Relief in a desert: Finding child care in Northwest Montana

As one of the few places in Bigfork for children to hang out, learn and play while parents are at work, there’s always a long waitlist for the Bigfork ACES after-school and summer programs.  

Several single fathers have come through the door lately, desperate to find a place for their children to go after school. When a parent calls and asks to be bumped up on the list it’s typically not allowed, but Cathy Hay, founder and director of the program, had a recent moment of weakness when a father contacted her.  

“He literally came into my office and teared up and said, ‘I’m going to lose my job. I don’t want to lose my little girl. She’s 5, she’s beautiful. Can she please, please get into your program?’ ... And I just said, ‘Yes, she’s in,’” Hay said.  

Most of Northwest Montana is considered a child care desert, a topic looked at in a January 2024 report from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Montana Department for Health and Human Services and Kids Count Montana. Using the most recent data available from 2023, the findings show that 59% of Montana counties are considered child care deserts. 

Broken down at the county level in Northwest Montana, Sanders County met only 5% of estimated child care demand in 2023, Glacier County met 16%, Mineral County met 20%, Flathead County met 31%, Lincoln County met 42% and Lake County met 50%.  

This estimated demand was calculated by looking at the percentage of children under the age of 6 who live in households where all parents are in the labor force, which is multiplied by U.S. Census population data to generate estimates of the total demand for child care and infant care in Montana.  

While child care can come in a variety of forms, the state report only looked at licensed child care providers and some family, friend, and neighbor caregivers as part of the child care supply for the analysis. The report defines Child Care Deserts as areas in Montana where over 66% of children living in working parent households cannot access licensed child care.  

Making sure families have adequate child care is something the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce has been working on in recent years. In February of 2022, the chamber launched its Flathead Child Care Initiative, which aims to work with the business community, local school districts and churches to improve child care access. 

Chamber President and CEO Lorraine Clarno said some good progress has been made which has been realized in an increase in the quantity of child care options available since the launch of the initiative, which was comprised of outreach and advocacy, home child care, facilities teams and a pipeline action team that reached out to the community.  

“We’ve done some good education in building the business case for child care, and have some employers that have, if not already implemented, begun looking at how they can put benefits in place to help families in this arena,” Clarno said.  

The chamber has also turned toward policy in an effort to ease the burden of the cost of child care.  

The chamber voiced its support for House Bill 457, which aimed to revise family income eligibility requirements for the Best Beginnings Child Care scholarship program that assists low-income families pay for day care.  

The bill, which was voted down in the Montana House of Representatives on March 21, would have increased the income threshold for families who qualify for the program, thus expanding eligibility. Several House members voiced concerns about the increased cost of the program, arguing that the need should be addressed by the private sector. 

As of the end of March, the House had advanced House Bill 456, which would expand the Best Beginnings program to provide scholarships to child care workers employed by a licensed day care center or a family/group day care home. The chamber supports the bill.  

“The workforce appears to be the biggest issue right now; child support workers are at the absolute bottom of the pay scale in our valley, and that makes it tough,” Clarno said.  

The state Department of Labor and Industry said in a report released last year that 66,000 Montanans don’t fully participate in the workforce because of inadequate child care.  

“Child care provides critical supports to the Montana economy, allowing parents of young children to participate in the labor force and preparing future generations of workers through high-quality early childhood education,” Amy Watson, state economist, writes in the report. “Despite the state’s reliance on childcare to meet workforce needs, Montana parents and businesses have suffered from a lack of access to care.” 

One of the primary causes of the child care shortage, the state labor report says, is the lack of available workers. Early childhood educators are one of the most in-demand occupations in the state, with the labor department estimating over 540 annual job openings for child care workers through 2023. 

More than half of those openings are projected to occur due to child care workers changing occupations and roughly another half are expected to come from retirements.  

Low wages often prevent providers from being able to recruit and retain workers. Child care workers reported a median wage of $12.73 per hour, which works out to $26,480 per year in 2022, the state report notes.  

In Kalispell, chamber staff are working on getting updated information about child care from businesses and the community through surveys this year. There are still some challenges, like the availability of infant care, she said. Infant capacity met only 24% of the estimated demand in Flathead County in 2023, according to the state report.  

But, overall, there has been some progress.  

“Anecdotally, we believe very strongly that we hear spots are available for toddlers and above, and the number of licensors in the county has increased. So that’s great, but workforce and affordability remain a challenge, so we’re not going to stop working on it,” Clarno said.  

Some ideas brought to businesses to help employees with child care are benefits like a savings account that goes toward the cost of care. Clarno said even though this was created for parents, many employees find themselves in the position of caring for a loved one, like a parent, so the savings account can benefit them in that way, too. 

