Childcare facilities still struggling

CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY, Mo. (KBSI)- A big concern in Missouri and in Cape Girardeau County is the desperate need for childcare.

A recently proposed bill allowing the funding of three new childcare tax credit programs for providers and businesses didn’t pass in Missouri.

Elizabeth Shelton, the Executive Director for the United Way of Southeast Missouri, says those that run childcare facilities face many challenges, saying, “One being the incredible expense of running a childcare facility, and the second one that subsidies that parents get, that are working struggling who can’t afford 500 dollars a week per child and that subsidy is not enough to keep those childcare facilities open.”

Because of this bill not passing, now even more daycares are beginning to shut down.

In Cape Girardeau there are twenty-five licensed childcare businesses with nearly 5,000 working parents with children under the age of six in the county needing childcare throughout the year, “They may be shutting down here, but they’re not even opening here.”

Shelton says that most facilities are unable to open because of the contradictions of requirements between, city, county and state regulations.

“It just becomes a regulation nightmare for anyone who starts out with the best intentions to be able to open a facility.” Shelton adds, regional Chambers of Commerce came together to discuss what can be done, saying that employers are now desperate for change in the area.

Shelton says, “One of our biggest manufacturing companies has informed us that they struggle to get their employees to relocate here once they learn there is a yearlong wait list for childcare here.”

A report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Missouri Chamber shows that the state misses out on an estimated $1.3 billion annually due to childcare issues.