(Spirit Lake)– A meeting to talk about a shortage of quality child care in Dickinson county will be held Tuesday, March 21st at Good News Community Church in Okoboji. It’s being put on by Upper Des Moines Opportunity’s Child Care Resource and Referral Unit.
Spokesperson Cyndee Dather says it will serve as a follow-up to a visioning process that identified some very serious needs and concerns over the availability of childcare in the county. Dather says last year alone there were 140 births in Dickinson county, and currently there is no infant child care available with the exception of home care providers. Compounding the problem, Dather says, is the fact that about 80 percent of both parents are working outside the home.
Dather says quality and accreditation of child day care service providers will also be talked about at the session.
Dather says O’Brien and Osceola counties have experienced shortages similar to what Dickinson county is going through. She says they’ve adopted initiatives such as building new daycare centers through a cooperative effort with various care providers in the counties.
Dather adds the problem with a lack of quality child care is also having an economic impact on the region. She says it makes it harder to recruit and retain people.
Copyright GCI all rights reserved. Unauthorized publication or broadcast of this material is strictly prohibited.
