Colorado

Durango's Day-care Dilemma

Working parents panic as provider list shrinks

April 8, 2007

By Thomas Munro and Karla Sluis | Herald Staff Writers

La Plata County’s day-care demand

Martha McClellan has been getting the phone calls seeking child care.

"People calling from out of town trying to move here, they're just shocked," she said.

Alicia Zepeda's been getting them too, 10 to 15 a day.

"One woman was in tears, calling me in tears," she said.

Linda Brockway has been getting three calls a day about her 12 full slots.

"The shortage is really bad," she said. "It's gotten worse over the last two years for sure."

McClellan and other members of the Early Childhood Council in La Plata County have formed a task force to get the word out about what they say is a crisis in child-care resources. As the Southwest Colorado Childcare Resource and Referral coordinator, she keeps a list of the 57 child-care providers in the county, in theory to refer mothers to providers. But in reality, she is generally referring them to waiting lists.

"For infants and toddlers, there's nothing right now," McClellan said. "Waiting lists are a couple of years long.

"Sometimes by the time the name comes up, they've gone to public school."

At Children's House, which provides care to 60 children ages 3-6 at a home on West Third Avenue, Zepeda saw her waiting list grow to 180 people before she replaced it with four lists limited to 20 children for each age group.

"It's still not guaranteed they'll get in," she said. "I've had people on the list for two or three years."

It's not uncommon for local day cares to charge a fee to place a child's name on a wait list. One school charges $50.

McClellan said Durango's lack of slots is not unique but is worse than most parents have experienced.

"I think it's a statewide problem, but it's particularly difficult here," she said.

As a result, many parents coming to Durango arrive with unrealistic expectations.

"They start by saying, 'I'd like a Montessori preschool,'" McClellan said. Then they get a reality check.

McClellan said the deficit in child care, which she estimated at 719 slots in the 0-3 age group, is hard on both parents and children. For children, there are the potential benefits of licensed care at the time when 75 percent of their brain cells are developing, and they are learning to be social creatures. For parents, there is the need to have quality care for their children while they work.

"At least two women have lost their jobs that I know of because of the lack of child care," McClellan said of her experience in eight months as the referral coordinator.

The quickest answer to the shortage would be the addition of more large centers such as Children's House. But city and state licensing and regulations and low profits can make such businesses difficult propositions.

"It's not a money-making business," Zepeda said. "It's hard to staff because you can't pay teachers."

McClellan said local day-care center teachers are paid on average $11 per hour. A few centers also provide benefits. Working parents in La Plata County pay on average $630 per month for full-time day care for infants, and $551 per month for toddlers.

Providers face hurdles

The cost of real estate in Durango makes the purchase of large homes for centers nearly impossible. Increasingly active neighborhood organizations resist the centers, which can mean increased traffic. City fees and parking requirements for businesses are other major hurdles.

There are two major categories of licensed child-care providers: the large centers like Children's House and individual homes serving smaller numbers of children.

Brockway, who provides child care for six kids at a time in her west 23rd Street home, enjoys a better profit margin than Zepeda but faces different challenges.

"In your own house you don't have the flexibility, and it can be isolating," Brockway said.

For this and other reasons, McClellan said many licensed home providers quit after two or three years once their own kids are old enough for school.

Farmington resident Aimee Girard followed this pattern. She ran Teddy Bear Daycare from her former home on Glenisle Avenue in Durango. She started the business in 2001 because she had been laid off and had trouble finding a job. She also wanted to be home when her four children got home from school.

"I think there are a lot of people who decide to do it as a business because they can't afford to pay for outside day care."

Some open, others close

But three years later, she decided to close.

"Part of it was burnout, and a big part of it was a change of life with my marriage and family," Girard said.

"As soon as a couple (providers) open, another couple will close," said McClellan, who also helps shepherd potential providers toward education and licensing.

Individual nannies are not on McClellan's referral list, but she says there is a deep need for the service.

"I get requests all the time from the hotels," she said. "A professional nanny service that's licensed and bonded would be very successful here."

McClellan said a number of child-care ventures have failed in Durango because of three key factors: the lack of business savvy of many providers, slim profit margins and a lack of city and county support.

Zepeda said she had seen little government help.

"I would like to see more of a cooperative basis with the city and the state to somehow help us with the real estate or regulation aspects," she said.

Looking up?

Help may be on the way, as the work of McClellan's task force is beginning to bear fruit. She said a letter she wrote that was published in The Durango Herald drew responses from City Councilor Renee Parsons and now-newly-elected councilors Leigh Meigs and Michael Rendon, all pledging to begin to address the subject after the election. She also met with County Commissioner Joelle Riddle, who said Tuesday the child-care shortage was a painfully familiar issue for her.

"Being a single mother in Durango was really devastating for me," Riddle said.

She said sufficient quality child care is an essential element of the quality of life in La Plata County.

"I want to research all the possibilities," she said.

One part of the solution to Durango's major child-care shortfall will likely be finding more people like Brockway, who said her job is great because she gets "paid to play all day."

"If you really like kids, it's the way to go," she said.

Girard agrees, and says she has even considered reopening her day care in Farmington, where she says parents also struggle to find spots for their children.

"The biggest reward was having the kids in my home," Girard said. "They're still a part of my family. And I liked being able to help support working families and be a part of raising their kids."

karla@durangoherald`.com