Day care dilemma: High costs, few options frustrate some parents

Jan. 21--Alex and Mariah Castlen are the proud parents of four children.

During the academic year, their oldest daughter, Riley, 7, attends elementary school. The other three -- MaKayla, 5; A.J., 3; and Easton, 6 months -- go to St. Pius X Daycare.

For the three younger ones, the Castlens' child care bill runs $350 a week, including a $60 discount for multiple children. However, the couple recently received a letter from the day care. Fees will increase $5 per week per child.

That means their future weekly bills will be $365 -- or almost $1,500 a month.

"Our day care bill costs $50 more (a month) than all our other bills combined," Mariah Castlen said.

The Castlens are frugal. They live in a rental home that costs $500 a month. They don't owe money on their vehicles.

She earned a master's degree and works as an intensive in-home therapist for RiverValley Behavorial Health. Alex Castlen is a medical tech at RiverValley Children's Hospital and is enrolled in a master's program.

When the Castlens moved Owensboro in 2012, Mariah Castlen worked two full-time jobs. At one point, her husband quit work to stay home with the children to rid their family of child care expenses.

"... (W)e have already quit day care three times due to our inability to keep up with the costs," she said.

According to ChildCare Aware of America, Kentucky's single parents spend 32 percent of their income on child care. Married parents of two children who live at the poverty line pay 50 percent of their household income for center-based day care.

While affordability is one worry, it's not the only one.

Fifty percent of Kentuckians live in a child care desert, according to the Center for American Progress'sAugust 2017 report. With the exception of a few small pockets -- mainly in parts of Owensboro -- the five counties in the Messenger-Inquirer's circulation area are considered a child care desert.

The report defines day care deserts as any community lacking options or with so few providers there are more than three children for every licensed child care slot.

Deserts

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services records show one licensed day care in Hancock and McLean counties with no new applications pending.

Ohio and Muhlenberg counties each have six licensed day cares.

Muhlenberg County has no applications for new centers in the pipeline. Ohio County has one pending for Kentucky Kid Childcare & Development.

Daviess County has 54 licensed day cares with two applications for Here We Grow and Little Blessings Daycare & Preschool.

"Certain places -- usually affluent suburbs -- have indeed seen supply rise to meet demand," the Center for American Progress report said. "As this study finds, however, many neighborhoods, small towns, and rural communities across the country have inadequate child care options."

Mauricha Duneghy, director of Animal Crackers Nursery on St. Ann Street, said her facility can care for about 50 children ages 1 month to 12 years.

It is full and averages about 10 families on the waiting list.

Daily, Duneghy receives calls from parents desperate for day care. One day earlier this month, she spoke with five people searching for a center.

"It's all the time," she said. "We try to help them. If we can't put them here, we will call other day cares to see if they have openings.

Perdue steps up

Perdue Foods knew its employees were struggling to find affordable day care in Ohio County.

The poultry giant's officials gave Niki Riley a $50,000 grant to open a day care in Beaver Dam. The caveat: She had to provide Perdue employees a discount for at least four years.

Riley, who once owned an Owensboro day care named One Cherry Tree Lane, used the grant money and about $25,000 of her own to open Mother Hen Child Care Services a year ago.

Her facility is licensed to care for 50 children. About 15 percent of them come from Perdue families, who get a $10 discount per child per week.

Mother Hen is full with a waiting list that averages about 10 families. "There's always a need," Riley said.

About 60 percent of her clientele rely on Kentucky'sChild Care Assistance Program, which reimburses centers that provide services to low-income working families.

Affordability

CCAP helps families who qualify but leaves little to no margin for centers to meet costs, said Dustin Pugel, a policy analyst with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. Day cares, especially in rural areas where jobs pay less and a high percentage of parents use CCAP, struggle to keep the doors open.

"I'm not an economist," he said, "but this is as close to a market failure as I can think of. (Day care is) a service with a high demand, but the baseline costs for providing it are too high for those with the demand to be able to afford it, so the service is underprovided."

Pugel believes a couple of changes could take some pressure off Kentucky families.

Attracting better-paying jobs to rural areas would make a substantial difference, he said.

He also advocates for full-day preschool and kindergarten, and he would like to see state legislators provide larger reimbursements to day care centers through the CCAP program.

"High-quality child care has profound benefits for children and society later in life, so I see investment in child care as an investment in ourselves ... " Pugel said.

Renee Beasley Jones, 270-228-2835, rbeasleyjones@messenger-inquirer.com

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