The need for more child care facilities in Chickasha and throughout Oklahoma has become a widespread topic of conversation.
“Child care in our town is severely lacking,” Councilor Georgianne Hebblethwaite said during a Chickasha City Council meeting last week. “I have an assistant who has a 2-month-old,” and her aide “is on every waiting list in town that takes infants. No one has an opening.”
The Ward 2 councilwoman appealed to the Economic Development Council and the local Chamber of Commerce to try, during their business recruitment efforts, to lure more child care facilities to Chickasha.
Chickasha has several child care facilities, and Hebblethwaite said a new child care center “will be opening up on Fifth Street in about 40 days.” Chickasha also has three Head Start programs and her assistant “is on their waiting lists, too,” the councilwoman told Southwest Ledger.
According to the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness, Grady County has 8,650 children ages 0-12. Of that number, 5,806 of them – a little over two-thirds – live in households where one or both parents work.
To accommodate those children, the county has eight home programs and nine child care centers that can take a maximum of 586 children – a little over 10% of the total number whose parents work outside the home.
The average weekly cost for day care in licensed family child care homes and child care centers in Grady County ranges from $147.06 to $182.86, depending on the age of the child, OPSR data reflect.
Elsewhere in southwest Oklahoma:
• According to the OPSR, Comanche County has 20,894 children ages 0-12. Of those, 13,054 of them – 62% – live in homes where one or both parents work.
The availability of child care in the county includes 24 home programs and 30 day care centers that have a collective capacity of 2,432 children – 18.6% of the children with one or both parents who work outside the home.
The average weekly cost for day care in licensed family child care homes and centers in Comanche County ranges from $132.58 to $192.10, depending on the age of the child, the OPSR reported.
• Kiowa County has 1,421 children ages 0-12; of those, one or both parents of 872 of them work outside the home. However, the OPSR discovered, day care facilities can handle only 73 of those children – a little over 8% of the total number.
The average weekly cost of day care facilities in Kiowa County ranges from $135 to $165 per week.
• Jackson County has 4,490 children ages 0-12; one or both parents of 3,018 of those kids – 67% of them – work outside the home. But the county has only nine child care facilities that can accommodate just 303 youngsters, OPSR research showed.
The average cost of day care in Jackson County ranges from $113.75 to $152.40 per week.
• Stephens County has 6,936 children ages 0-12, according to the OPSR. One or both parents of 4,079 of those children – 59% – work outside the home. Nevertheless, the county has only 21 day care facilities that can take 947 children – 23% of them.
The average weekly cost of day care in Stephens County ranges from $133.96 to $171.64, OPSR found.
• Tillman County has 1,155 children ages 0-12. One or both parents of 757 of them work outside the home. Yet the county has just one licensed residential child care facility, which can accommodate eight children – just 1% of them. The average weekly cost of day care is $125, regardless of the age of the child. Availability, affordability of child care are critical
• Early in 2023, the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma partnered with MissionKarisma and Daniel Billingsley, Ph.D., to identify key areas and professionals for questionnaires, a donor survey, and a series of listening sessions held in Enid. The qualitative data extracted from these sources were the basis for a needs assessment.
During those sessions, access to quality, consistent, and affordable child care was mentioned as a primary need.
Issues that were cited included significant waiting lists for various child care centers; lack of qualified, safe child care centers; accessibility issues for working parents in traditional daytime work roles; nearly nonexistent accessibility for parents who work evenings for overnight shifts; recent closures of child care centers; and lack of focus on early childhood education and development.
Consequences included individuals unable to participate in the workforce; children not involved in social activities or development activities associated with group dynamics of child care; fewer early educational opportunities for children ages 0-5; loss of household income; and resume gaps that most negatively affect women in the workforce, compounding pay and compensation discrepancies.
One data source reported that Garfield County families spend 24% of their total household income on child care, and statewide the average child care cost burden for families is 26%. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ benchmark suggests child care is unaffordable if it exceeds 7% of household income.
Cost factor is the number one driver for individuals leaving the workforce to care for children, the United Way/MissionKarisma study found.
The Oklahoma State Board of Equalization confirmed recently that the Legislature will have $11.1 billion in authorized funds for the 2025 fiscal year. Last August, lawmakers said Oklahoma’s primary Constitutional Reserve Fund, or “Rainy Day” Fund, held approximately $1.3 billion, and the Equalization Fund held another $400 million.
In Vermont, lawmakers there overrode a governor’s veto last year to pass landmark legislation that invests $125 million per year in that state’s child care system. The bill expanded eligibility for state assistance to 575% of the federal poverty level, which enabled over 7,000 more families to receive funds for their child-care expenses.