Ames City Council reviewed a memo from Iowa State University’s Child Care Task Force, as Ames continues to face a demand for child care services, during the council meeting Wednesday night.

This was in preparation for the Analysis of Social Services Evaluation Team (ASSET) process for the next budget cycle. 

The memo consisted of multiple short- and long-term recommendations. 

Short-term recommendations included repurposing the current program space, building off the result of the initial Iowa State University Student Experience Survey, leading efforts to outline a flexible work program for staff and seeking funding to support scholarships for student parents and space suitable for infant and toddler programs.

Long-term recommendations included increasing subsidy for student child care, creating leadership committees to pursue a partnership for expanding child care accessibility and leveraging partnerships with organizations such as United Way and the Chamber of Commerce.

The task force is looking to transition the comfort zone of the daycare center to an infant or toddler room to help address the waiting list the University Child Care facility is facing as part of these recommendations.

The comfort zone is a daycare service for mildly ill children provided at University Child Care. In the comfort zone, a nurse is required to be available if there is a child or children in that room who are ill. According to Deb Schildroth, assistant city manager and ASSET Rep., the comfort zone is not heavily utilized. This would help address the waiting list University Child Care is facing. 

University Child Care reached out to ASSET funders about the process of reallocating funds to make the transition from the comfort zone to transition to another level of child care. The request would come within the next fiscal year and would amount to $11,000, Schildroth said. 

Prior to the pandemic, University Child Care faced issues with capacity. Many of the daycare agencies had a waiting list but did not have the funds to expand on space and hire additional staff.

Tim Gartin, 2nd Ward Rep., said he thinks it is significant that the task force was prepared before COVID-19 and questioned the fluctuation of the need for child care due to the pandemic. 

“With the pandemic, there have been openings created within the daycare agencies, and that could be due to the changes in school schedules, family households, work schedules and maybe just a preference to keep kids at home,” Schildroth said.

Even though the pandemic has made enrollment numbers vary, Schildroth said enrollment numbers could increase again as parents plan for the upcoming school year.  

“I think we will eventually return to that issue [of meeting capacity] and that is part of what this stakeholder group will need to be looking at so we can plan for the future,” Schildroth said.

Some parents are choosing to keep their children at home and do virtual learning, according to Schildroth. Programs such The Boys and Girls Club and Campfire, which typically serves youth, offered supervision or day club options for children to attend when they are needing some virtual learning. Schildroth said these entities should be applauded for stepping up during this time. 

“It is all kind of tossed up at this point in time, but we are hoping to get more of a handle on what these agencies are looking at, what they are doing with their services as we continue through the pandemic and what they are planning for the end of coming months,” Schildroth said.

The Ames City Council meeting can be viewed from the AmesChannel 12 YouTube page.