Kids' World says it's closing its 4 child care centers in December. What can be done?

Dec. 16--After 30 years, Kids' World will close its four child care centers at the end of December, taking with it 532 licensed slots for children.

The loss of 15% of the licensed spots in Whatcom County and the impact on hundreds of families -- should there be no replacement for the county's largest child care provider -- have the city of Bellingham and county government scrambling to help the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County, which wants to take over Kids' World if it gets help with funding, obtains a license and reaches a lease agreement.

None of those pieces are in place yet, Heather Powell, CEO for Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County, told The Bellingham Herald on Friday, Dec. 13.

Kids' World has three child care centers in Bellingham, including the newest one, which opened on Yew Street in February, and one in Ferndale. It employs 110 people, according to details from a city of Bellingham memo.

About 61% of the slots at Kids' World receive state subsidies that help low-income families pay for child care.

In documents asking for support, Powell pointed to the high percentage of Kids' World children supported by the state subsidy, calling it "... truly a crisis that will take many partners to address."

Toward that end, the Bellingham City Council will decide on Monday, Dec. 16, whether to provide $100,000 in grant funding to help defray startup costs for the Boys and Girls Clubs as part of an effort to "preserve subsidized child care in the city," according to Bellingham documents.

"This is an economic development issue as well as a social services issue," Tara Sundin, Community and Economic Development manager for the city of Bellingham, said to the Whatcom County Council on Dec. 3.

The County Council has agreed to work with Bellingham and the city of Ferndale, and will take up the matter in early January, when it likely will decide on a request for money.

The lack of child care is second only to the lack of affordable housing as the factors that affect the county's ability to attract businesses, according to Carol Frazey, a Whatcom County Council member.

"We're still seeing it as a woman issue and we need to see that it's an economic issue for everyone," Frazey said to The Bellingham Herald. "It hurts the economics of the county."

Child care crisis

Child care in Whatcom County is among the least affordable in the state, and space can be so scarce that parents are advised to put their unborn children on wait lists, which can stretch a year or more.

Still, Whatcom County isn't alone. Washington state businesses lose nearly $2.1 billion annually in employee turnover and absenteeism because working parents can't find child care, according to the "Mounting Costs of Child Care" report released by a state task force in the fall.

In Whatcom County, the supply of child care actually increased by 7% from January 2013 to December 2018, but that amount wasn't enough, according to an October report titled "Child Care Supply, Demand, and Cost in Whatcom County."

In previous Bellingham Herald stories, licensed providers and advocates have said that one of the challenges they're facing is a complex and confusing regulatory system that may be daunting for people who want to become child care providers.

Commercial real estate is expensive, which often requires a sizable investment when combined with licensing and state regulations, they said.

Increasingly strict regulations, employee benefits and increases in the state's minimum wage also are pressure points, they said, and the state's subsidies for low-income parents aren't keeping up.

Saving child care?

Michael Watters, co-owner of Kids' World, has long said that his other businesses subsidize his child care ventures.

He told the County Council on Dec. 3 that Kids' World challenges were "the minimum wage and death by a thousand cuts."

On Jan. 1, the Washington state minimum wage will increase by 12.5% -- going from $12 an hour to $13.50. That jump in payroll, when combined with application fees, legal fees and other costs, will lead to an estimated deficit of nearly $700,000 in 2020, according to the city of Bellingham memo and the Boys and Girls Clubs request for help.

The Whatcom Family YMCA also landed on that shortfall number after an independent analysis of Kids' World books, according to the memo.

The YMCA also provides child care.

The work to try to save the child care spots has happened within the past few months, after Kids' World owners said they planned to close.

A great deal of work still needs to be done, including additional vetting of information, according to officials, and nothing has been finalized.

Next up is the request going before the Bellingham City Council.

"We are pursuing this with all of the resources that we have available to us and believe that retaining these 532 licensed child care slots are very important to this community," Powell said, "and will continue to work through the process as quickly as we can."

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