City of Olympia and school district to research how to address childcare affordability, availability
The Olympia City Council and Olympia School District board of directors met March 6 to discuss ways to make the community more affordable and accessible for youth and families.
Staff will be drafting an interlocal agreement between the two governing bodies to research ways to partner on providing more child care access to families in Olympia.
Superintendent Patrick Murphy said many families and their children in the community aren't getting their early learning or child care needs met. He said just this week, regional leaders attended the United Way's ALICE Summit regarding 'asset limited, income constrained, employed' households who are struggling to pay for high housing and child care costs.
'There's a lot of people that are working really, really hard, and they're still below that poverty number, that they don't qualify for any extra help,' Murphy said. 'They can't afford child care, and it's just this never-ending cycle that they can't get through.'
United Way's statistics show there are only about half as many licensed child care spots available as there are children under kindergarten age in Thurston County. Meanwhile, half of children arrive at kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed.
Murphy said there's no better investment than early learning, and the earlier children are able to receive high quality child care and education the better. He said getting kids into preschool prepares them better for kindergarten, which can have a massive impact on their life. He said it also contributes to the economic well being of the entire community.
Murphy said the district doubled its transitional kindergarten programs this year from one to two, and it added an Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) to McLane Elementary on the city's west side.
The City of Lacey is partnering with North Thurston Public Schools to open a new child care center. He's hoping Olympia can do something similar and partner on costs and space.
City Manager Jay Burney said the cost of child care continues to rise and is unaffordable, which is hurting young families.
Murphy said child care in Thurston County is currently more expensive than UW's tuition. Yet the average salary for a child care facility director is below the county poverty line as well.
'So it's not like we're attracting people to go into these — I hesitate to call them professions because they're a community need,' he said. 'So there were a lot of things that were said at that summit yesterday that I think were a call to do something.'
Council member Robert Vanderpool said it could be beneficial for the two entities to conduct a study to better understand the community's needs. He said he also wondered what the cost of converting an already-standing space into a child care facility would be.
Vanderpool said the funding model is also something that needs to be considered. He wondered if it would be set by a nonprofit, or if child care could be made a utility rather than a private benefit. That means the public would collectively pay for services. He said that sort of model could mean a greater need for state funding.
Mayor Pro Tem Yến Huỳnh said she wants to make sure the two bodies leave the meeting with tangible next steps. She said there are a lot of resources for more information on the topic, and it could be a good opportunity to have conversations with private child care providers and local nonprofits that serve children.
Huỳnh said folks talked optimistically about the state budget, but it's looking like a tough time to be asking for additional state funding. With federal funding sources up in the air right now as well, she said she wants to make sure staff research other options.
Burney said next steps could include he and Superintendent Murphy getting together with their counterparts in Lacey to learn more about their child care facility partnership. Then the city and OSD can put a funding request together.
'We're going to need a proposal, like we're going to need a building, we're going to need a site, we're going to need a framework of a partnership to ask for money,' Burney said. 'So I think the more we can do to learn about what this model looks like and how they came together, and then maybe we could kind of share that learning, and then kind of figure out where it goes from there.'
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