Clinton County is 'child care' desert

Clinton Herald - 11/1/2018

Nov. 01--CLINTON -- Clinton County, like other counties across the state, is facing a shortage of child care options available for working parents.

During a child care forum Wednesday at the Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce, Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral Recruitment and Retention Specialist Chelsea VanDaele said the number of child care programs decreased from 10,000 in 2012 to 6,000 in 2017.

She said that during the same time, Iowa's population and families with all parents working stayed consistent over the course of the five-year span. VanDaele said the lack of programs available can lead to employee absenteeism and tardiness. She added it can also lead to lessened productivity and decreased employee recruitment and retention.

Iowa Women's Foundation Executive Director Dawn Oliver Wiand said Clinton County has 77 percent of families working out of the home, higher than the 75 percent state average. The national average is 65 percent. Clinton County has 1,893 child care spaces available and has 7,804 children ages 0-12.

"You have four children for every one slot," Oliver Wiand said. "You're living in what we call a child care desert. There is not enough child care spaces available."

Clinton School District Superintendent Gary DeLacy said the lack of child care options affected a family's decision about whether to enroll in the Clinton School District. The parents, both hired to work at the Thomson, Illinois federal prison, had a first-grade student and an 11-month-old. He said all five daycare providers in the area they brought up was at capacity, with a waiting list for the 11-month-old child.

"We ended up losing that first-grader to be enrolled in our district because they could not find daycare within the Clinton community for that 11-month-old," DeLacy said. "So I'm not sure where they ended up but they didn't end up at our school."

Camanche School District Superintendent Tom Parker believes partnerships in providing child care are important. He also stressed the importance of finding affordable child care.

"What families have to pay for child care is incredible," Parker said. "And then you get into basic economics that are talking about to keep the range of what people can afford to pay for child care impacts what they can pay their employees. I mean it's basic economics. And the partnership with private entities, businesses and such, hopefully they see the benefit of that as far as allowing these daycares to provide affordable child care. And that's really an adjective I think that needs to be stressed. No one disagrees that there's a need for child care. The key for most people is affordable child care."

Oliver Wiand suggested a substitute pool for child care providers to be called on to come in and work while the regular child care provider can take a vacation.

"Do you know how many providers have said to me I feel so bad for my families. How could I take a leave," Oliver Wiand said. "And I say to them your families go on vacation. You should be able to go on vacation. You're a business owner. You're not a babysitter."

___

Visit the Clinton Herald (Clinton, Iowa) at clintonherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.