The city awarded four child care programs $75,000 in September. Each will use the money differently, but with the shared goal of pulling children off wait lists and providing more families with high-quality child care.
“Although we know that early childhood education is key to successful individual and community outcomes, child care centers are struggling to stay afloat,” Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton said in a statement. “There is not enough quality, affordable child care to meet our community’s needs, so this funding is dedicated to increasing that supply.”
Greater access to high-quality early childhood education was identified by the Wage Growth Task Force in its series of recommendations to promote long-term economic sustainability, said Alex Crowley, director of Bloomington’s Economic and Sustainable Development Department. The task force was commissioned by the city about a year ago.
“The community as a whole benefits when we have robust early childhood education,” Crowley said.
Not only do additional spaces lead to more children receiving affordable, high-quality care, but they enable parents to work jobs they wouldn’t otherwise be able to pursue.
“In the long term, we’re actually improving the workforce,” Crowley said.
The grant funding will be distributed during the next 30 days to the Bloomington Center for Global Children, Penny Lane East, The Nest at New Hope and Jill’s House Intergenerational Preschool.
To add more spaces, programs must satisfy state licensing regulations on requirements such as group sizes and staff-to-student ratios. The grant money will help fund additional staffing, supplies, facility improvements and need-based financial aid, according to a city press release.
Child care centers throughout the community requested more than four times the available funds.
The city’s high need is driven by relatively low state funding and recent closures of other programs in the community.
The YMCA of Monroe County closed its Center for Children and Families in December 2017, leaving many working families searching for alternatives.
Jill’s House Intergenerational Preschool, one of the grant recipients, has taken in many of these families, Elizabeth Stelle, director of the preschool said. Since opening in September 2017 with Stelle serving as director and teacher for one classroom of five kids, the program has expanded to eight staff members for three classrooms of a total of 30 students.
“The need in our community is huge,” Stelle said.
The grant money will allow the preschool to serve eight infants and 10 one-year-olds in a new space.
Additional staffing requirements for young children contribute to an especially pronounced demand for infant care. Parents often put their infants on wait lists during pregnancy.
The Bloomington Center for Global Children has waitlists for its infant and young toddler classrooms, but there is space available in the older toddler and Pre-K classrooms.
The center intends to create about 15 new spaces through staffing, materials and preparations enabled by the grant money, said Sara Egli, executive director of the Bloomington Center for Global Children.
While city funding serves as a local way to address the issue, more still needs to be done.
“The city can only do so much,” Crowley said.
