Pittsburg parents face long waits for child care

PITTSBURG — As her due date crept closer and closer, Sydney Anselmi grew more and more worried. She and her husband, Jacob, needed to find a day care that would accept their son, Russel, once he was born.

A month before her due date, still nothing was settled.  

“It was kind of nerve-wracking, to say the least, not knowing what we would have,” said Anselmi, program coordinator of fraternity and sorority life at Pittsburg State University.

“We just didn’t know [what would happen on the wait list],” Anselmi said, “and it was just that kind of uneasiness, of ‘we don’t have a plan for this,’ and so much of having a child is planning, you know. You have nine months. You know you’re pregnant. You know you need the crib. You know you need the car seats. You know you need all these things. And then childcare is just a big question, and it’s a scary one.”

Sydney and Jacob’s experience is a common one for Crawford County families. According to census data, the county has almost 3,000 residents under the age of 6. Of those, 78% need some kind of child care, but not even half of them end up getting it, according to Child Care Aware of Kansas, a child care advocacy organization.

Crawford County has 57 licensed child care facilities, which includes child care centers, family child care homes, preschools and school age programs. But parents say more are needed to face the childcare shortage Pittsburg has been facing for years.

Not for a lack of trying

Anselmi said she and her husband were proactive in trying to find a day care after friends told them to start early.

“My journey with childcare started when I got pregnant,” she said. “Before I even called my doctor, I called the Family Resource Center to get on the wait list because they have a wait list of 80-plus children at any given time.”

In the meantime, Anselmi sorted out precisely how long she had. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave within one year of the birth of the child in order to take care of the newborn.

The couple got a lifeline two months after Russel was born when Sonshine Childcare Center, which is associated with Victory Life Church, expanded its capacity in order to take in more infants living in Pittsburg. Russel, now 10 months old, is one of those infants at the facility.

That was a relief to for the Anselmis, who would have been left waiting if not for the opening

“I got a call that I was getting off the wait list when my son was 6 months old,” she said.

“Thankfully, a spot opened”

Another mother familiar with wait lists Pittsburg is Kiera Pulliam, an accounting specialist in Pitt State’s International Office. She and her husband, Jordan, have two sons: Fergus, who is 2 years old, and Callum, who is 2 months old.

Pulliam’s experience was similar to that of the Anselmis—get on the list early, do your best to be patient, and make due in the meantime.

“I believe we waited about almost a year to get our oldest in [child care] when we first started,” she said. “But since he was already in daycare when we were expecting our second, it kind of expedited the process a little bit, but not quite much. Thankfully, there was a spot open by the time I was ready to come back to work after having him.”

During that year of waiting, Jordan’s flexible part-time job gave him some flexibility, allowing him and a family friend to care for Fergus while Kiera worked full time. Kiera said it wasn’t an ideal situation, as both she and Jordan would have liked to have been working full time to bring in more money.

Now, both Fergus and Callum spend 11 hours a day at the Family Resource Center while Kiera and Jordan work full time. 

The importance of childcare for the household, Pulliam explains, is to allow both parents to work. 

“I really enjoy my job,” she said. “I like to come to work every day, so having opportunities to have childcare for my sons is just convenience for me.”

“I think everybody is trying to help figure that out”

According to The Family Resource Center website, there are 445 children enrolled at the facility at the moment and 107 more kids are on the wait list. 

Ann Elliot, director of the Family Resource Center, said the wait list works on “first come, first served” system.

Elliot said a lack of spots for infants and toddlers is what causes the wait list to grow.

“Unfortunately, it’s typical [to wait about a year],” she said, because that’s often how long it takes infants to move up to another classroom — all of which are divided by ages.

However, Elliot sees reasons for Pittsburg parents to be optimistic.

“I think the community realizes that there’s a lack of slots for infants and toddlers,” she said. “I think everybody is trying to help figure that out.”

Recent growth at the Family Resource Center should help shrink its own wait list. In March, 58 slots were added at a new facility the center opened in south Pittsburg. And another facility in the old Washington School is about to open this year as well.