Cy-Fair Edition | September 2022

The average annual wage for child care workers in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area increased by 33.6% in the last decade. Local child care center operations said providing adequate pay for their staff can be a challenge. METRO CHILD CARE WAGES

of the strongest returns on investment of any type of public program,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement. “Those positive effects also endure throughout the child’s life.” Increasing costs As of October 2020, the average cost of infant care in Texas was $777 per month, or $9,324 annually—7.8% more expensive than the annual in-state tui- tion for a four-year public college in Texas, according to the EPI. Comparatively, Brightwheel, a child care management software company, reported June 8 the average price of child care in the Houston region as $1,087 monthly. The group reported an 8% average increase in prices for child care between 2021 and 2022. However,

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the cost of paying her employees fairly and not pricing out the parents who rely on her. “So the main concern for us is keep- ing these children healthy, happy and safe,” Fox said. “We just are seriously considering what we’re going to do price wise right now because you don’t want to price yourself to a point where the parents can’t afford to bring their children here or even have day care.” On June 14, the Harris County Com- missioners Court approved the use of $48 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for a new child care and early childhood development program that aims to increase the accessibility of child care in Harris County by 10%. According

$25,000

$20,000

$15,000

+33.6 % from 2010-21

$10,000

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Brightwheel r epo r t ed Cy-Fair ZIP code 77064 as one of the most afford- able in the metropoli- tan area with an average mo n t h l y cost of $495. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics’ con- sumer price i n d e x — a measure of the average change in

SOURCE: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

to a June 13 news release, the program will be a three-year pilot to create more child care options for children age 3 and younger in Harris County communities. Funds will also be allo- cated to pro- vide child care workers with better wages and to help child care cen- ters recover from pandem- ic-induced

“I HAVE STAFF THAT HAVEN’T HAD RAISES IN A WHILE AND THEY NEED THEM, SO THAT’S WHAT I’M SLOWLY DOING IS BOOSTING [RATES] BECAUSE I WANT TO TAKE CARE OF THE STAFF.”

raising prices to provide her staff with adequate pay. “If every room was at capacity where we’re supposed to be we would be fine,” Fox said. “But right now because we’re not at capacity, but I then have to consider salaries. I have staff that hav- en’t had raises in a while and they need them, so that’s what I’m slowly doing is boosting [rates] because I want to take care of the staff.” While parents are spending more on child care than they were two years ago, child care centers are also facing higher costs and other industry issues related to the economic downturn. Satish Kalra, founder of Montessori Preschool, which has three locations in Cy-Fair, said while some supply costs have gone up, his business has been hit harder by other costs. “The biggest cost in the center besides all others is the real estate cost and the staff costs,” he said. As for real estate costs, Satish Kalra said child care centers are required to have a minimum of 30 square feet per

child. This means a facility aiming to hold 100 children would require at least 3,000 square feet—excluding office space, entryways and playgrounds— making renting or owning a facility costly in the current real estate market. About 21% of child care centers in Texas had closed due to financial hardships induced by the pandemic as of September 2021, said Kim Kof- ron, the director of early childhood education with Texas-based non- profit Children at Risk. Kofron said these closures further exacerbated child care deserts, or ZIP codes with fewer than 36 child care seats per 100 children of working parents. According to data from the Center for American Progress, there is an adequate supply of child care centers in the southeast portion of Cy-Fair. However, the more recently devel- oped neighborhoods in northwest Cy-Fair do not yet have sufficient cen- ters to meet the needs of families. Kevin Kalra, director of innovation and global strategy for Montessori

HELEN FOX, OWNER OF THE HONEY TREE PRESCHOOL

A September 2021 NAEYC survey reported:

of child care centers in Texas saw staffing shortages. 86%

of those surveyed identified wages as the main recruitment challenge. 79%

prices—the cost for day care and pre- school rose 3.2% nationally from May 2021 to May 2022. Fox said she is proud of not raising her prices in almost six years but is now having to look at incrementally

hardships. County officials said once a request for proposal is awarded, the program will come back to commis- sioners for approval. “Early childhood programs have one

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