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Published on 03/31/1999 All articles from this issue

Solving the child care crunch

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By Linda Taaffe

Town Crier Staff Writer

Few openings, long waits leave parents desperate for solutions

y the time Carla Scott was three months pregnant, she had already found a child care spot in Los Altos for her unborn son. Scott knew about the long waiting lists and lack of day care openings in the area.

"It's not easy," said the Mountain View resident. "I didn't want to get into a situation where I was put on a waiting list and had to settle."

Scott said she walked in and out of four centers before she found one at the Covington school site that "felt right."

Her son, now 18 months old, began going to Early Horizons four months ago.

For parent Debbie Kolyer, securing after-school care meant waiting in registration lines at three school sites to ensure placement somewhere. This Boulder Creek mom transferred her daughter to the Mountain View School District so she could be closer to Kolyer's workplace . Kolyer said the district worked with her to place her daughter at Benjamin Bubb School, the only site where Kolyer managed to find a child care spot.

A scarce commodity

Parents with children know child care is a scarce commodity along the Peninsula. And with real estate prices soaring, an increase in population, and more parents joining the work force, child care experts say the situation is only going to get worse.

Child care centers throughout the area cite waiting lists sometimes as long as 100 names and a two-year wait.

Jenny Jaimes, program leader at the El Camino YMCA's "Kid's Place" at Bubb School, said parents have stood in line as early as 3 a.m. to register their children at the center.

"There have been about 20 parents in line by the time I get there at 7 in the morning to take enrollment," Jaimes said. There have been times when even some of those parents' children are put on the waiting list, she said.

Returning families have priority over new families, Jaimes said. The remaining slots are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, she said. The Bubb center, which provides before- and after-school care for about 65 to 80 Bubb students in grades K-5, frequently has as many as 50 kids on the waiting list, Jaimes said. Parents often must arrange ways to get their children to child care centers on other campuses across town after school, she said.

"That's how bad it gets," she said.

The non-profit Mountain View-based Community Services Agency developed a Child Care Task Force to study child care needs in Los Altos and Mountain View. The task force released its findings in the report "Child Care Needs Assessment," last month.

"It basically confirmed what we knew all along," said Thomas Pamilla, executive director at the agency. Pamilla said child care is scarce in both cities and unaffordable for pockets of the community in Mountain View.

According to the committee's findings, there are 21 child care centers in Mountain View and 14 in Los Altos. Mountain View has 1,662 slots of licensed child care for children under 10 and about 4.6 children for each slot. Los Altos has 1,093 slots of licensed child care and 2.6 children for each slot, according to the report.

The child care vacancy rate is 7 percent in Los Altos and 9 percent in Mountain View. The average vacancy rate in Santa Clara County is 11 percent, according to the report.

Task force committee members say the vacancy rates are probably lower than the report since many care givers choose not to take in their total legal capacities.

Pamilla said part of the child care dilemma is that the child care industry is a low or no profit business with a high turnover.

A center would need to serve a minimum of 80 preschool children or 60 school-age children in order to be cost effective, according to the report. An infant care center would only be cost effective if part of a preschool center, according to the report.

"There's a huge absence of qualified caregivers," said Mary Ashley, director at Early Horizons, which serves children ages 2 months to 2 years. Ashley said salaries and benefits are typically low, making it difficult to recruit and retain employees. Ashley said the center is ready to make available more openings when she hires a qualified staff person.

A boom in population and real estate values have also hurt the child care industry, directors say. The Los Altos School District has grown 16 percent since 1990, and the Mountain View School District 20 percent, according to the report.

The Covington issue

Over the past few years, child care centers in the area have been forced to vacate their sites as schools reopen to accommodate growing enrollments.

Los Altos could lose five centers with the reopening of Covington School in 2001.

Randy Kenyon, assistant superintendent of business services, said the Los Altos School District is currently working with the centers to find ways to relocate them on district property.

"We'd love to provide space somewhere in district, but we're still reviewing the master plan," he said.

Beth Barry, owner and director of New Horizons at the Covington site, said the move could mean cost increases and less space.

Ashley said the move could be beneficial for Early Horizons, allowing the center to expand to age 5 and possibly add a sick room to the facilities. She said location could be a problem, since Los Altos is small and expensive, and most parents want the center to stay in town, along their commute routes.

Scott said location is "a huge deal." The working mom uses child care centers at different sites for each of her three children.

"I have to pick up three kids by 6 p.m. or it's a dollar a minute if I'm late," she said. "I have no family in the area, so it's tough."

Expanding child care is not easy. Under state law, centers must provide indoor space of at least 35 square feet per students and 75 feet of outdoor space per student.

A center serving 100 children would need about 26,000 square feet or two-thirds of an acre, according to the committee's findings. Start-up costs can range from $700,000 to $1.2 million for a center serving 100 children.

Cost and quality

Cost is another big issue, said Renee Zimmerman of the El Camino YMCA in Mountain View. The average cost of infant care in a center is $200 per week and $130 a week for preschool care, according to the report.

"Even with financial assistance, it's still costly, about $70 a week," Zimmerman said. "Families who just go back to work have no way to pay the going rate for child care."

Zimmerman said many of the parents using local child care, such as teachers, commute to the area from other cities and cannot afford high child care fees.

Los Altos Councilwoman Kris Casto said there's child care, but it's not always the kind parents need. Recreation departments, non-profit groups and private groups provide after-school care at each school site in both cities, but infant care is scarce. Some centers require parent-participation, she said, which some parents can't fit into their work schedules.

Quality is another issue. While licenses assure compliance with basic state health and safety requirements, they do not ensure the quality of care. There are no educational requirements for care givers who operate from their homes.

Solutions

"The idea is that care has to extend from the time people go to work until they get back from work," Pamilla said. "There has to be a community response."

Zimmerman said the cities of Mountain View and Los Altos could work with child care centers to provide land at a low cost or sponsor a center. The city of Mountain View could use redevelopment funds to subsidize some child care expenses.

She said the task force has located several potential sites in Los Altos and Mountain View to establish a subsidized center.

De Anza College has also launched a child development program to provide more qualified child care workers, she said.

In the meantime, parents will have to continue to scramble for child care.