Okanogan County Childcare and Early Learning in Crisis
Written by Jodi DeCesari, Okanogan County Child Development Association; Dani Reynaud, Little Star School; and Brad Halm, Little Star School
September 23, 2021
A robust childcare and early learning system is a critical part of the fabric of our community, and we need more of it here in Okanogan County! High quality early learning helps our children develop social-emotional skills such as motivation and empathy that serve them throughout their lives. It is also vitally important to our community and our economy: without it, most parents cannot work, cannot attend school, and cannot seek support services for mental and physical health issues.
Unfortunately, childcare is in crisis across the country and in Okanogan County:
Okanogan County has approximately 2,789 children under the age of five. As of 2020, there were only a total of 40 early learning providers with a capacity to serve 683 children (24% of children ages 0-5).
As of June 2020, COVID-19 caused 44 childcare providers in our region (Okanogan, Chelan, Douglas, and Grant Counties) to close their doors temporarily, losing 900 slots.¹
An estimated 47% of children in our region with all parents in the workforce DO NOT have access to early learning in a licensed childcare, Head Start, or ECEAP program.¹
Lack of childcare impacts our local economy. In our region, it is estimated that employers incurred $71.1 million in cost from breakdowns in childcare coverage that led to employee absenteeism.
OCCDA’s 2021 community survey found that 75% of families need childcare, and 50% of those have tried to access child care and have been unable to do so.
The Early Learning sector has historically received low reimbursement and stagnant funding, which contributes to the difficulties of attracting, recruiting, and retaining high quality and qualified employees.
Private and nonprofit child care providers (like Little Star Montessori School) are typically not eligible for federal or state funding, which leaves most parents burdened with high tuition bills. And even with high tuition, early learning teachers are only paid a fraction of what K-12 teachers earn (and most don’t receive health insurance or other benefits). This short video from Childcare Aware of America excellently summarizes the problem of low provider pay and high childcare cost.
Head Start and ECEAP programs (like OCCDA) receive federal and/or state funding so families do not have a tuition burden, but slots for children considered over-income are limited. Teachers in these programs typically receive a benefits package, albeit often much smaller than their K-12 counterparts, and the wage scale still doesn’t come close to matching that of K-12 staff.
Another key issue that limits childcare availability is the difficulty of opening a new facility or in-home program. Licensing requirements are complex and startup costs high, and given the limited potential for growth in teacher wages there is little incentive for those interested in providing childcare to start new programs.
COVID-19 has added an additional layer of difficulty for childcare providers. Frontline teachers are exhausted, administrators are stretched thin while implementing new safety policies, and finding enough staff to remain open is an incredible challenge. COVID quarantines and new regulations are further reducing the staffing pool, and providers are taking on the burden of additional costs such as cleaning, HVAC improvements, and COVID prevention supplies. Leadership teams have limited capacity to plan, fundraise, or access available expansion funding, as we are now often helping to clean bathrooms or covering in a classroom.
To truly support families, we need a strong network of licensed facilities and flexible in-home care providers in each community. And this will not be a reality until we have adequate public funding to provide fair teacher pay and benefits.
We need our community’s, and our CHI’s help and advocacy to advance solutions that work:
Expanded public funding at the state and federal for early learning in the form of tuition assistance for families and expanded reimbursements for providers.
Intelligent regulation that ensures safety and high quality programming, but is achievable for those wanting to start new childcare programs.
Expanded grant funding to help new in-home providers cover startup costs and to fund construction of new facilities.
Written in partnership by:
Jodi DeCesari, Okanogan County Child Development Association; Dani Reynaud, Little Star School; and Brad Halm, Little Star School
ChildCare Aware of Washington. (2021). Child Care in Okanogan County. https://childcareawarewa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-County-Data-Okanogan.pdf
Washington Stem, North Central Early Learning Collaborative, & Washington Communities for Children. (2021). State of the Children: Early Learning & Care, North Central Region.
