'No quick fix' for New London County's child care crisis

Mar. 25--LEDYARD -- Local business owners, nonprofit leaders and family advocates say they're engaged in a multi-front battle to open up access to affordable child care in the region, a fight they hope to gain ground on with the aid of newly proposed legislation.

Approximately 70 guests attended Monday's "Addressing the Childcare Crisis: Strengthening Our Workforce" forum hosted by the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut at its Gales Ferry office.

The symposium featured an overview of child care provisions in the state, along with highlights of bills up for discussion this legislative session aimed at alleviating those barriers preventing parents from enrolling their children in a field where it's increasingly difficult to attract and retain workers.

There are 192 child care providers a mix of centers and smaller home-based services in New London County with a capacity to serve 4,572 children from 0-5 years old, according to state 211 data. But an estimated 41% of New London County parents are unable to secure a child care slot for their children.

One big reason for that supply-demand gap is a lack of licensed child care workers, said Merrill Gay, executive director of the CT Early Childhood Alliance and one of the morning's guest speakers.

"Why? Because child care has been a chronically underfunded sector," he said, citing the low wages ("less than pet care staff") and substandard benefit packages that often deter prospective employees from the work.

Danielle Ladia, director of human resources at the Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut support services group, said her department has had a "terrible time" filling child care-related staff vacancies.

"This is the hardest-working group of people, but they can go to Target for an easier job and more money," Ladia said.

On the flip side, it's also increasingly difficult for workers to balance a five-days-a-week job with their child care needs, said Jennifer Granger, president of United Family & Community Services.

"A lot of our staff have left the workforce because of the cost of child care," Granger said. "It's expensive and outweighs the salaries we can pay."

Heydi Mercedes-Zayes, adult and family division manager for Norwich Human Services, said many of her group's clients can't work due to a lack of child care options.

"And if they do find child care, they probably can't afford it," she said, adding the cost for such programs can easily equal the cost of a monthly rent bill.

Several forum attendees said finding child care becomes even harder for parents working second- and third-shift jobs.

"No quick fix"

United Way President Dina Sears-Graves said while there's "no quick fix" for the child care issue, there are multiple strategies being discussed at the statehouse level that could blunt the problem.

Several early childhood education and care bills are in varying stages of discussion by state legislative committees, including one to create child care business incubators, or programs that offer aspiring entrepreneurs training, resources and physical spaces to launch their businesses.

Another House bill calls for introducing a "tri-care" model in which the state, employers and employees equally share child care costs. A separate act calls for transferring $50 million from the state's general fund to early childhood education and care initiatives.

But Sears-Graves said her agency won't wait on legislators to come up with answers.

"We're creating a workforce shortage task force that plans to brainstorm ideas to address this child care worker crisis," she said. "Addressing these problems is going to take multiple stratagems and different angles there's not one approach that's going to solve the problem."

j.penney@theday.com

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