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Child care in short supply
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| H&N photo by Andrew Mariman Three-year-old Makhail Cleaver needs a little assistance getting into his painting shirt prior to an exercise Friday in the Klamath County Family YMCA's pre-school and daycare class. |
Daycare can be expensive, hard to find in Klamath
By STEVE KADEL
H&N Staff Writer
Serene Spiker is a single mother with a preschool-age daughter. When it came to searching for daycare, she found it a daunting task.
“There were waiting lists everywhere I called,” said Spiker, who works 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a law office.
She began looking last January and finally found a spot at the YMCA program in June. Her sister-in-law tended to Spiker’s daughter during the interim months while she worked.
The girl, now 4, is happy at the YMCA, and her mother is happy, too. Spiker said her daughter is learning to read and to write letters of the alphabet.
Basin dilemma
But her story illustrates the dilemma in which many Klamath Basin parents find themselves. Daycare often is expensive and hard to locate, especially so if the child isn’t potty trained or has special needs.
Last year, the average annual cost for full-time infant care in Oregon was reportedly just under $9,000, ranking the state as one of the least affordable nationwide, according to a study.
That doesn’t surprise Yvonne Woodward, a nurse whose two children attend after-school care through the YMCA at Conger Elementary School. Woodward said she has a friend in Portland, where the cost of monthly daycare is $600 and up.
Lizzy Guptill, a single parent, had a hard time finding care for her special needs daughter.
“I moved from out of state four years ago, and was looking for daycare for a month before I found somebody who had openings and would accept my daughter,” she said. “It was quite an ordeal.”
Guptill said she did her homework on local providers and came away believing there’s a need for more daycare outlets.
Her daughter and son now get after-school care through the YMCA at Ferguson Elementary School, where Guptill picks them up when she gets off work at 4:30 p.m.
Teresa Higgins, child care director for the YMCA, said they accept children from age 2-1/2 through 12. The after-school slots are particularly popular, she said, and there’s a waiting list for the Ferguson Elementary site.
At the KID Center, director Cheryl Moe said they quit keeping waiting lists because people often had found in-home care by the time an opening came up.
“I think it’s a hard thing to find, especially for infants, toddlers and the non-potty-trained preschoolers,” Moe said.
The KID Center is licensed for up to 90 children at a time, and between 125 and 145 children will spend at least part of the week there. An attractive feature is that parents can pay by the hour for the time their children are there rather than paying by the week or month.
“That helps a lot, especially if you planned to work an eight hour day but your child gets sick and you have to take him home,” Moe said, adding that weekly and monthly rates also are available.
The costs are $440 a month for preschool children who are potty trained and $525 a month for infants and toddlers. The state of Oregon classifies children up to 2 years old as infants, and requires a higher staff-to-child ratio for daycare providers.
“There were waiting lists everywhere I called,” said Spiker, who works 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a law office.
She began looking last January and finally found a spot at the YMCA program in June. Her sister-in-law tended to Spiker’s daughter during the interim months while she worked.
The girl, now 4, is happy at the YMCA, and her mother is happy, too. Spiker said her daughter is learning to read and to write letters of the alphabet.
Basin dilemma
But her story illustrates the dilemma in which many Klamath Basin parents find themselves. Daycare often is expensive and hard to locate, especially so if the child isn’t potty trained or has special needs.
Last year, the average annual cost for full-time infant care in Oregon was reportedly just under $9,000, ranking the state as one of the least affordable nationwide, according to a study.
That doesn’t surprise Yvonne Woodward, a nurse whose two children attend after-school care through the YMCA at Conger Elementary School. Woodward said she has a friend in Portland, where the cost of monthly daycare is $600 and up.
Lizzy Guptill, a single parent, had a hard time finding care for her special needs daughter.
“I moved from out of state four years ago, and was looking for daycare for a month before I found somebody who had openings and would accept my daughter,” she said. “It was quite an ordeal.”
Guptill said she did her homework on local providers and came away believing there’s a need for more daycare outlets.
Her daughter and son now get after-school care through the YMCA at Ferguson Elementary School, where Guptill picks them up when she gets off work at 4:30 p.m.
Teresa Higgins, child care director for the YMCA, said they accept children from age 2-1/2 through 12. The after-school slots are particularly popular, she said, and there’s a waiting list for the Ferguson Elementary site.
At the KID Center, director Cheryl Moe said they quit keeping waiting lists because people often had found in-home care by the time an opening came up.
“I think it’s a hard thing to find, especially for infants, toddlers and the non-potty-trained preschoolers,” Moe said.
The KID Center is licensed for up to 90 children at a time, and between 125 and 145 children will spend at least part of the week there. An attractive feature is that parents can pay by the hour for the time their children are there rather than paying by the week or month.
“That helps a lot, especially if you planned to work an eight hour day but your child gets sick and you have to take him home,” Moe said, adding that weekly and monthly rates also are available.
The costs are $440 a month for preschool children who are potty trained and $525 a month for infants and toddlers. The state of Oregon classifies children up to 2 years old as infants, and requires a higher staff-to-child ratio for daycare providers.
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Barbara wrote on Oct 26, 2008 9:24 AM:
The providers are out there you just have to look and research. Most importantly interview them, visit them, and apreciate them. Thankyou and God Bless "