The Lisbon-Mount Vernon chapter of the League of Women Voters presented their recent results of a childcare survey at a forum Thursday, July 14 at Lisbon’s Heritage Hall.
The league conducted the survey over the course of roughly three months.
They were able to collect 72 responses in the survey, which amounted to a 17 percent response rate.
The average number of children per respondent was 2.36, with nine of the respondents noting they were pregnant.
Most of the incomes reported were over $50,000.
Of the families surveyed, roughly 53 percent noted difficulty finding childcare in the area. Because of childcare issues and the impacts on jobs, some families had to move out of the communities to be closer to areas where childcare is more available.
A total of 23 respondents said they utilized an unpaid family member, friend or neighbor and 30 respondents used childcare centers.
Linda Bigley with the League of Women Voters noted that the survey taken from February to May did not reflect the closure of the Turtle Club, which happened in late May.
When it comes to back-up childcare, parents staying home from work if their child is ill was the number one.
Most respondents had registered daycare providers, usually during the day time from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
When it came to the cost for childcare, Bigley said they should have further asked how many kids were in daycare to help give more context to that answer. The majority spent between $100 to $400 per week on childcare options.
Survey respondents felt they needed more care options that were more affordable, but that staff at daycares should also better be paid.
Panel discussionThe evening included a panel discussion on child care in the community. Panelists were parent Amelia Kibbie, Cornell College human resources director Stefanie Bray, Bigley, Cindy Heck of Iowa Childcare Resource and Referral and Devan Cress of Iowa Childcare Resource and Referral.
Amy Grunewaldt of Early Childhood in Linn County and Dr. Lorna Lee, a daycare center manager in Cedar Rapids, also were in the audience to provide insight.
Kibbie reiterated the difficulty of finding childcare in the area when she moved to Lisbon with her family.
“Lisbon Early Childcare Center is the best option, but it is staggeringly expensive,” Kibbie said. “My husband and I knew that going in, but it’s still sometimes a struggle to figure out where $600 a month is coming from.”
Kibbie said paying to hold a spot for childcare over the summer is also financially restrictive.
Her further difficulty moving into the community was not knowing anyone or the resources available, so she had a tougher time vetting childcare providers. While she said LECC is the gold standard for her, she noted that there is a lot of worker turnover of workers.
Bray said the impact to Cornell College has been the difficulty recruiting staff to relocate to the Mount Vernon area.
“We’d love many of our professors to come and live in Mount Vernon with their families, but there is just not daycare options in the community,” Bray said.
Heck noted she was a preschool director for 20 years and is now serving a mentor role at ICCRR and consulting through ISU.
Cress covers 19 counties as part of her work with ICCRR and helps families locate daycare providers.
While Grunewaldt, Cress and Lee pointed to the importance of the Quality Rating System for childcare and the newly announced Iowa Quality For Kids tiered ratings, Kibbie reiterated that when it’s just looking for a childcare provider for a family with none in the area, it’s sometimes hard to worry about quality of daycare providers.
Grunewaldt noted the biggest issue for many daycares is the same issue for many employers at the moment – finding staff.
“It’s going to take work for many daycares to recruit,” Grunewaldt said. “What’s happening is the daycare lack of providers is starting to hurt more employers, which is starting to get them involved in this issue.”
Grunewaldt noted the burn out rate for providers is also very high.
Changes made by the legislature last session that allow more teenagers to work in daycares unsupervised has some concerned, but discussion started on how to turn that negative into a positive by getting more teenagers into programs that would give them training.
Lee said pay for childcare workers is extremely low, that most childcare centers do not have a career path or promotions to help the workers and there is a lack of respect for the job among others. Changing several of those factors would help with the childcare issue.
She also reminded people when kindergarten started, it started in church basements and it wasn’t until people started realizing the importance that it moved from just a few days a week to full days of kindergarten in schools.
Discussion also went into the effort of Cornell College, Mount Vernon Schools and the City of Mount Vernon to apply for a grant to build a childcare center. The grant required significant cash in hand to be awarded. Without an angel investor of significant capital, the group was unable to apply without the $3 million cash on hand.
An attendee reminded everyone that it may take more collective action from the community to solve this childcare issue.
They also noted while parents pay for childcare, those without children also face costs to childcare issues in the community, as it impacts their own work. When co-workers have to miss work due to not having childcare, or bring their child with them to work or are distracted due to the stress of childcare solutions, that is passed onto other coworkers as well. It also hinders bringing in people from other communities to open jobs in the community as well.
Grunewaldt said some of the ideas they’ve floated to employers in Linn County is more flexible work schedules or work from home opportunities for those with children while also making a bigger push to get people into the childcare profession.
Looking at how other countries, especially Scandinavian countries, have embraced childcare solutions could also provide new and creative solutions.
Lee encouraged people to speak to their legislators on the issue as well.
If people have questions or concerns about the survey and data, the Lisbon-Mount Vernon Chapter of the League of Women Voters is collecting those responses at [email protected].