STA Speaker Outlines Needs in Child Care

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Category: News

Created on Friday, 08 November 2024 14:59

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By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Through grants and other financial aid to training and professional support, Sitka Tribe of Alaska is working to alleviate the shortage of child care in Sitka, STA child care coordinator Cathleen Adams told the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
    Adams told the Chamber that more than half of American parents face difficulties in finding child care for their pre-schoolers, and that the problem is also acute in Sitka. She cited a 2022 survey commissioned by STA and conducted by the Stellar Group, an Alaska- and Hawaii-based consulting firm.
    “This is an issue that parents are facing on a daily basis, and half of them feel lucky just to be able to get a spot anymore,” Adams said. “So what are the barriers that parents face? Parents were very vocal about having the opportunities and getting the information on the openings that are happening in the centers as they happen. But when they do find these openings, they’re finding that the cost and the lack of access are the biggest issues, to not be able to use these services.”
    Adams said the survey’s findings didn’t come as a shock, and that the cost is high and growing higher. She said a month of pre-K care in Sitka was $1,000 two years ago and is now $1,200 to $1,300, which is higher than in most other places in Alaska.
    Child care providers struggle to retain workers, she said, as they can’t pay a living wage. And with pandemic-era federal funding running out, money is tight.
    “Hiring and retaining staff is always your number one issue. It’s coming down to low wages, lack of housing, no benefit packages… We can’t even send providers for accreditations or training, they literally have to shut down their centers in order to attend because they don’t have staff. Another problem that we have is lack of funding. Now that COVID is over, ARPA money has been spent. Providers are looking for new... streams of funds,” Adams summarized. “There is nothing out there that gives us long term stability; it is all short term at this point.”
    She also cited the difficulty of licensing is also a hurdle that slows the development of new child care programs.
    Of about 1,200 kids under 13 in Sitka, a third are registered with STA, and Indigenous kids are about four times as likely to live below the federal poverty line, she said. She said about three quarters of Alaskan parents miss work to raise their children.
    As for Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s role, Adams said the tribal government can aid with child care licensing and finances.
    The 2022 study “calls for STA to offer local providers the chance to get a state license, helping with fees, background checks, all of that,” Adams said. “Right now, STA is working with Thread Alaska to put together our relative in-home child care program where families will be able to take care of family members. We also have spent over $60,000 this year alone, just in tuition assistance to families.”
    Thread Alaska is a statewide child care resource and referral organization.
    STA also has worked with Sitka’s Early Childhood Coalition on workforce development and equipment purchases. Adams said STA has spent about $100,000 this year on supplies and health and safety items, and is currently helping the SJ child care center refit its floors. Also this year, the tribe used $300,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds “to the centers for stabilization. Now this was used on many different things, anywhere from mortgage to utilities, any staff bonuses, things like that.”
    Another recommendation from the 2022 study, she noted, was the creation of a child care coordinator position at STA, the position that she now holds.
     Adams would like to see additional cultural and Tlingit language programming at child care centers as well.
    “The other part that we were really looking at was cultural programming. We would really like to gear towards appropriate learning, looking to create experiences in the community that brings in the culture,” she said. “Some of the stuff that we’re getting started is… reading with the elders, starting to bring elders into the child care centers and reading to the kids. Another project that I would really like to start, but I know is going to be very difficult, is actually signing up the providers for Tlingit language classes, who I’d really like to teach the teachers, so that that language is taught.”
    Though groups like STA and Tread Alaska have been able to provide some funds for child care, there is still an acute funding problem, Adams said.
    “Each center is looking at all different things, and it literally, mostly comes down to grants,” she said. “... It’s got to be a community effort, you can’t just keep depending on these grants. They’re temporary; nothing is long term. You have to make plans for the future... We’re just putting stopgaps in place.”