The alliance has launched two five-minute surveys on childcare; one for people who live and work in Summit County, and another for those who provide the care.
“We’re trying to do a pretty robust childcare needs assessment specific to Summit County,” said Kristen Schulz, director of the Early Childhood Alliance.
“We have a lot of demographic data and we have that data about licensed providers, but the reality is a lot of childcare is taking place informally — it’s family, friends, and neighbors.”
The survey for parents focuses on childcare availability, cost, and preferences.
The provider survey asks about capacity, tuition, number of staff, and interest in expanding operations.
“We really want to understand, do you need childcare? What are you doing now? What are your preferences? How much does it cost? How much could you afford to pay? We want to get kind of an understanding from the user point of view," Schulz said.
"And then we have a second survey for childcare providers, and by that I mean both our licensed, family, and center providers — but also all of our informal providers out there.”
Schulz said locally there aren’t enough high-quality and affordable childcare options. She also said the private market is failing, because centers can’t pay workers enough, and parents can’t afford to pay more.
“I think if we as a community want to create a system that meets the needs of our children, and our families, and our early educators — we really do have to recognize that this is a public good," she said.
"And so we are inviting the community to consider an investment of local public funds in early childcare.”
Schulz said the alliance doesn't have a specific public investment proposal yet, but it’s researching what other communities have done. She said the survey results will inform next steps.
Links to both surveys can be found here:
Survey for people who live in work in Summit County
Survey for childcare or education provider
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They are asking that people respond by Jan. 15.
The Early Childhood Alliance plans to have a Spanish version of the survey online soon.