“Anything that employers can do to help offset that cost is going to help them with retention and morale,” Clarno said. 

One business the chamber worked with to open a child care facility is Immanuel Living, a retirement community in Kalispell, which was already interested in addressing the issue for its employees. 

Immanuel Living received over $800,000 from an American Rescue Plan Act grant to remodel a facility and open a center for employees’ families, according to Chief Financial Officer Teryn Waldenberg.  

After opening a temporary facility in September 2022 with a full-time director, three staff and 27 children, the child care center later moved into its own facility, which is now licensed with a capacity for 80 children. 

As a working mother, Waldenberg said she too struggled at times to find child care.  Prior to the facility’s opening, Immanuel Living CEO Jason Cronk had already been in talks with Northridge Lutheran Church in hopes of setting up child care for several years, and when administrators heard of the grant opportunities available, they started making moves to open Growing Roots Early Learning Center. 

Immanuel Living employees enjoy the benefit and the company gets applicants specifically because of the day care program, Waldenberg notes.  

“Not only the availability of child care, but also a very quality program with people that they know and trust, teachers and directors. We also provide some financial support to our employees as well. So, between all of those aspects, I do hear staff are very appreciative of, not only just the amazing program for their kids, but having the benefit in general,” Waldenberg said.  

To stabilize revenue for the facility, Immanual Living partnered with another business to provide care for their employees and opened enrollment to the public.  

However, she occasionally struggles to discuss the success of the child care program because she understands how hard it is for a business to offer this benefit to employees.  

“I realize just how blessed we are to be able to do this. We got the grant at the right time, we have the director at the right time, and we have the location at the right time. Without all of those pieces, I don’t know how somebody could make it work,” she said.  

“I cannot imagine trying to be a smaller provider and going out and doing this,” she continued. “We have lots of resources that helped us, from the construction aspect to legal and human resources. We’re so excited to be up and growing, being able to meet a need. I just feel for all the other providers who want to do this but can’t.” 

Finding a sustainable funding source for child care and after school providers and programs can be difficult.  

ACES is largely funded by a federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. The grant awards half a million dollars over the course of five years to the program. This has allowed the program to provide its services for free but means relying only on grant funding to operate.  

“It’s a little bit of a catch-22 because we’re not making that income from fees, but we’re getting the grant. So that’s good; it opens the way for all kids, regardless of whether they can pay, they can attend the program and benefit from it,” Hay said. 

By not requiring families to pay to join the program, ACES is a rare exception to other child care and after school facilities across Montana. Last year’s state report on child care deserts points to cost as a key barrier to families accessing care. In Montana, the average cost of full-time daycare for an infant or toddler in center-based care is $11,700 per year. 

Fifty-three percent of parents reported costs as a barrier to accessing care, particularly for low-income families. In 2023, Montana households averaged $18,940 in child care expenses for children under age 5. The report said annual expenses for this care in 2023 were equivalent to 28% of the state’s median household income.  

Due to rising inflation in recent years, it’s more expensive than ever to run a child care facility. Price increases have impacted buying food, supplies, liability and property insurance, and rising wages at food service and retail jobs have made it harder to recruit child care workers, one of the lowest-paying jobs in the country, according to a February 2024 article from the New York Times. 

Though the majority of Northwest Montana ranks low when compared to the overall state average, there are counties more desolate when it comes to child care availability. The state report said licensed capacity is undersupplied in every county relative to potential demand in Montana, with urban areas of the state having greater access to care than rural areas.  

In Eastern Montana, there are four counties without a single licensed provider: Wibaux, Treasure, Golden Valley and McCone. The report said that due to a legacy of discriminatory policies, enrolled tribal members residing on tribal land, households where English is not the primary language, children with disabilities and children involved with the welfare system are more likely to face barriers to accessing child care.  

Access to high-quality early childhood education promotes the development of key social-emotional skills, which supports a child’s ability to continuously engage in learning environments, manage their own behaviors, and get along well with others, according to the report.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.

    Three- and four-year-olds work on craft projects at Immanuel Living's Growing Roots Early Learning Center in Kalispell on Tuesday, March 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Four and five-year-olds work on craft projects at Immanuel Living's Growing Roots Early Learning Center in Kalispell on Tuesday, March 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    One-year-olds work on painting projects at Immanuel Living's Growing Roots Early Learning Center in Kalispell on Tuesday, March 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Three- and four-year-olds work on craft projects at Immanuel Living's Growing Roots Early Learning Center in Kalispell on Tuesday, March 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Two- and three-year-olds play on the playground at Immanuel Living's Growing Roots Early Learning Center in Kalispell on Tuesday, March 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider