MIDDLEPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — When mom, dad, grandma and grandpa all have to work to pay the bills, who watches the kids?
Pressure is mounting for parents to find childcare as the crisis continues.
We all know childcare is expensive, but even if you have the money, it's hard to find a spot.
"We're turning people away, all the time we're always full and there's just only so much we can do," said Kristen Totah, owner of Little Critters Childcare in Gasport.
Totah runs the one and only licensed daycare in the Royalton-Hartland Central School District, an area hit especially hard by the daycare drought.
"In rural areas, there are no childcare centers to be found," said Sheri Scavone, CEO of the WNY Women's Foundation.
There's a lot to unpack here, so we'll talk about the problems and point out some solutions.
What's happening in the district right now
For years, parents were set because the YMCA ran a program to help care for kids. Roy-Hart Superintendent Jill Heck says the YMCA can no longer run that program.
So for this school year, she and her team came up with a temporary solution, getting aides and teachers to run before and after school programs starting at 6:30am-8:30am and 3:30pm-5:30pm.
Parents tell 7 News they're grateful and the program is a life-saver. But it is temporary.
"Because of the staffing, because of the amount of work that it's taken, we wanted to make sure our parents knew early enough that we could figure something else out together," said Superintendent Jill Heck.
But figuring something else out isn't quite so easy.
"Out this way, they call it a childcare drought," said Heck."It's similar in Lyndonville, Barker, there isn't childcare out here," said Heck.
What do parents do?
It's a lot of phone calls and wait lists.
For Lydia Scott, a daycare she used closed during the pandemic and she had to scramble.
"I called probably 20 daycares and no one can take an infant. It is a dilemma facing parents and women everywhere, like do I go back to work? do I not go back to work? There isn't a spot for me," said Scott.
She's got a system down now, but says it's been a burden to find childcare for Emma, 7 and Landon, 3.
Her husband works all day and she works in finance, with a 45-minute commute from Royalton to Buffalo.
"You feel like you're failing at one or the other at all points in time," said Scott. "Because when you're working a lot...then you feel like you're letting your kids down, if I'm with my kids or they're home sick, I feel like I'm letting my work down."
She can work from home from time to time, which helps.
Tonya Huntington had to scramble earlier this year before her kids got into the Roy-Hart after school program.
"I called people I don't know, friends of friends and I can't find anyone to watch my kids. I'm driving 30 minutes to have them at my office for 45 minutes, that's not ideal," said Huntington.
She recently moved to Gasport and was able to get her girls Emerson and Frazey into the program this year, but now has to figure something out for next year.
"So without both the Y and the school funding any school program or allowing us to pay, we don't have anything, so I don't know what I'll end up doing," said Huntington.
She says the options near where she lives are little to none.
"You're off in no man's land and there's no services," said Huntington. "I think there's some chaos and panic going on, like what are we gonna do with our kids?"
What about the daycares that do exist?
Little Critters has been around for eight years, started by Kristen Totah because she couldn't find anyone to watch her own kids.
She's running the only NYS licensed daycare in the Roy-Hart district. Her peers tell her it's hard to find staff.
Which means she's constantly full.
"I'm looking at July 2025 for my next infant opening," said Totah. "And I feel for parents, but there's only so much I can do, you know?"
Let's look at the bigger picture in WNY
The average family of four in Erie County pays $17,000 a year for childcare, that's 14% of the median income, per the WNY Women's Foundation.
While it's tough to foot the bill, the harder part is finding a spot as daycare centers have to close rooms around the region.
"While we've been able to make incremental progress in getting parents support through the public subsidy system, it's like dangling a carrot, if they can't find a slot for their child, that subsidy doesn't do them any good," said Sheri Scavone, CEO of the WNY Women's Foundation.
She says it puts pressures on mothers, many of them feeling like they have to leave the workforce.
"That's an impossible equation to be in," said Scavone. "Do I go to work to take care of my family, or take care of my child?"
What are the solutions?
In the Roy-Hart district, everyone's working together to get care for families.
"Just in the last two to three weeks that we've had the message out there, people are coming out of the woodwork," said Superintendent Heck.
Here's the list of options so far:
- Pastor of The Hartland Bible Church wants to offer his help and start a program
- Kristen is working to expand Little Critters
- Kandyland Kids in Pendleton wants to step in and help
Heck says they're just possibilities right now, but she's optimistic something will work.
"As a community, we're gonna rally together for our families and for our people, because we truly care about our kids, every kid in this district I like to think of as my own," said Heck.
Huntington says she's still hopeful they'll figure something out.
"That's what's nice about the small town community, that's why I'm kinda not panicking yet, everyone has a sense of community," said Huntington.
Totah says the Childcare Resource Network is a great tool.
The WNY Women's foundation is also working with New York State leaders to find Pathways to Progress.
"So how do we build a system that supports and uplifts those families, because that is gonna come back to our economy and come back to our community multi-fold," said Scavone.
