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Parents need more
early child care choices

PATCH, Hawaii's child care resource and referral agency, supports the idea of "quality beyond four walls" environments as described in the story "Investing in schools will aid economy, says expert" (Star-Bulletin, Nov. 18).

As Hawaii continues to focus its efforts on supporting and investing in our youngest keiki, we have the opportunity to offer parents a wider variety of quality early childhood child care options, beyond the viewpoint that "quality" education only happens in preschools. The everyday reality is that parents need choices in child care to juggle the demands of work and family.

As part of our services, PATCH provides families with information and resources necessary when looking for quality child care. Choosing high-quality child care requires parents to understand that child care goes far beyond "babysitting." Research describes birth through 4 years as the most critical period for the overall development of a child, thus establishing the path for lifelong learning and health. A parent's choice is also strongly influenced by individual preferences that go beyond cost and quality but include location, culture and values, and their past experiences in child care.

Today parents of young children are increasingly reliant on child care to enable them to go to work to support their families. Through PATCH, 65 percent of families reported work as the main reason they were seeking child care.

Unfortunately, it is very common for parents to make inquiries with at least 25 child care providers and/or programs in an effort to secure care for their child. Child care choices are severely limited due to availability and cost, particularly for infants and toddlers. Of the referral calls received by PATCH, the greatest demand for child care, 51 percent, was for children between birth through 2 years of age. Yet the demand for child care for children 2 to 5 years old was almost equal at 43 percent.

During referral follow-up calls to families, 54 percent reported that the primary reasons for not being able to find child care is a lack of available openings, especially for infants. In Hawaii, for the more than 78,000 children from birth through 4 years old, there are just 28,400 licensed child care spaces available.

Aside from the shortfall of availability, the average cost of child care for an infant in a center is $7,700 annually and for a 4-year-old child in a preschool is $6,200 annually in our state. To assist families with the high cost of child care, there are subsidy programs offered by the Hawaii Department of Human Services and other private scholarships.

Through referral follow-up calls to parents by PATCH, 32-percent of parents stayed home with their children, 26 percent utilized family child care in private homes and 14 percent chose relative/informal care; while only 5 percent chose preschools and 3 percent chose infant/toddler care in a center.

As Hawaii prepares for future initiatives to best support Hawaii's youngest keiki, we need to remember to honor and respect the choices families are making regarding their children. Given the current situation, parents are almost forced to make child care choices beyond traditional preschool simply due to availability. With this in mind, the future of early childhood care and education for Hawaii's youngest keiki must focus on increasing the quality and availability within all venues of child care.

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