McLean County has seen at least four childcare providers close in the past year, amid a wave of nearly 40 closures tracked in a four-county region served by Birth to Five Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker says instability in the state’s childcare system was a contributing factor to why centers are closing.

During a campaign stop in Towanda, Pritzker said the state has been part of the problem, which is why he pushed a $250 million early childhood education expansion called Smart Start Illinois through the legislature in 2023. The initiative provides wage support for childcare workers and added more than 5,000 pre-K spots in areas of the state where childcare is lacking.

It hasn’t budged the childcare desert in nearby Livingston County, which according to Birth to Five does not have a single licensed childcare center. A recent tally indicated that McLean County has approximately 4,000 spots between childcare centers and in-home providers. The Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map lists the number of children under 5 in the county near 11,000.

Pritzker said the state has also overhauled how its childcare assistance voucher program pays providers. Rather than losing funding any day a child doesn’t show up, he said, providers can sign contracts with the state for a guaranteed base payment on top of per-child funding.

"The instability for childcare providers was really causing so many just to go under, so we changed the way it works," Pritzker said, referring to affordable childcare as a “parent’s rights issue.”

In an interview with WGLT, Pritzker noted the state’s efforts to being part of the solution, also pointing to the consolidated Department of Early Childhood, which combines functions previously split across multiple agencies.

But some providers say the rollout, designed to be slow and intentional, is prolonging the pain.

‘It’s the business model’

“When people ask you why the business model of childcare is broken, there is a whole long list of reasons,” said Liz German, president and CEO of YWCA McLean County. “It’s staffing shortages, it’s fire marshal requirements, it’s not enough reimbursement to serve and not enough people who can afford the private pay rate that we need to run childcare."

During a presentation to the Normal Township board, German said the childcare landscape in McLean County is likely to get worse before it gets better. YWCA serves kids 6 weeks old through 8th grade at its facility in Bloomington. The nonprofit also provides before- and after-school care in District 87 schools.

“In Illinois, we have seen pretty much the same reimbursement rates for about 15 years,” German said, referring to state subsidies to childcare centers who accept families who receive financial assistance.

When those reimbursement rates stay the same, with inflation and economic trends, German said, there is little childcare centers can do to remain financially solvent.

“It’s the business model; it’s not one person running a business poorly,” she said.

German said the childcare trends noted in a joint report released with the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council earlier this year are still happening.

“We have an increase in providers that cater to middle- and upper-class families,” German said. “We have seen the pandemic change the needs of parents. We have seen work-from-home options for people who have resources. Think office jobs, higher level professional salaries. Service industries did not see that shift.”

German said people who need childcare the most don’t have the resources to afford it. And programs designed to support families have major gaps, leaving some parents who would otherwise be eligible for subsidized rates to pay full price.

“Our childcare rate is the lowest in town, and it is still astronomically expensive,” German said.

At the YWCA, infants cost $325 a week.

“While that might sound expensive, we are $200 less than most providers in town,” she said. “It is the equivalent of sending a child to ISU for college—and that’s infant care.”

School-age kids can receive before- and after-school care from YWCA for about $100 a week.

Staffing

Hiring is another barrier. German said YWCA would have loved to hire childcare workers who lost their jobs when Milestones Early Learning Center and Preschool in Bloomington closed to be able to absorb more families into its programs.

“It actually takes longer for me to transfer a background check from Milestones to [YWCA] than it does for a brand-new person off the street,” she said. “Which makes no sense, because they’re already cleared in the system.”

German said it takes about six weeks to transfer staff, when parents often have about two weeks to find a new provider.

“This has happened every single time, and we know some parents aren’t finding other spots. Some parents are just quitting jobs. Some parents are sticking kids with people they shouldn’t be with,” German said. “We’re also losing people from the field every time there’s a closure, because they don’t want to wait six weeks to get a job.”

Moving background checks currently handled by the Department of Children and Family Services into the new Department of Early Childhood is meant to expedite wait times.

“They’ve outright told us they’re not even touching background checks for at least the first year,” German said. “So, we know it’s at least another year of this. And then we know whatever they do, it’ll probably take at least a year or two to actually figure it all out. Basically, we’re expecting it to get worse before it gets better—which, it really can’t get much worse.”

