Parenting Place of La Crosse gets 6-figure sum from city, as part of long-term child care contract

An experiment to help finance child care services in La Crosse worked so well in its first year, it’s being continued for a second year.

The city council voted last Thursday to use $400,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act money for childcare help in La Crosse, which will be overseen by the nonprofit group, the Parenting Place of La Crosse. The money will be used to hiring a coordinator there, raising child care staff pay and helping fund new child care centers or expanding existing facilities.

A total of $2 million in child care funding was passed by the council in 2021.

Parenting Place spokesperson Michelle Sampson said on BizCast Greater La Crosse that the money provided by the city could help lower costs for many families that might not be able to afford child care services.

“Their tuition prices are not matching what the true cost of care actually is,” Sampson said. “Child care programs know that they have to also make it affordable for families, because families can’t all afford $450 a week for child care per child,” which is a standard tuition level in the industry.

Sampson also said there’s a problem attracting workers to some child care jobs, because those positions may pay only about $15 an hour. She says potential staffers could earn more money working fast-food jobs.

The funding approved for the first year helped pay salaries and benefits and professional development at the Parenting Place. Sampson said a large number of child care jobs in the area have been going unfilled.

“We had 200 empty child care slots sitting in the city of La Crosse just due to staffing,” Sampson said. “Those are classrooms that are already licensed, they have materials, but they do not have qualified staff, and so there cannot be children in those classrooms right now.”

A shortage of child care workers reportedly began in the last decade, when many child care agencies downsized or closed down.