The Southern Tier, like much of the rest of New York, is a child care desert. That means there are simply not enough daycare slots in the region for kids who need care. The state also has the second highest child care costs in the country.
WSKG’s Aurora Berry sat down with Melissa Perry, CEO of the Child Development Council, to discuss the state of child care in the Southern Tier.
Aurora Berry: Can you describe the state of child care in New York right now, particularly in the Southern Tier?
Melissa Perry: The Southern Tier, and pretty much all of New York State, is a child care desert. And what that means is that there are more than three children aged five and under for every available child care slot.
This means that two thirds of young children do not have access to regulated care. And of course, families are faced with that extreme challenge of finding care, especially for infants and toddlers—those spaces are much more scarce than for say, a preschooler.
And these challenges are prevalent throughout New York State, but also the entire country. In the U.S. 51% of the population lives in a childcare desert.
AB: Something that we've been hearing about from our listeners is that folks are concerned about the cost of child care as well as the accessibility. Can you talk to me about how we're seeing cost affect people's experience out here in the Southern Tier?
MP: Child care costs rival that of a year's tuition at a SUNY college, or the cost of a mortgage, or in some cases, child care is the largest bill that a family is paying.
And it's important to note that the rate that families pay for child care, though it is high, is not even the true cost of care. And another big thing: since we are in a child care desert, that supply and demand is impacting the cost of care again, especially for infant care.
Regulations in New York restrict the number of children under the age of two that providers can care for safety reasons. So scarcity of infant slots drives up the cost.
AB: We've talked a lot about expenses and how this can be as costly as attending something like tuition at a SUNY college. I'm wondering, for folks who can't afford that, what are the resources that they can access to get that care?
MP: New York state has a child care assistance program, and that is for families within a certain income bracket. They can apply for child care assistance through departments of social services to help offset the cost of child care.
Those income guidelines just increased in June, so a family of four making up to $113,000 per year may be eligible for assistance. And people can see if they qualify by visiting mybenefits.ny.gov. Those increases in income guidelines mean more people are eligible to receive assistance, which is wonderful. And those child care assistance [programs] essentially reimburse child care providers for the cost of care, and they will pay up to the market rate to providers. Which is wonderful for providers, because they can get that higher tuition amount as long as they are charging private-pay families the same amount.
So it's wonderful that they increased the income guidelines, making more people eligible. Unfortunately, the amount of funding that localities received for child care assistance did not increase. This means that more people are competing for the same pot of funding. So this has resulted in, as we're speaking today, 15 counties throughout the state, including some in the Southern Tier, that have run out of funding for child care assistance, or they're having to put applicants on waitlist.
We know that this impacts a family's ability to pay for child care, which in turn impacts their ability to work to provide for their families. And we really need additional funding to adequately support child care assistance programs, and we're hopeful that the state will respond to these needs sooner rather than later.
AB: Thank you so much for being here today.
MP: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.