Monday, May 11, marks the 5th annual National Day Without Child Care.

Last year, organizers say more than 1,000 providers in 43 states closed their doors to protest low wages and demand more access to affordable, quality care.

But for many families, the struggle isn't just one day.

According to the First Five Years Fund, a national early childhood advocacy organization, 28% of working families with young children in the U.S.

cannot reasonably access the care they want or need.

Here in Nevada, that number jumps to 66%, the highest in the country.

And at a recent interim legislative hearing, one parent explained what that looks like.

-As a parent of a young child and one with special needs, I've experienced how disconnected and confusing our early childhood programs can be.

Every service has its own process, its own application, and its own timeline.

So when we're trying to support young children, especially during their most important developmental years, navigating all of that alone becomes overwhelming.

Families like mine often spend more time trying to find help rather than actually receiving it.

-And that challenge has a price tag.

The First Five Years Fund estimates Nevada loses about $1.5 billion each year in earnings and productivity because families can't find or afford quality child care.

So why is Nevada coming up short, and what would it take to fix it?

Joining us now, Elisa Cafferata, Executive Director of the Children's Advocacy Alliance; Jordan Sommaggio, CEO of the YMCA of Southern Nevada; Nevada Assembly Woman Erica Mosca, representing District 14; and Deetra Stewart, President of the Family Child Care Association of Nevada and operator of a licensed home-based child care program in North Las Vegas.

Thank you all for joining us.

Let's start out with that question: Why is Nevada coming up short in the child care space?

Deetra, you told me you've been in child care in Nevada for more than 10 years.

What do you think?

(Deetra Stewart) Well, one of the things that is continuing to change is the cost of child care.

It is basically a federally funded view that is going on, and we're just-- Nevada just is not keeping up with the cost of child care.

We have wages that are going up.

We have the licensing is going up.

It just costs much more today to fund the child care industry.

-And are wages going up for early child care educators, because that's a complaint of not having enough workforce is that they're not getting paid very much.

Who can give me kind of an idea of what these people are making?

(Elisa Cafferata) I think that it's true that they are some of the lowest paid workers in, in the state.

They make, on average, what somebody at a fast food restaurant or in a retail setting makes.

And because of the cost of the business of doing child care is really what puts that pressure on those folks.

But what's important for families to understand is those front-line early childhood workers are the ones who are delivering the quality experiences.

We know you know, young brains, those first three years are foundational for a lifetime of growing and thriving.

And what makes that possible is those repeated positive experiences with parents and family but also those early childhood educators.

So we need to find a way.

And lots of other states have found ways to dedicate funds and create programs around paying these workers more.

How much do other states rely on federal funding compared to Nevada?

-I think Nevada is in the unfortunate club of states that does not supplement that federal child care subsidy grant with state dollars.

Over the years, we have, you know, done one-time shots.

Like, we did $10 million about five years ago.

We had a lot more money during covid, but since those covid dollars have stopped coming into the state, we've really pulled back on the support we provide to families in Nevada.

-Assemblywoman, funding, that's your alley.

(Erica Mosca) Yes.

And first I'd say, you know, Deetra is really the hero, right, when it comes to childcare, when it comes to who's actually doing the work.

So thank you.

I know we'll hear about your program later, too, as well.

And so we know that young minds are the most important, as you said.

And we just have to make a decision in Nevada that we care about our workers, we care about our young learners, and that we want to invest.

We have to make a decision.

I know not everybody likes taxes, but that's the reality of some sort of revenue that would then pay for this.

And it's also the will.

You talked about the ROI, how people are not able to work, right, if they don't have childcare.

And so we have to make sure we change the will of the people out there to understand.

Even if you don't have kids, even if your kids are grown, it impacts you, it impacts our community, and it impacts our state.

-Am I hearing you correctly that the only way to fund early childhood education in Nevada is by raising taxes?

-We need more revenue in the state for a lot of things.

I think this is a very important discussion, but we also pay for people who have Medicaid, we pay for the education budget, we pay for the 100-year-old school in White Pine.

And so the state funds pay for every social service, basically in Nevada, other than our county and our local funds.

And so I don't think the only answer is more revenue, but it has to be part of the conversation.

-Jordan, what are your ideas on revenue generation?

(Jordan Sommaggio) I think there are baby steps that we can take today.

And what I mean by baby steps is there are pots of hundreds of millions of dollars left on the table that the State has leveraged in the past to fund projects that it prioritizes.

