By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Ellis County parents overwhelmingly said they trust their child care providers, but they wished they were paying less for care, according to a recent survey.
The Child Care Task Force of Ellis County received results from the online survey at its meeting on Tuesday.
The survey was taken by 121 people, including parents, child care providers and business people, with parents and child care providers making up the two largest groups of survey respondents.
Of the 60 parents or future parents who responded to the survey, a quarter said they were looking for child care.
Two-thirds of parents said their children are currently enrolled in a licensed child care. One-third said they were not.
Dana Stanton, Childcare Program Specialist with the Northwest Kansas Economic Innovation Center, said the survey results do not mean those 20 parents have their children in unlicensed child care. She said it could mean a parent is staying home with the children or the children are being cared for by another family member.
More than half of the parents said their children are in an in-home child care. About 19% of children were enrolled in child care centers and 16% were cared for by family members.
What parents want
Sixty-eight percent of parents responding said they were satisfied with their child care arrangements. When asked what aspects contributed to their satisfaction, 95% said they trusted their children's caregiver.
Stanton said parental preference mirrored child placement. Most parents said they preferred having their children cared for by in-home child care providers.
Seventy-five percent of respondents said they were pleased with the quality of their children's care and education.
Seventy-five percent of parents surveyed said they were dissatisfied with the cost of care. The survey indicated the county's child care costs varied widely, with parents paying $80 to more than $200 per week per child for care.
The respondents said they would prefer to pay $141 to $160 per week per child for care. Stanton said that the price range is low for the cost of care in Ellis County.
Most parents said they needed full-time care Mondays through Fridays, with a few also needing care for school-age children during school breaks and snow days.
Most respondents said they had found child care through word of mouth, not the state child care system, Child Care Aware of Kansas.
Stanton said the child care task force should consider placing more emphasis on using the Child Care Aware online database.
Of the child care providers surveyed, 27% said they did not update their capacity openings with Child Care Aware.
The state resource tracks child care openings across the state and can be searched by community. It only lists licensed providers.
Employers
Only four businesses responded to the survey. All four said they have experienced workforce gaps due to a lack of child care for their employees.
Half of all respondents said they had missed work due to child care needs. Twelve people said they had delayed entering or reentering the workforce because of child care needs. Stanton said 12 people is low compared to other communities she has worked with in Kansas, where workers had to plan their careers around child care.
None of the employers said they wanted to offer in-house child care.
The task force has identified a continued need for more infant care in Ellis County. None of the businesses surveyed said they allowed employees to bring infants to work.
One employer said they allowed workers to bring their children to work after school if needed. One employer said they allowed employees to work from home if a worker was experiencing child care issues.
Providers
Of the child care providers surveyed, 92% said they accept infants. However, the state limits the number of infants that in-home child care providers can care for.
Only 34% of providers said they were certified to take funds from the Department of Children and Family Services for income-qualified families.
All of the providers surveyed said they offer full-time care Mondays through Fridays. However, many providers offered additional services such as care for school-age children during school breaks or care before or after school.
Sixty-three percent of survey respondents said they thought Ellis County does not have an adequate supply of child care.
"We had more yeses than I thought," Stanton said. "I'm thinking that is a lot of our current providers. We have talked about it in this group. While there may be a need for openings in infant care, we have a lot of in-home providers who have openings."
The number of needed child care spots in Ellis County, as reported by the state, has dramatically decreased since the child care task force was created four years ago. An additional 77 slots are set to open in August with the completion of the Bob and Pat Schmidt Community Center.
However, Stanton said of the survey, "It tells us that we're making progress, but there are still some issues."