A North Vancouver mom who gave birth just two weeks ago has been told it will be at least 2017 before a child-care spot opens up in her area — highlighting a concern about the lack of affordable daycare on the North Shore.
Loretta Roth knew she wasn’t being overly cautious in registering her twins for daycare while she was pregnant. Three years ago she faced the same challenges when looking to find care for her son, Cove.
“I registered him when I was five months pregnant and barely got in when he was two years old,” recalled Roth.
The exorbitant cost — Roth found the average going rate for full-time daycare in North Vancouver is $1,600 a month — is the main reason she can’t find a spot. She also experienced runaround from two North Vancouver daycare providers, after registering online and by phone.
“They said, ‘You are not even in our system,’” said Roth. “It’s super frustrating because I was banking on those two that I had registered.”
It took a year and a half of persistence on the part of Roth, a Seymour area resident, to finally secure daycare for her son. That same facility has informed Roth that 2017 is the earliest her twins can be accepted, as there is no vacancy.
“It’s very stressful because I need to plan, and I need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row,” said Roth, who will go back to work next January.
Approximately 50 per cent of North Shore parents have access to daycare, according to estimates from the local child-care referral agency, North Shore Community Resources Society.
To get a general daycare picture, the society considered the number of North Shore children newborn to 12 years (based on 2011 Census data), compared it with the 6,012 daycare spots as of December 2014 — and then hypothesized that only half of those parents actually need child care.
There are daycare vacancies on the North Shore, according to June Maynard, the society’s manager of parent and child resource programs.
However, it is high cost that is preventing parents from accessing those programs, said Maynard. “Cost is a huge issue, because even with child-care subsidy, it never pays the whole amount of the child care,” she said.
Full-time child-care rates for an infant range between $900 and $1,500 a month, according to data collected from local daycare operators by the resource society last fall.
Meanwhile, those parents looking for care for their school-aged children might pay on average between $300 and $750 a month per child.
Maynard said one misconception that she hopes to dispel is that daycare proprietors are gouging parents on the price.
“Most of them are truly dedicated early childhood educators,” added Maynard.
Simply finding after- and before-school care, regardless of the cost, is another issue for some North Van parents, including Erin Williams.
She put her daughter, who starts kindergarten next year, on two wait-lists for child-care programs in the Seymour area. “I was told that I should look elsewhere as her acceptance looked unlikely — 11 months in advance,” said Williams. “I can only conclude that there is a lack of care spaces and options on the North Shore.”
Looking towards September, Williams is putting together a patchwork of child care that involves her leaving work early, as well as her husband.
Meanwhile, the District of North Vancouver is currently accepting proposals from non-profit daycare providers for its 2015 child-care grants program, which has $50,000 in proposed funding.
Those bids must meet the district’s current child-care priorities, which include programs for infants, school-age children, flexible hours of care and support for vulnerable families.
Previously funded daycare projects under this program include equipment replacement, renovations and child minding for support groups.
