Child Care in Nebraska

How Community Support Can Make A Difference

BY TIFFANY BRAZDA

It’s no secret child care is a prominent concern for working parents. When factoring the affordability and quality, if those basic needs aren’t met, concerns can turn dire.

The child care crisis in Nebraska has been bubbling up for years, and now that working Nebraskans are rebalancing after the pandemic, major issues are coming to a head. Child care organizations can no longer put a Band-Aid on the problem and Nebraska organizations are calling on the business community to step in.

The Facts:Why is Child Care Expensive?

According to the Nebraska Child Care Affordability Calculator by First Five Nebraska and Committee for Economic Development, full-day, licensed child care in Douglas County costs $14,304 a year for infants in a child care center and $12,996 for a toddler. What’s considered affordable according to the Department of Health and Human Services? Seven percent of a family’s household income.

It doesn’t take much math to see the income requirements to meet that threshold. With the median household income in Nebraska sitting at $66,644, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, many Nebraskans are forced to reach deeper into their pockets.

Dr. Alexandra Daro, research scientist at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, said that it’s certainly a positive that many families want to stay in Nebraska, but the fact of the matter is, working households need child care.

“One statistic that we talk about a lot here is the fact that 75% of [Nebraska] children under the age of 6 have all available caregivers in the workforce,” Daro said.

Daro noted with that need comes high demand. If a parent isn’t faced with putting their child on a waitlist first, their next concern will be getting both affordable and quality care. But when breaking down the factors, quality child care is simply expensive to deliver.

Michael Medwick, strategic communications manager at First Five Nebraska, emphasized the tough position child care providers are in, with the high cost of operating a program that meets the state’s licensing standards and staying affordable — creating a narrow margin.

“Providers can have only one choice, which is to try to keep the price point for parents at a level that is realistic, but does not drive them into the red,” Medwick said. “Rent, utilities, materials, resources, and payroll, everything that goes into delivering child care, those costs have gone up with the natural progress of inflation, but at a faster and higher rate than the average salary and earnings of working parents.”

The Importance of Care

Before a child hits school age, development is happening at a rapid pace – Buffett Institute states that 90% percent of brain growth takes place in the first five years of life. According to First Five Nebraska, by age 3, children begin to learn social skills.

What’s more, what if a child needs individualized care beyond the scope of a traditional child care setting?

CRCC, a provider of skilled care for children with special needs, provides day care services for children who aren’t able to attend traditional day care. Serving about 400 kids in its program, CRCC combines early childhood education with services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and behavioral health.

Mike Bird, CEO and president of CRCC, said families benefit greatly from having the element of traditional day care services.

“We by nature of our mission are really here to allow families to have a sense of normalcy, and for parents to be able to work, for parents to be able to get their errands done or go to their doctor’s appointments during the day,” Bird said.

Recognition of the need for these services is coming to the forefront.

MICAH House recently broke ground on a child care facility, poised to open in 2024. The facility will serve children needing a traumainformed space.

Another specialized provider, Behaven Kids, offers behavior and mental health services for children with its specialized day program a solution for children that may require therapy for disorders such as autism spectrum disorder.

“Most of our children come in because they have had some sort of clinical diagnosis or they have had behavioral issues that the day care has found,” said Themis Gomes, CEO. “Unfortunately, they’ve been kicked out of the child care that they’re currently at for those reasons. So we take them in and we provide a treatment plan for them. And on that basis, we implement the treatment plan with the goal of having them back into their normal day cares or back into the educational school system.”

With so many developmental milestones reached by third grade for many children, that foundation is predictive of life success well into adulthood. Many parents may not know where to start when choosing child care that is right for their family.