German said it took five months to transfer a background check for a teacher who moved to McLean County from out of state. YWCA paid her salary during the gap in order to retain the teacher, who worked there for two years and then moved to Chicago.

“Was that the best financial decision? Maybe not. She was a good teacher while we had her,” German said. “Those are the kinds of business decisions childcare centers are making.”

Bussing

For some families, transportation is yet another barrier. YWCA hasn’t been able to run its bus program bringing Unit 5 students for after-school care the past two years.

Normal Parks and Rec provides after-school care in eight Unit 5 elementary schools, at a cost of $385 per quarter. Spots are filled using a lottery system. A Town of Normal spokesperson said some sessions sell out and families can be put on a wait list. Low-income Town of Normal residents can apply for up to 50% fee assistance for after-school care, with a maximum benefit of $750 per child, per year.

Spokesperson Cathy Oloffson said the application guidelines are modeled on those used for free and reduced meal assistance in the schools.

The town stopped providing before-school care at elementary schools due to lack of enrollment. Unit 5 spokesperson Dayna Brown said “the issue was there was less than an hour of childcare offered” since drop off begins at 7:25 a.m. for a 7:45 a.m. start time. Unit 5 provides in-school care at the junior high level. Students can be dropped off at 7:20 a.m. and supervised for the hour before school starts.

For Unit 5 schools in Bloomington, the district partners with YMCA and Scribbles. Both have options for financial support.

YWCA has also suspended bus service it was providing for Heartland Head Start. It is still bussing kids enrolled in the special needs program from school to the YWCA for after-school care.

“They come from Unit 5 and District 87, and nobody will bus them to our location,” German said. “We used to have an after-school program for Unit 5 students at our building, and we used to provide the bussing. Over time, families couldn’t afford it and we got really low [enrollment]. Then we’re paying an astronomical amount for bussing. We had to make a decision to cut that.”

German said with more financial resources she’d consider bringing the program back, but “every piece of our childcare programming is taking a loss. So, we had to make some of those tough decisions.”

Being part of the solution

German said YWCA is taking a multi-pronged approach in seeking solutions for families and providers. They’ve collaborated with Illinois State University courses on innovation and marketing, exploring effective models in other cities and states.

They pitched the City of Bloomington, asking for help increasing pay for its childcare workers, who serve District 87 schools. German told WGLT its workers typically make between $17.50 and $20 per hour.

A potential partnership with Normal Township is aimed at creating a scholarship from its general assistance fund to support parents who, for example, can’t afford childcare but make just enough income they don’t qualify for aid. Another example: parents in alternative employment such as apprenticeships aren’t eligible for state subsidized childcare aid.

The YWCA has its own private scholarship fund. The potential collaboration would give them more resources for parent assistance.

“If you have somebody who, they’re a student and one of their classes gets cancelled, or their hours get cut at work, and they’re not considered full-time and lose their subsidy—we can help them navigate that challenge,” German said, noting stories of parents who turn down raises if it tips them over the threshold needed to qualify for aid.

The YWCA is also leading an alliance of stakeholders that periodically meets to discuss potential solutions and pilot ideas. Officials from the City of Bloomington, Town of Normal and McLean County have all expressed willingness to participate.

Interim Executive Director Tyler Cravens said the Economic Development Council will continue to be involved and take part as it relates to business retention and expansion. Cravens said he’s talked with current childcare centers as they try to remain open and will be pushing for incentives employers and providers can leverage.

The Smart Start Workforce Grant is one such incentive, but Pritzker said the state can only do so much without support from the federal government.

"If they’re gonna do what Donald Trump is doing to childcare right now, we’re not gonna be able to survive," he said. "We’re now gonna have to redouble our efforts, because two and a half more years of Donald Trump is not going to be good for parents with children."

The federal government does offer incentives, including a federal tax credit for employers who contribute to workers’ childcare costs. But President Trump has periodically batted around the idea of eliminating the Department of Education and has made various attempts to zero out Head Start, an early childhood program for economically disadvantaged youth which relies almost entirely on federal funding.

Craven said the EDC’s job is to make sure employers are leveraging available resources and advocating for additional local and state incentives. In a phone call with WGLT, he said childcare and housing are the top issues affecting economic development in Bloomington-Normal.

“We really want to tackle this and address this,” said German, “because we want this to be a place where people can come and afford to raise children.”