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To help save child care for hundreds at Kids' World, Bellingham steps in with $100,000

Bellingham Herald - 12/18/2019

Dec. 17--BELLINGHAM -- Saying the possible loss of 532 licensed child care spots was an emergency, the City Council is giving $100,000 to the effort to keep Kids' World from closing its four centers at the end of December.

The council unanimously approved the grant funding on Monday, Dec. 16.

The money will go toward the effort by Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County to take over Kids' World and save 15% of all of the licensed child care spots in Whatcom County.

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

The closure of the county's largest child care provider would affect hundreds of families.

Kids' World employs 110 people, according to details from a city of Bellingham memo.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County is looking at keeping Kids' World open if it gets help with funding to defray the initial costs of taking over. It also needs to obtain state licensing and reach a lease agreement, according to a previous story in The Bellingham Herald.

Three of the centers are in Bellingham, the fourth is in Ferndale.

"What they're looking for is a signal that the city wants to partner because this is such a serious problem," Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville said to the City Council of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County.

The city also is working with the Whatcom County government, the city of Ferndale and other members of a coalition that are working on the issue with Kids' World and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County.

What's happening with Kids' World is emblematic of a larger child care crisis in Washington state and across the nation.

"This is a systematic issue. It's not just about Kids' Word," said Tara Sundin, Community and Economic Development manager for the city of Bellingham, to the City Council.

In Whatcom County, there are 8,070 children younger than 5 who are in households where all parents work full-time, according to Census data and a Child Care Aware report released in October.

But there are licensed child care slots for just 45% of them, possibly leaving 4,462 Whatcom children of that age group without access to licensed child care when their parents go to work.

In previous Bellingham Herald stories, licensed child care providers and advocates have said that challenges include a complex and increasingly strict regulatory system, sizable investments to start-up, increases in the state's minimum wage and state reimbursement rates for subsidies that don't cover the actual costs of providing child care.

"You all know that we already have a shortage of child care slots," Sundin said. "If we lose these slots, we lose 15 percent of what we already have as a county."

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