Finding the Right Childcare Fit

SMACNA and SMART partner with Tootris to provide childcare options for their members

By Sheralyn Belyeu

As a young dad, Dave Gauthier, business manager for Local 206 in San Diego, struggled with childcare. “When my twin boys were young, our childcare facility opened at 6 am, and I had to be in the shop at 6:30,” he says. “We would be there at the doorstep waiting for it to open, and I had to jump in my truck and do everything I could to get to the shop on time.”

Linda Jennings, SMACNA Executive Director of Innovation, Integration, and Learning and former SMACNA Executive Director in San Diego, wanted her children to be with family while she worked, but that was not an option. “I was an older mom,” she says, “and my parents were not capable of helping me with my kids because they were in their 80s. A lot of us don’t have family that can help with the kids.”

Because of their personal experiences, Jennings and Gauthier are very sensitive to the challenges that young families face. “About 80% of childcare providers never advertise,” Gauthier says. “How are you going to know they’re there and available?” Under Gauthier’s and Jennings’ leadership, Local 206 adopted Tootris, a new service that locates and advertises quality childcare for non-traditional circumstances.

“The first thing I noticed was that Tootris helps clients find daycare at times that are not traditional for working families,” Jennings says. “During the summer, if you’re working construction in the desert, the start time might be five o’clock in the morning so you can quit before the sun is in the highest position.” Tootris helps parents with challenging shifts, weekends, and holidays—times when childcare is more difficult to locate.

Steven Joyce of Local 206 needed infant care for his family around Thanksgiving last year. “I was searching because I had a two-year-old and a newborn,” Joyce says. “It was a lot of calling around to facilities and finding out they were full.” He signed up for Tootris through the Local and quickly located a great fit. “It’s been easy because they provide all the contacts, the searching, and the people who are available at the right time. Tootris does the footwork for you, and they don’t find just anyone. They found people in the top tier of daycares in San Diego.”

In their search, Joyce and his wife prioritized cleanliness, high-quality nutrition, and location. They chose a facility that’s only 2.5 miles from their house and fits naturally into his commute home. “It’s on the way to the highway,” Joyce says. No matter how congested San Diego traffic is at the end of his day, Joyce knows that his children are waiting for him in a safe, secure space.

Tootris helps parents solve the most complex daycare problems. “With Tootris, you can put in your zip code and use filters like peanut allergies or a summer program for an active teen,” says Gauthier. “It’ll find all the providers in your area. Tootris has already negotiated the best deal the facility will give.” Parents can use Tootris to book care up to 12 months in advance. This can be a lifesaver when parents are coming back to work after a birth and need a quality facility for a newborn.

They can also use Tootris to find care when an unexpected project comes up. “Say my schedule just got changed for the next three weeks,” Gauthier says. “I’m working nights and I need to find childcare that will take my kids at night. You open the app, put in the filters, put in the hours, and it finds you providers in the area.”

The Tootris network has over 200,000 providers across the United States. Those providers consist of before and after school care, full-time and part-time childcare, daycares, and in-home licensed providers as well as babysitters, nannies, special education help, and other wraparound services. “We want to make sure the benefit evolves and grows as children are naturally progressing,” says Tootris representative Eric Cutler. “For example, my daughter is 12, so I don’t need fulltime infant care anymore. I need summer camps. That’s what helps me stay employed. Tootris does not promote one type of service or brand but has the entire selection, so parents have the freedom to pick the type of care they need when they need it. “

Families that already have good childcare can also benefit from Tootris. “Maybe Sally down the street is watching your kids,” Jennings says. “You can sign her up, and you’ll get a discount for using Tootris. The provider will get more exposure, and other sheet metal workers in your area will know this woman is providing daycare and is available for them and their families, because they’re working the same times you are.” Members can recommend any providers they already use, from full-time infant care to afterschool programs or the YMCA.

In a tight labor market, employers can even compete for employees by offering parents additional money towards daycare expenses through Tootris. “It would be like a health savings account,” Jennings says. “It’s an extra little something to get the employees over to your business.”

While individuals can subscribe to Tootris Premium for a monthly fee, Local 206 and SMACNA San Diego teamed up to provide the service to members through their health plan. Besides improving attendance and quality of life, Tootris helps SMACNA contractors in the United States qualify for federal contracts under the CHIPS Act, a $39 billion investment in the semiconductor industry aimed at increasing domestic production and reducing dependence on foreign suppliers. One of the key requirements for semiconductor manufacturers applying for the larger CHIPS Act funding amounts is the provision to provide affordable childcare for their workforce, suppliers, vendors, and contractors.

This provision is part of a federal plan to increase the number of women in construction. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo explained that the country needs “chip manufacturers, construction companies, and unions to work with us toward the national goal of hiring and training another million women in construction over the next decade to meet the demand not just in chips, but also in other industries and infrastructure projects.”

“Over my entire career, regardless of which chapter I was working for, there’s always been a push to get more women,” Jennings says. “We’re not going to get more women involved in the industry until we solve the problem of childcare. A lot of dads are out there fighting it, too, but it’s just a plain fact that significant amounts of caregiving still fall on women.”

“Under the Chips Act, everyone involved in semiconductor production needs to have childcare benefits,” Cutler says. “That’s suppliers, contractors, and anyone touching new work or helping to expand existing manufacturing lines.”

Companies must be able to document their efforts to support working parents. Providing access to Tootris’ tech-enabled childcare services helps to satisfy this requirement to bring in federal dollars, and, just as important, keeps working parents on the job by solving their top challenge.

Tootris has so much potential that Local 206 recommended it to SMART International. “We are working on the possibility of using it for our members nationally,” says Louise Medina, director of Special Projects for SMART International.▪

A Colorado native, Sheralyn Belyeu lives and writes deep in the woods of Alabama. When she’s not writing, she grows organic blueberries and collects misspellings of her name.