcare problems are impacting Indiana’s economic development, according to a Fox59 report last October. Half of Hoosier county populations decreased from 2010 to 2020, leaving members of the task force exploring the role of adequate amounts of childcare that could attract more workers, particularly in rural areas.
The Indiana Capitol Chronicle, which reported on the 2023 testimony before the Statehouse, quoted Erin Emerson: “There are also a lot of people who are working part-time — not in the field that they have training for — because they don’t have access to childcare, and they want to do more to provide more for their family and to be active in the workforce. They simply don’t have the critical infrastructure that will allow them to do that.”
“It’s just really, really hard, and it’s even harder in rural communities where we often have lack or no access to the goods and services that are required to fall within state licensing guidelines,” Emerson continued.
Locally, the Montgomery County Early Childhood Coalition is working to scale up trained providers, increase program quality, improve accessibility, increase community and parent education, and strengthen existing programs. The League of Women Voters supports their strategic plans, and in the coming weeks and months, we’ll be reporting on types of childcare available in our community, resources for finding and funding care, and how providers are supported.
The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan, multi-issue organization encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase public understanding of major policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. All men and women are invited to join the LWV where hands-on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement. For information, visit the website www.lwvmontcoin.org or the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, IN Facebook page.
