Photo by Jody Isaackson Cardinal Kids is running a pilot program out of the Clarkfield Area Charter School with infants and toddlers. The program will enlarge when it moves to its own new facility in February where it will have nine employees.

MARSHALL — Sisters-in-law Michele Gregoire and Malissa Smidt say they were acting on a good opportunity when they decided to open their own child day care center.

Smidt had been running her own day care in her home for a number of years. Gregoire held a degree in sociology and completed some college classes in business management.

Last June they noticed the Discovery Center day care on Fourth Street had closed and decided to buy it. The new day care center, now called Stepping Stones Child Care and Preschool, opened Tuesday.

Stepping Stones Daycare joins four other center-based day care facilities registered with the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce and 93 family/home-based day cares that provide service in Lyon County.

“We’re both excited about this opportunity because the need for day care is high in this community,” Gregoire said. “We may need to hire more help as our numbers grow.”

Stepping Stones Day care is licensed for 55 children, the new owners said. There is room for eight infants, 14 toddlers, 20 pre-kindergarten and 13 school-age children, complete with licensed teachers — with a total of eight employees besides the owners. There are a few openings still available.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to help the community,” Smidt said.

By opening Stepping Stones, Gregoire and Smidt acted on a need that was cited in an in-depth report for the Department of Human Services.

Over the past 10 years, the number of child care centers increased by 8 percent statewide and their capacity grew by 27 percent. That was the only gain to fill about two thirds of the gap left by in-home providers exiting the business.

That statewide figure masks a huge divergence, Rural Reality research director Marnie Werner said. One of the main reasons home-based day cares are going out of business is the cost to run a day care, according to Werner.

She said home-based day care providers are finding that they cannot make a living at this type of work, nor are there any benefits such as paid vacation or health insurance. She also said the providers are dropping out of the vocation to take better jobs in the workforce — which in turn creates problems for businesses who employ them.

Werner said companies experience more absenteeism from parents when the parents lose their day care provider and have to rely on the family/friend/neighbor network until they can find another licensed provider, which may take up to two years.

Werner also said while the metropolitan area has seen growth in center-based care, greater Minnesota has seen a drop in in-home day care that supersedes any growth it is experiencing in center-based day care.

“Most of the growth in center-based care in the last 10 years occurred in the Twin Cities seven-county area. Center-based care capacity in the Twin Cities increased by 31 percent, or 19,400 spaces, more than enough to make up for the 16,000 in-home care spaces lost,” she said. “In Greater Minnesota, center-based capacity increased by only 18 percent, or 5,039 spaces; in-home family child care capacity, in fact, decreased by 20,400 spaces for a net loss of more than 15,000 spaces.

The child day care shortage is not just a Lyon County issue. Cardinal Kids just opened in Clarkfield and Puddle Jumpers will open in Granite Falls this summer.

Cardinal Kids and Puddle Jumpers will be the only center-based day care facilities in Yellow Medicine County which currently has 37 family/home-based day care facilities, which is down three from the previous year.

“We’re super excited to be able to help out the city and the surrounding community by filling this need,” Puddle Jumpers’ owner Jessica Busack said. She is partners with Emily Balfany.

Balfany and Busack believe in nature-based, hands-on learning.

They plan to open their day care at Minnesota West Community and Technical College, Granite Falls, in early summer 2018.

The owners of Puddle Jumpers have been working with Granite falls EDA Director Cathy Anderson on building a business plan. They found out that the former Prairie Five daycare site at the local community college was available and set out to give it more space than it had previously had.

“The area of building space will increase in square footage,” Balfany said, “which, in turn, increases our numbers from four to eight infants, from seven to 12 toddlers. The number of preschoolers will remain the same.”

A big element in their business plan, Busack said, is intergenerational interaction for which they plan to take their students to local nursing homes to sing and do fun projects with the elderly residents.

“Our main goal is to fill the needs of parents in the area for day care,” Balfany said. “We want to have a learning environment where children can enjoy coming every day. A safe place for them to grow socially, emotionally and academically and be ready for school when they go.”

Busack has been a full-time preschool teacher at a day care in North Mankato for 15 years. She grew up in Echo and was a 2002 graduate from Yellow Medicine East High School and earned an associate degree in child development from Rasmussen College in Mankato prior to entering the day care field.

“I have never worked in a day care, but I did intern at one while in college at SMSU (Southwest Minnesota State University),” Balfany said. “My experience is as an early childhood coordinator at YME Schools; this is my fourth year teaching preschool here. I also set up the early childhood program here.”

Balfany holds degrees in elementary education and early childhood from SMSU and a parent education degree through the University of Minnesota. She taught elementary school for two years prior to returning to Granite Falls where she grew up.

Cardinal Kids in Clarkfield will open its new facility by the end of February and provide spaces for 24 infants, 14 toddlers and 20 preschoolers for a total of 58 children, board member Amanda Luepke said. This will also give employment to nine employees when the day care enrollment is full.

This facility is governed by a board of directors and will be utilizing grant funding, donations and tuition to support its services.

The Puddle Jumpers co-owners faced several hurdles to open their business. Training and licensing requirements can become major hurdles to clear. State regulations have increased the number of hours of training from six to eight, Werner said. Other state regulations have become increasingly more stringent over the years. There are also inconsistencies among county licensers, which also causes problems, according to providers testifying before the House Committee on Affordable Child Care.

“County licensers, who enforce state regulations, are providers’ first and closest point of contact with the state, but licensers can have widely differing interpretations of those regulations, often catching providers by surprise,” Werner said

“It has left many providers afraid to be in the business,” said Barb Wagner, who is executive director of the Minnesota Licensed Family Care Association, Inc.

Regulations are created by the state Legislature, but enforced by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The department also supports delivery of much of the training available to providers in Minnesota through grants to organizations like First Children’s Finance and Child Care Aware agencies, but the programs need to be made more visible, and resources are limited.

“With a shortage of child care or affordable child care, the fear among early childhood education professionals is that parents will be forced to turn to cheaper, lower-quality alternatives,” said Lynn Haglin, who is vice president of the Northland Foundation in Duluth and director of the foundation’s KidsPlus program. “Now with a shortage of providers, we need to make sure that what’s being offered out there is quality care.”

“This low-quality child care does nothing for a child’s brain development which does nothing to prepare them for becoming adults,” Werner said.

“We want to have a learning environment where children can enjoy coming every day,” Balfany said. “A safe place for them to grow socially, emotionally and academically and be ready for school when they go.”

Gregoire explained that Stepping Stones will be choosing curriculum from Parent Aware recommendations to assist in learning.

“Parent Aware also offers daycare scholarships to families with children in preschool classes,” Gregoire said. “We want area parents to know that we do offer pre-K classes.”

“We also have before- and after-school programs for school-age children,” Smidt said. “And field trips in the summer.”

Cardinal Kids will be providing mind-enhancing projects for their students as well.