Editor’s note: This is the third article in a multi-part series unpacking the effects of the shortage of quality, affordable childcare in Seward County on families, the local economy, employers, care providers, educators and children.
Mary Reetz pays her yearly homeowner’s insurance premium each time it comes due.
Then, she pays for a second homeowner’s insurance policy. And liability insurance. And insurance on her business. Plus worker’s compensation insurance.
She pays for required training courses and licensing fees and an employee’s salary. She pays for utilities, and she buys groceries for 12 children in addition to her own family’s expenses.
It’s all part of running her in-home childcare business.
“You would not believe the insurance that we have to have,” Reetz said. “It’s getting to the point that insurance companies will not cover childcare in your home.”
Reetz lives near Staplehurst, but bought a second house in Seward from which to operate her childcare business for the past 13 years.
Her childcare home is at capacity with 12 children, staffed by herself and one other employee.
Reetz worked at Seward Elementary for 13 years, and when she left, teachers encouraged her to try childcare.
“I really thought this would be a benefit (to the community),” Reetz said.
She chose to set up the business outside of her own home but still wanted to create an in-home daycare experience, believing that “smaller is better,” she said. “You can close the door and walk away, but the overhead is so much higher.”
A tough time
Reetz is one of 14 in-home childcare providers in Seward County. Lately, though, she said it has gotten more and more expensive for her to keep her doors open.
She attributed the struggle to the rising costs of insurance and groceries, a decline in state reimbursement for the Child and Adult Care Food Program and changes in the local school busing program for preschoolers.
“Busing has stopped for in-home daycare,” Reetz said.
For some in-home providers, the change in busing has caused families to send their preschoolers elsewhere, reducing income for those providers.
If Reetz were to transport kids to or from preschool at Seward Elementary – or anywhere else – she would have to pay for additional insurance, provide car seats for each child and take a three-hour, unpaid, state-mandated training course on child passenger safety.
Even if only one child needed transportation, she would have to take at least four kids with her so her one employee could comply with state-regulated child-to-caregiver ratios. That means having a vehicle that can accommodate up to four car seats.
Providers closing doors
Karen Sabatka has worked in childcare for 42 years. Her in-home business also is at capacity, and she’s seeing her friends in the childcare sector shut down their businesses, leading to fewer open childcare spots.
Since the start of 2023 in Seward County, at least two in-home providers and two in-home preschools have closed their doors.
“Look at how many we’ve lost in the last five years…We have close to 16 homes or preschools that have quit,” Sabatka said. “Why are they quitting? They can’t afford to be in it.”
Others are leaving the profession for retirement, which Sabatka said will cause a problem in the next few years.
“There are about five of us (providers in Seward County) the same age, and when we start retiring, we’re all going to go at the same time,” she said.
Sabatka said state regulations are getting more difficult to comply with as the years go by – so much so that it’s hard for a small childcare business to stay afloat.
“The state is requiring more from us as far as insurance and classes. If you want to be on the food program, those regulations are harder. Over time, the rules have gotten stricter,” she said. “I don’t think our daycare parents realize we carry insurance on their kids while they’re here, or the (cost of) food and the food requirements.”
Sabatka accepts Title 20, state assistance that helps low-income families pay for childcare.
“They don’t pay as well, and a lot of people don’t want to take Title 20, so those people are struggling even more,” she said.
The cost of care
Sabatka said most in-home providers charge about $150 per child per week, and they’re limited by the state on how many infants, toddlers and school-age children they can care for at a time.
Once they deduct overhead expenses, they don’t end up with much profit.
To increase their wages, though, providers would have to charge families more.
“I take into consideration how many kids a family has and how much they would have to pay,” Sabatka said. “For some, it’s a lot, and I don’t know if I feel comfortable taking that from them.”
Reetz agreed.
“I don’t believe in charging the parents an arm and a leg. They have to make a living, too,” Reetz said.
For many families with single parents or when both parents must work to make ends meet, staying home with their kids simply isn’t an option. Parents who work overnight shifts have an even harder time finding childcare, as most providers don’t operate overnight.
Reetz said she gets frustrated when she hears others tell parents to just stay home with their kids.
“Maybe Mrs. Jones went to school to be a nurse. She paid for that profession. That’s what she wants to do, so why say that to them? That’s their choice, but that’s what a lot of people are coming to because they can’t find childcare,” she said.
Grants for capacity
Over the past year, Seward County has seen an influx of grant money aimed at increasing the county’s childcare capacity to accommodate the gap of 189 children ages 0-5 who need childcare but can’t find open spots with licensed providers.
In February, the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership reported it distributed funds from a $78,500 grant it received through Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations.
In May, it reported $73,700 received through the State of Nebraska Preschool Development Grant under the same program.
The SCCDP will use the money to help childcare providers find sustainable ways to accept more children, whether through expanding their physical spaces, hiring additional staff or other means.
Reetz said those grants could be beneficial for the county, but not necessarily for in-home providers.
“That money was mostly for expansion. I can’t expand anymore,” she said. “When they offered this grant money out, I maybe got $1,000. I had to show what I used it for. Some centers got $30,000. It’s mindboggling.”
Sabatka said most in-home providers are in the same situation. Unless they add on to their houses or change their licensure, they don’t qualify for many of the grants.
“Because we were in place for years, we are not getting any of these grants because they are going to new facilities,” she said.
Sabatka is licensed for 24-hour emergency, respite and foster care, which allows her to expand her hours of operation or take on more children at times.
“If they don’t have that, they can’t expand,” she said. “We are the ones sitting in on the meetings supporting the grants, but we’re not receiving the grants. For those who did receive it, they’re getting very little. $1,500 does not pay for the insurance or compensation.”
Sabatka said other grants are available, but the hoops providers have to jump through to get them often aren’t worth it or aren’t feasible because of time restraints.
“Some of them require six months of additional classes. I have a life outside of the daycare. The centers, they can send somebody out there to do that. I have to cover it all myself,” she said.
Not just babysitters
Reetz said she loves what she does as a childcare provider, having taught Sunday school, coached softball for 20 years and served as a Godparent to teens through her church.
“I’ve always been a kid person,” she said. “It is a lot of work, but it is rewarding.”
Part of the problem in-home providers face, though, is gaining respect from the community.
“I don’t think the public realizes what we all do. They think we’re a glorified babysitter,” she said, though that’s far from the truth in her view.
“We have to do 12 hours of classes per year and be certified in CPR and first aid. You have to have a business plan, contracts, insurance, a meeting with the state fire marshal before you can even open. There are seven classes we have to take to get started, and some of those repeat every three to five years. We’re not being paid for those hours,” Reetz said. “We do interviews and make an appointment with families to meet them and give them a tour.”
Then there’s the weekly paperwork to file with the state, planning meals and snacks to comply with the state food program requirements, grocery shopping and cleaning up each day.
“I just wish that they would acknowledge that it’s hard work,” Reetz said. “You ‘just’ watch kids, you’re a babysitter. No, we’re a business owner and we do childcare.”
