–May 6, 2021

Katie Roney knew where her child would go to day care before she knew she was having a baby girl.

Roney, a 23-year-old store manager, always knew day care spots were hard to come by, but it wasn’t until she was a few months’ pregnant with her first child that she realized how long the waitlists in Sioux Falls really were.

She ultimately chose Truks-N-Trykes because of the “good vibes” she got from a conversation with owner Bri McCarty. It was all she had to go on. The child care center wasn’t built yet.

“It’s stressful,” Roney said. “They have just as much responsibility in (our daughter’s) upbringing as we do.”

Roney acknowledges she got lucky. Truks-N-Trykes is now a second family for 7 -month-old Addie, and Roney was able to secure a spot for her relatively easily.

For many parents, the search for child care begins as soon as they see a positive pregnancy test, and those who put it off any longer than that are often left to find any available space rather than choosing based on the best fit for their family.

In Sioux Falls, demand outpaces the supply of child care providers, but solving the problem isn’t as simple as putting up more buildings. Operating a child care center is expensive and highly regulated, and even if owners can overcome those obstacles, they still have to find staff.

Some child care centers in Sioux Falls have been operating below capacity in the past year, not because they can’t find enough kids, but because they can’t find enough staff to take care of them, said Jennifer Hoesing, chief development officer for EmBe.

“These are not high-wage jobs, not a lot of glory,” Hoesing said. “People do it because they love it. Is it enough to attract a new workforce?”

Keeping up with demand

Sioux Falls has seen its population grow by more than 19 percent since 2010, according to population statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That means a lot more people, and a lot more kids.

“We don’t have child care centers that are popping up that quickly,” McCarty said.

Truks-N-Trykes is one of the fastest-growing child care centers in town. McCarty and her husband own one of the four locations and are opening another site across from their southeast-side nursery center. The new building, which will serve kids age 3-5, is expected to open later this summer. A sixth site on the east side under different ownership also is being planned.

McCarty said they had to build from the ground up, in part because finding a suitable child care space in Sioux Falls is difficult.

Corri Poore, founder of Little Tykes University, also has outgrown his space and is planning to move to a larger one.

Poore started his child care center as an in-home business, and he said with more support for figuring out the added costs that come with running a larger facility, the path from in-home to center can be attainable for more people.

“(I would guess) 80 percent of in-home, if you were to ask what’s the next step for you, we would say starting this place outside the home,” Poore said.

Taking that leap is difficult, though, as regulations are stricter for centers than for in-home settings. That means added expense when it comes to making sure you have enough bathrooms, a properly vented stove, sprinkler systems, etc.

“After that cost analysis, a lot of people kind of back away,” Poore said.

Staffing challenges

Once all those costs are covered, the next big hurdle for new and existing centers is staffing.

South Dakota has among the lowest wages for child care workers in the nation, with a mean salary of $22,730, according to May 2020 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But in Sioux Falls, centers have to be competitive.

“It’s very cutthroat,” McCarty said. “We have had instances where we lose someone to another center. They figure out a way to give an extra $2 per hour.”

The trick, providers said, is creating an employee culture where people aren’t constantly looking for another job or chasing another dollar.

At the north Apple Tree Children’s Center, director Lynn Peterson said she takes pride in having some people on staff who have been there for many years. The challenge comes in recruiting and retaining younger workers. They’re more likely to come and go more quickly, she said, with an average stay of about one year for those lower on the totem pole.

“It used to be easy to find people, and now it’s getting to be tougher and tougher,” Peterson said.

That said, South Dakota is still among the states with the highest concentration of child care jobs, statistics bureau data shows.

Anecdotally, though, there’s still room for more.

It’s a problem EmBe is trying to help solve. The nonprofit recently received a $200,000 Bush Foundation Community Innovation grant and is using it to create a centralized system for child care facilities that will help find substitute teachers.

“Day-to-day, (the goal is) if someone is sick or someone is out, we are, as an industry, better-positioned to respond with the staffing ratios that we need,” Hoesing said.

What parents need to know

Providers all acknowledge the high demand for day care space in Sioux Falls, but solutions won’t come quickly.

In the meantime, parents’ best bet is to plan ahead.

Like Roney, providers advise parents to start looking as soon as they see a positive pregnancy test.

“You can’t call a center when you’re eight months’ pregnant and expect to get in,” McCarty said, adding that her next availability for the nursery center was booked out about 18 months.

Families can also call the 211 helpline if they need assistance finding a licensed child care provider, and the state Department of Social Services lists all licensed centers, as well as in-home day care providers, on its website.

As for what the rest of the community can do? It comes down to starting the conversations on addressing the need for child care — and affordable child care — sooner, rather than later.

“It would be nice,” Hoesing said, “if we were having this conversation before it reached a critical point.”