Whatcom County Council acts to help a nonprofit preserve 532 licensed child care slots
The Whatcom County Council has set aside $100,000 to help a nonprofit take over Kids’ World in the hope of preserving 532 licensed child care slots.
Michael Watters, the longtime co-owner of Kids’ World, who originally indicated the facilities would close at the end of 2019 if another entity didn’t take it over, has been negotiating with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County, which is interested in acquiring the business.
Kids’ World is remaining open during those talks and as the Boys and Girls Clubs seeks help and financial support. The child care business has six facilities on four campuses in Bellingham and Ferndale that provide services to hundreds of families.
Although the County Council has approved the $100,000, a contract still needs to be signed and council members said they wanted more information and a presentation from the Boys and Girls Clubs about its operating plan and what it will do with the county dollars.
In approving the money earlier this month, county officials are joining the city of Bellingham in the effort to keep Kids’ World open.
In December, the City Council OK’d $100,000, saying the possible loss of 15% of all of the licensed child care spots in Whatcom County constituted an emergency.
Kids’ World also employs 110 people, according to details from a city of Bellingham memo.
Bellingham and Whatcom County are trying to help in another way.
The mayor of Bellingham and the Whatcom County executive sent letters this month to Washington legislators in Olympia, saying they supported the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County’s application for $750,000 in state dollars to upgrade Kids’ World facilities “so that they can continue to serve Whatcom County families.”
“The closure of Kids’ World would also hit low-income families especially hard. Approximately 61% of the Kids’ World slots are filled by children who receive full or partial state subsidies. The next closest organization provides subsidized care to 25% of children served,” County Executive Satpal Sidhu stated in his letter.
Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood noted the effect on the local economy.
“Not only are individual families impacted, the community as a whole is as well,” Fleetwood wrote in his letter. “A series of discussions last year with local industry leaders identified lack of quality, affordable child care as the No. 1 economic challenge in our community.”
Whatcom County is a child care desert, according to the Center for American Progress.
In previous stories in The Bellingham Herald, licensed child care providers have said they face challenges that include a complex and increasingly strict regulatory system, sizable investments to open, employee benefits, increases in the state’s minimum wage and state reimbursement rates for subsidies that don’t cover the actual costs of providing child care.
Whatcom County isn’t alone in experiencing a shortage of licensed child care slots, leading Washington state legislators to introduce a number of bills in an attempt to help the industry.
Among them is Rep. Sharon Shewmake’s bill, titled the Rural Childcare Access Act.
The measure would help rural communities, where fewer people combined with lower incomes makes it tough for child care centers, according to a release from Shewmake, D-Bellingham, that referenced Kids’ World.
“In a city like Seattle with higher incomes and a denser population, the loss of one child care facility might not mean much,” Shewmake stated in the release, “but in Whatcom County, the looming closure of Kids’ World hit us hard, scaring parents, business owners and teachers.”
Shewmake said the measure, House Bill 2619, would streamline licensing requirements for new owners of child care facilities, balance subsidy rates and find innovative ways to improve access in rural areas.
The measure passed the House.
It is in the Senate, where it has a hearing in the Senate Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education on Monday, Feb. 24.
Rep. Luanne Van Werven, R-Lynden, and Rep. Alex Ramel, D-Bellingham, also signed on to the bill.