In the last a couple legislative sessions ago, I think it was 2023, the State was able to find about $100 million towards homelessness.

So there is certainly a revenue shortage in given our population, the lack of our diverse economy, but there are pots of funding that we can start to leverage today.

Is $100 million the end-all be-all?

No.

But, gosh, that could really put a dent in this crisis.

-That project you're talking about is Campus for Hope, and then that also had funding from the private sector, a lot of the hotels and casinos.

Has there been any talk of them getting involved in funding?

Well, I guess that's actually probably been talked about for a long time, getting them involved in funding K-12 education, which is projected to have about $160 million shortfall compared to what was predicted, I think last year.

Okay.

That's a hard one, right?

What would it take to change the model and have state funding even go to early childhood education for three, four, and pre-K?

-I would say, in my opinion-- So I was an educator before this.

I was in the classroom in East Las Vegas.

I did start and run a nonprofit for a long time.

So my view is not only from the political landscape but also on the ground.

I have never heard so much talk about pre-K child care, about a mixed model.

I think even getting people to understand pre-K is different from home-based child care, is different from center child care, that we need all of it.

I don't think I've ever heard so much conversation.

So like anything, it's education, it's then organizing and getting people excited and involved, and then showing them how it impacts them.

I think the more we can show-- that's why Monday is so important.

All of our employers are going to miss out if folks don't have child care.

And that impacts our state budget, it impacts all around.

So I think we have to continue to have these conversations, make sure everyone's at the table, and I think next session really do something about it.

-And I was sorry.

I was going to add a little bit to that.

So now there are pilot programs that home-based providers now have Nevada pre-K.

They have Head Start in their home.

And we do want to offer parents the opportunity to have choice.

Everyone does not want to have their two-month-old in a school environment, right?

And so that's where home-based providers come in.

And so that is, it's essential that we are part of the conversation.

-Are there any myths surrounding home-based child care that you want to address here?

-Well, one of the most common myths are we're babysitters or that maybe we're not evaluated and we're not assessed often enough.

But we have the program, QRIS, which is the Quality Rating Improvement System.

And so people are coming into our homes all the time assessing us.

Whether it be Fire, Health, QRIS, the Department of Ed, we are constantly being observed to make sure that our programs are high quality, and the high quality really stems from even what the Governor has said that, you know, he really wants to make sure that we all are doing, right, whether it be home based, whether it be Head Start, whether it be in the CCSD.

So we just wanted to make sure that you all know that high quality is going on.

We're not babysitters anymore, right?

-And that's for organizations like yours that have applied to be part of the QRIS program, but there are others that are not part of that?

-Absolutely.

And we-- Again, we have the Family Child Care Association of Nevada, and we are stepping in places where you may not know about.

And we are actually going to those providers, right, and letting them know that we are available there to help them.

You can become licensed.

It has been very difficult in the past to become licensed.

But as we represent providers, that that conversation is now coming out that we want to make it easier for people to become licensed.

Because if you have individuals taking care of children that aren't licensed, it could be all bad.

-The Nevada pre-K system that we're talking about, it does come with a little bit of difficulties recently, right, Elisa, as far as reimbursement?

What is your take on that program?

-So I don't know if the reimbursement challenges are in the pre-K or in the child care subsidy program, which is separate from the pre-K piece.

-Okay.

-So the-- There is-- The federal government money that we talk about that supports child care is a subsidy program for parents to go out and enroll their children in child care.

That is, it's mostly federal money.

It's administered through the state, and that program actually had been done in partnership with some nonprofits, and then the State pulled it back after covid.

So in that transition, there have been some real challenges in getting those reimbursement payments out to the child care providers.

It is improving, but it's always sort of challenging to get a state program to innovate.

And that's a huge problem to the child care businesses, because they, at the end of the day, they are businesses.

They have to pay their employees and buy their supplies.

So if they're waiting six weeks or, in some cases, months to get paid back, that's a challenge.

But the State has sort of focused on improving that, and we're still in conversations about that.

-We're still in conversation about that, because there's a lot of challenges that happen.

We just recently had a conversation with one of the partners, and it's-- and it is communication, right?

It is communication.

But at the end of the day, a child care provider still has to pay their mortgage, they still have to pay their staff, and parents are really relying on us.

-Can you give some background to that, too?

Because this involves funding from, I believe, Urban League that was then taken over by the State.

What's the background on that, Assemblywoman?

-Yeah.

And I think I would agree, communication, I think, is the most important part so people are on the same page.

