Child care waitlists are so long, snagging spot requires strategy

Hayley Hansen started thinking about child care options when she first found out she was pregnant.

But the 27-year-old Sioux Falls behavior analyst waited to make calls until announcing the pregnancy publicly about two or three months in, when the risk of miscarriage is significantly lower.

She didn’t want to have to call a child care provider back should the unthinkable happen.

How was she supposed to know Sioux Falls child care centers often have waitlists stretching to more than a year in advance? How do you even reserve a spot for a kid who hasn’t yet been conceived?

“I wish I would’ve listened to the people who said start looking for day care right away,” Hansen said.

She eventually found a part-time spot at First Adventure Learning Center, which she was able to accept only because her mom, who works part-time, was able to watch her now 9-month-old son, Jack, the rest of the time.

While Hansen loves the care her son receives at First Adventure, it’s not exactly an ideal situation for her.

“We drive 20 minutes to get to our day care, and it’s in the opposite direction of our house and jobs,” Hansen said.

Hansen’s experience isn’t unique for parents in the Sioux Falls area. She and others weighed in to offer some words of advice to help new parents – and parents new to town – navigate the system.

Start planning early

It might sound crazy to start interviewing child care centers before getting pregnant, but it’s not. Bri McCarty, owner at Truks-N-Trykes said their nursery center’s next available slot opens up in a year and a half.

“The second that you know you’re pregnant, you should be reaching out to day cares,” she said.

Some centers hold slots open for existing families to grow, so parents adding a second or third child to the mix might have an easier time than first-time parents, but everyone’s situation is different.

Child care providers across town agreed that parents with traditional 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekday work schedules are going to have an easier time finding child care than those who work nights and weekends.

Those with odd schedules may need to rely more on in-home day cares, which can be more flexible than the larger centers.

Use the available resources

Centers have long wait lists, but what about in-home day cares? How do you find connections there? There are a few resources out there to make connecting parents with child care options easier, including the 211 Helpline.

Parents can call 211 for help connecting with available options. The state Department of Social Services also has an online database of registered day cares – in-home, centers and after-school options – that parents can search.

The DSS website also lists which providers report having openings, making it easier to save time in avoiding centers or home day cares that report being full. The downside is a large portion of registered day cares don’t report their availability to the state, so that information isn’t always helpful.

Ask the right questions

It’s a big deal to choose the people who are going to be feeding, changing and, essentially, parenting your child for 40 hours each week. That’s why it’s important to ask the right questions, said Jennifer Hoesing, child development officer for EmBe.

Hoesing recommends all parents ask the following three questions:

What is your behavior management style?
Translation: How do you respond to a tantrum or a child misbehaving? The answer to this question will show you the provider’s philosophy on discipline.

What is your staff turnover?
This will show how likely it is that your child will see the same faces for years to come. EmBe, for example, has a number of staff members who have been with the center for eight years or more, Hoesing said.

What’s a typical day like?
This seems like an obvious one, and it may be, but it’s important to help parents get a sense of what happens at the facility in a given day. It also can lead into questions about things like curriculum, field trips, etc.

Trust your gut

At the end of the day, it might come down to a gut feeling.

Jamie Maxymuik, a Sioux Falls mother of three, said she and her family looked at several child care options before deciding on Truks-N-Trykes for her 15-month-old daughter.

“I think at one point I was on six waiting lists trying to get into a center,” Maxymuik said.

She signed up her daughter for a spot at Truks-N-Trykes’ newest center before it was even built. Not having even seen the facility, she knew it’d be the right fit because of the conversation she had with owner McCarty.

It was a gut feeling.

Maxymuik knows she got lucky in finding the spot she did by being in the right place at the right time in her conversation with McCarty, but through that experience, she encourages other parents to give themselves as much time as possible so they have the ability to trust those gut feelings rather than selecting a child care center on availability alone.

“Finding a day care for your infant is one of the most nerve-wracking, scary things as a mom” she said. “You don’t want to be rushed. You want to be able to find a place that you click with and that you’re comfortable with.”