News

Minimum day care services in town causing hardships

By Scott Wagar

07/30/2013

Local parents seeking day care in Bottineau are having difficulty in finding providers due to the fact that the 17 day cares in the city are so full they no longer have room to accept more children.

“There is a shortage of it, said Cindy Lagasse, a day care provider in Bottineau, member and spokesperson for the Bottineau Day Care Association (BDCA). “I just think people are not doing it any more because the state laws have changed so much and have become stricter.”

Lagasse added that perhaps another reason as to why there are fewer providers is because individuals start day cares and realize that it is just not for them.

“Young people think they can operate a day care, but find out it is a very difficult job,” Lagasse said. “It’s a hard career, you’re there eight to 10 hours a day with the children and they demand a lot from you. I love it, but it is just not for everyone.”

In the last year, Lagasse said the BDCA saw four day cares close its doors. With closures, parents are seeing difficulties in finding day cares in the local community, to the point some parents have had to leave their jobs or close a business because they are needed at home to care for their children.

Nancy Gallagher of Bottineau Social Services, stated that there are currently 17 day cares in Bottineau at the present moment, which include 12 licensed group providers that can care for more than seven children; two family providers, which can take up to seven children and three self-declared day care providers, which are not licensed but can watch up to five children.  
With a loss in the labor and business in town, attempts are being made to find day care providers, but the answer is not coming easy.

Bottineau’s local EDC Office, in association with Dakota College at Bottineau and Bottineau’s Head Start program, made an attempt to establish a day care center that would be located on the campus of Dakota College at Bottineau. However, financing a day care of this size has proven to be too much of a financial strain for the three entities, and it is currently on hold. Head Start has also pulled out of the project for the time being, because the national funded program has had its funding reduced to a point, forcing them to close its program in Bottineau this upcoming school year.

Lagassee stated that the BDCA would like to see the city assist in the shortage of day cares in Bottineau, like other North Dakota towns have recently done to bring individuals and businesses back into their workforce. The BDCA feels the city should start small and work up from there.

“We would like to see the city bring in a module home or turn a rental home into a day care,” she said. “They could start with 20 children and go from there to build something bigger if that works out.

“I really wish there is something the city can do because Bottineau is really in need of day care,” she added.