There are a couple things I would mention here.

This is actually an example that I always give of what it's like to be a legislator.

The first time anyone has ever looked up my address and come to my home and knocked on my door to complain about something, which was actually a little scary, was a child care center that was not being paid on time, had not been paid for a really long time.

And it was through the nonprofit provider, so I immediately escalated that up of, What's this issue here?

Then I found there was one in my district that also hadn't been paid.

And so to the State's credit, what they did was they looked into it, and they did find fraud.

And that is actually why we cut the ties with the nonprofit provider.

So you have that happening, and then you have this issue that, from the federal government, there's way less money coming into the state that we all know about.

And the State decided we're going to now administer it because this happened by having this pass-through.

And what had happened, and what I would say is our fault as a legislature or as a state, is we did not give them more funds to then say we're going to implement a program through the state, which again comes to this revenue conversation, right?

What funds is that going to come from when we have less funds?

And so I think they are trying their best.

They know communication.

They know they need to get back to people.

I would say, too, as a foster parent, I know from the other side what it's like to sign the time cards, to make sure the time sheets are in, and that my center is getting paid.

And so I see both sides.

But the biggest thing I know is there's a lot of people care about this issue and that they're going to continue to improve on it.

-I want to move to the topic of HOAs and home-based child care programs.

You were part of some legislation last session that would have prevented HOAs from preventing people having home-based child care programs, whether they own the house or are a tenant.

That got to the Governor and he vetoed it.

He said it "undermines the foundational principles of homeowners associations.

HOAs exist to preserve a consistent and predictable living environment by allowing residents to agree in advance to a shared set of rules and community standards."

How do you combat that next session?

-Well, one of the first thing, one of the first things that I would say, because I live in an HOA, right?

And actually my HOA, it's a good HOA, and it does exactly those things that you said.

But we at least need this to come to the table so that we can make some adjustments, because, once again, if we don't have child cares in our, in our homes, then now we're not allowing parents to have choice.

And so the HOAs, they are definitely there.

We understand regulations, but we have to make some changes in those regulations.

-And I think the thing about the HOAs is that in Las Vegas, pretty much all new construction is included in an HOA.

So you're really precluding this choice that parents have.

And most parents, especially for their youngest children, want to have them in a home setting.

So we just need to have this option.

And they still can have regulations and rules around it, but there would be zero home-based care.

And home-based care is really three, four kids.

I mean, we're not talking about 20, you know, trucks pulling up to your house and you're running a business out of it.

So I think there's room to have the conversation.

-Assemblywoman, any ideas on how to get the Governor's approval?

-Because I, for me, it's this "will and values" question, right?

What are we valuing, the HOAs' opportunity to do what they want to do, or is it child care?

And so the legislature passed the bill.

We, as a majority, said we know this is important, we believe in it, and it got vetoed.

And so we need to do whatever we can to show that it's about choice.

It's about families being able to work and that it's going to help all Nevadans.

-Last question for Jordan.

What is at stake?

What are the consequences if Nevadans, young children, continue to not have access to quality and affordable child care?

-Gosh, I-- Let me wrap it up with this: A governor's report a couple of years ago found that 7 in 10 families in our state can't access licensed child care and that nearly half of employers are saying that this is the number one reason they cannot recruit and retain staff.

It's forcing tens of thousands of parents to leave the workforce entirely, which is costing our economy over a billion dollars each year.

So when we're talking about building facilities and taking $100 million, imagine that investment, that we can 10-times that investment in just a single year.

When kids don't have access to child care during these early years, zero to five, during those early years is when 90% of a child's brain is developed.

So we're setting our kids up to fail.

We're sending them into kindergarten already years behind, and so we shouldn't be surprised that our education system consistently ranks in the bottom five in the country.

They-- Children who attend high-quality programs are five times more likely to own a home.

They earn 14% higher earnings.

They're half as likely to engage in crime or need welfare or affordable housing.

This is the solution to many of the issues that we talk about every single day, and we just need to start earlier.

-That was excellent.

Thank you so much.

You could not have said it better.

And the parents are going to keep their children at home if they don't trust, if they don't trust our decision, our choices.

And they get to trust, they get to trust us.

It's a privilege, right?

And you get to choose.

You get to choose if you want your child to be in a home-base, if you want your child to be in a center, if you want your child to be with a nanny.

It's your choice.

-Or if you choose to not work because you choose to stay at home with your child.

-Sure.

-Let's get this group back together at some point.

Thank you all for joining us.