A lack of affordable child care is keeping some Michigan parents out of the workforce, a pilot program aims to fix that

SAGINAW, MI -- Finding and affording reliable child care is a constant struggle for Saginaw mom Tiara Graham.

Making sure that her three children, ages 7, 5 and 2, are cared for while she’s at work has been a challenge for years. Virtual learning during the pandemic only compounded it.

“It’s really hard,” said Graham, 28. “It’s really hard to find child care.”

Graham works full time for a Saginaw-area nonprofit. Her fiance works full-time, too. They make too much money to be eligible for state assistance with child care costs, but not enough to afford it out of pocket. So they work different shifts, rely on family members who are willing to babysit, and switch shifts with understanding coworkers so that someone’s always available to be with the kids.

“I have considered not working, but it’s like, if I don’t work, how are we paying our bills? We still have rent. We still have water. We still have Consumers. We still have kids to take care of, food to put on the table,.” she said. “Quitting isn’t an option.”

Graham said she and other parents like her would benefit if more employers invested in child care, offering it as an employee benefit or even on site. She said her employer is flexible when she needs to switch her shifts around, but that’s not the case for some working parents struggling to make ends meet.

“I would just like for jobs to be more understanding, especially now with the pandemic,” she said. “I’m not the only one who’s not approved for state funding, and I’m not the only one who struggles financially with paying for child care.”

It turns out that some area employers, grappling with a labor shortage caused in part by a lack of affordable child care options, are doing just that.

Tri-Share Child Care Program, a pilot that launched in March, aims to lessen the financial burden on families so more caregivers can get back to work. It’s being piloted in the Great Lakes Bay Region, Muskegon area and Traverse City area, and it’s geared toward ALICE families, or Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed families, those with income above the Federal Poverty Level but below the basic cost of living, according to Rich Van Tol, supervisor of school-home-community partnerships/early childhood education for Bay-Arenac ISD.

“If you’re a family and you earn under 150% of poverty, you are eligible for a child care subsidy. This program is aimed at working families, so families that make above 150% to 250% of poverty,” he said. “A family of four, if they’re earning about $3,500 a month, would be at 158% of poverty, so they would qualify. They would qualify for Tri-Share, but they wouldn’t qualify for any other child care support because they earn over 150%. There’s a lot of families that are in this gap.”

The Michigan Women’s Commission awarded a $300,000 grant to the Saginaw Intermediate School District on behalf of the Great Lakes Bay Region to act as one of three regions across the state of Michigan to pilot the MI Tri-Share Child Care Program. As of late July, two mid-Michigan employers, Vantage Plastics in Standish and Gratiot-Isabella Regional Education Service District, had joined and a third was expected to sign on soon. By signing on, the employer agrees to pay a third of its employees’ child care costs. Participating employees also pay a third, which the employer withholds from their paycheck, and the remaining third is paid for with grant funds. Any employer that operates in a participating region is eligible, regardless of where its employees live or find child care, Van Tol said.

“Traditionally, our state has never used dollars to support ALICE families in this manner. This is the first time this has ever been attempted,” he said. “It’s a way for employers to be able to attract and retain talent, so it’s a means for employers to hopefully mitigate some of the workforce challenges they’re having, because ALICE families, ultimately, they’re hard-pressed to be able to find child care and afford child care. It’s a big issue.”

Van Tol said the average cost of child care is $10,000 to $12,000 per year, per child.

“You can see how for a lot of ALICE families, the math doesn’t work out. They can’t afford to work. It costs them more money to work and have their children in child care, so they stay out of the workforce,” he said. “Some of them have great skills to bring to the table and training and education, but if they can’t afford child care or if it costs them (more) money to put their children into child care, that strips away at their ability to basically make ends meet in their family. They’re just not going to do it.”

“If employees are interested, it might behoove them to mention this (pilot program) to their employers. Sometimes employers find out about this through their employees,” Van Tol added.

Employers can sign up by contacting Van Tol at vantolr@baisd.net or 989-667-3285.

Child care deserts

Affording child care is one piece of the puzzle. But before figuring out how to pay for it, families have to find it. That can be a challenge when demand exceeds supply.

An estimated 44% of Michiganders live in child care deserts, according to the Michigan League for Public Policy.

“Because of child care deserts, it’s hard to find child care,” Van Told said. “A child care desert is when the ratio of children ages 0 to 5 to the number of licensed spots available is greater than three. So, in other words, there’s just not enough spots for kids.”

In Saginaw County as a whole, the ratio is 1.9 kids per spot. In Bay and Genesee counties, it’s 1.8.

Nicole Sootsman is coordinator/program director at Covenant HealthCare Children’s Center, where dozens of families are on a waiting list hoping for openings for their infants.

The need almost always exceeds the number of slots available, especially for babies and toddlers. That was true before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and it’s true today.

“I think I have 45 infants on my waitlist right now,” Sootsman said. “I have always had a waitlist for infants. Always. I think the problem that people are running into now is a handful of centers did close due to the pandemic.”

Covenant HealthCare Children’s Center is owned and operated by Covenant HealthCare and located near the hospital at 1404 N Harrison St. It primarily serves Covenant HealthCare employees, but accepts children of non-employees when spaces are available. It has a total capacity of 78 babies and children ages 8 weeks to 8 years.

“If I have an opening and nobody at Covenant needs us or is on our wait list, I just go down my list and get the next person in,” she said.

Full-time, five-day-a-week child care at the center is about $215 to $230 per week or $860 to $920 per month, depending on the child’s age. Pricing includes breakfast, lunch, two snacks, and extracurricular activities, such as yoga, Spanish, music, special guests and more. The center also offers part-time and flexible scheduling.

“We’ve worked really hard to really make this a quality center because, especially in this area, like around the hospital, there are not a lot,” Sootsman said. “People that are working, nurses and doctors and whoever, hospital employees, should have peace of mind in knowing that their kids are at a really nice, quality place, they’re going to receive excellent care, they’re going to be very well taken care of and educated as well.”

She added, “For child care centers, it’s tough right now. It’s really tough. Not only do you have people calling for child care, you know, sometimes 10, 20 times a day you get phone calls, but, to try to find teachers and qualified staff, it’s been hard, too.”

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