Child care access remains area of concern in Cook County

Kirsten Wisniewski | August 7, 2024

Last year, Cook County increased the number of available child care spots by 47. But the shortage of available care remains an urgent problem for families.

Nancie Deming has been working on the issue. She is the licensing case manager and community child care coordinator for Cook County. She told WTIP that her role expanded as the recent analysis of the county’s child care needs was released. The several studies conducted over the past few years have all pointed to a need for more seats in the county’s child care facilities. Deming said that the county is still in need of an additional 75-100 spots.

The issues around accessibility for families remain at the forefront as Grand Marais child care provider Cooperation Station announced an upcoming temporary closure due to staffing issues. For Cooperation Station and licensed providers across the county, short staffing has caused disruptions or limited the number of seats a provider is able to offer.

A living wage for providers

With the data collected by the recent studies, those working in child care policy have been able to work on several initiatives in order to strengthen the industry. Deming said that the county was able to offer a Wage Enhancement Program for child care providers. She said that the program figured out the difference between what the average child care provider was earning in Cook County, about $15 an hour, and the wage that the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) suggests those workers should earn, about $21. The county was then able to offer an additional $5.79 per hour to child care providers to make up the difference.

Deming said that programs like this are important for making the market more stable both for providers, who need to be able to earn a living wage, and parents, who need to be able to rely on fully staffed care, without the cost to families becoming prohibitive. Additionally, Deming pointed out that the average earnings for child care workers in the state come out to about $28,000 per year. She said, “How can you afford to live in Cook County if you only make $28,000 a year? So we’re trying to give them supports to be able to do the things they need to do to grow their business and to stay in a field that they love, and be at least have a living wage. Because at $28,000 a year you qualify for economic assistance from the county.”

Supporting a wider range of caregivers

The county has also been working to provide support beyond wages to caregivers in the area. Deming said that one big area of effort has been to support those care providers who fall into the Family, Friend, and Neighbor category. She explained that 60% of children in greater Minnesota (outside of the metro area) are cared for by someone in this category, also called a legal, non-licensed provider. Since there are so many families relying on child care in this format, Deming said that the state and county are working on providing more resources to those caregivers, ranging from additional education to material resources like car seats or high chairs.

The future of child care in Cook County

While the past year has included an expansion of available seats with licensed child care providers, Demin said the the immediate future includes continuing to expand both the number of seats available and the number of providers offering them. She said that helping the YMCA stay fully staffed in order to operate at full capacity is a goal for the county, as well as supporting the establishment of at least two additional licensed providers. She added that the county hopes to evaluate whether there is need for child care during non-traditional working hours to better accommodate parents working in the service industry. Finally, she said that the county hopes to explore options for including child care within the housing developments that are still in the planning stages in the county.

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Nancie Deming, the licensing case manager and community child care coordinator for Cook County about the current efforts to expand child care options in the area, and what the county hopes to achieve in the future. Audio of that interview is below.