When a couple finds out they're pregnant, one would think the first phone call would be to a family member or friend.
Instead, expectant parents have been phoning childcare facilities to get on waitlists for their unborn child.
That's according to Molly Robinson, owner and director of the newly opened Farmhouse Early Learning and Development in Bloomington.
"The first phone call right now is to a childcare provider to make sure that you get on a waitlist and hope that you secure a spot before you need to return to work," Robinson said.
Childcare across the nation and in McLean County has seen better days. Recent waves of closures, affordability concerns, months-long waitlists and staffing shortages are among today's challenges.
A new law aims to curtail some of those barriers.
House Bill 3595 creates a new state agency streamlining services currently spread across the Department of Human Services, the Illinois State Board of Education and the Department of Children and Family Services. Gov. JB Pritzker signed the legislation into law on June 26.
The Illinois Department of Early Childhood officially took over July 1 as the agency in charge of programs ranging from home visits for newborns to licensing and regulating childcare facilities.
The agency, known as IDEC, now oversees the Child Care Assistance Program [CCAP], home visiting, Early Intervention, Head Start, preschool funding and child care licensing — all programs that used to sit in three separate departments.
For families and providers in McLean County, the question is whether that reshuffling changes anything on the ground.
3,000 spots for 10,000 kids
McLean County is home to about 10,858 children under 5, according to the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map [IECAM].
The county has 24 licensed child care centers with a combined capacity of roughly 3,100 children, plus 70 licensed in-home providers who can serve about 720 more, Robinson said.
Three centers closed abruptly at the end of last year, shrinking a system that was already stretched thin.
"Even when we combine all those available licensed childcare slots, we still fall significantly short of meeting those needs of the families in our communities," Robinson said.
Melissa Breeden sees the same strain from a regional vantage point as regional council manager for Birth to Five Illinois in Region 17 that covers McLean, Logan, Livingston and DeWitt counties.
"Almost all of the providers out there in the community are not fully staffed," Breeden said. "So then you'll see things like classrooms being closed and programmatic changes that do affect employees' ability to work."
Breeden pointed to another factor shrinking capacity: in-home providers retiring, with no one lined up to replace them.
"In record numbers, there's in-home providers that have retired, and they roll off and then there's not a dedicated provider to kind of step into that role," Breeden said. "So then you're seeing less options throughout the community."
A new report by Birth to Five pointed to some bright spots, including the addition of Robinson's Farmhouse center in Bloomington. But there's still far more children who need childcare than those who have spots.
Joe Falcinelli is a council member of Birth to Five Illinois who parents one of his own at home. He’s worked in the childcare sector for just under seven years.
The main reason he entered childcare was to secure a spot for his own daughter.
“It was the only way I could afford to get her into daycare,” Falcinelli said. “I don't think we could have been able to afford it otherwise and so it was kind of a, you know, two birds one stone sort of situation.”
Why the math doesn't work for providers, either
It would be easy to assume a center charging $83 a day for infant and toddler care — the current rate at the Farmhouse — turns a healthy profit. Robinson said that's wrong.
"People sit there and do the numbers," she said. "And they're like, 'Wow, you have a capacity of 100. You guys have to be rolling in the dough.' And it just simply is not the case."
Unlike most businesses, childcare doesn't get cheaper to run as it grows. Every additional child requires more staff. Every expansion requires more licensing, space and equipment — all paid for before a single new dollar of tuition arrives.
"The problem isn't that parents can't afford childcare," Robinson said. "It's that us as providers really can't afford to provide childcare at the price parents can afford."
As a parent, Falcinelli experiences those costs at a personal level. He describes affordability as one of the largest hurdles to tackle as a parent in the childcare realm — especially when determining the quality of care needed for his child.
“There's a catch-22 there. Like you want the best, but also it's really hard to afford almost $400 to $500 a week,” Falcinelli said. “You have to kind of decide and pick and choose what you're gonna do: Do you go to a school that may not have a great reputation, because they have better affordability?”
National childcare costs have climbed roughly 214% since 1990, outpacing income growth, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index analysis.
And that recent data puts childcare cost growth at around 5.2% a year — outpacing the current inflation rate of 4.2% nationally.
Meanwhile, Robinson said CCAP hasn't raised its reimbursement rates in five years. The program pays providers $64 a day for infants, $51 for toddlers and $43 for preschool-age children — well below the actual cost of care. At the Farmhouse, that gap runs as high as $30 a day per child.
The state approved an increase in the reimbursement rate for in-home providers beginning July 1. The change doesn't apply to childcare centers.
Robinson said families who qualify for CCAP are often the ones who need it most, and they're still on the hook for the difference.
"The families that are qualifying for childcare assistance can't afford childcare," Robinson said. "That's why they're on childcare assistance. And so us as centers are now having to say, 'Hey, we know that you have a copay, but you have to also pay an additional amount to meet the balance.'"
It's part of why Robinson pushes back on a strategy some employers propose: offering discounted tuition in exchange for being added to a "preferred provider" list.
"That 10% has to come from somewhere," Robinson said. "It comes out of my bottom line. And then that comes out of what I can pay my staff. And it comes out of the curriculum and the supplies.
“You're actually hindering the quality of care that I can provide, and still weakening the system that's already broken within our childcare industry."
Staffing shortages ripple into every industry
Robinson said background checks for new hires now take six to eight weeks, up from five to 10 business days five years ago. In the meantime, classrooms sit short-staffed or close.
"We have children who need care, but we often don't have the staff to open another classroom," she said. "We aren't turning families away because we don't want to serve them. We are turning them away because we can't compromise the safety or quality of care that we provide."
When a classroom closes, the effects show up almost immediately in the local workforce. Robinson recalled a center that had to call parents to say a room was shutting down for the day — meaning some of those parents couldn't go to work.
"So you've lost how many employees from one center that can't go into work because there's a classroom closed." she said. "It's because we can't retain our staff members. We can't staff our buildings with what we're paying them because of the cost to have more hands on deck in those classrooms."
Wages are part of the problem. Lead teachers at the Farmhouse must hold a degree or at least 60 hours of coursework. Robinson said the national median wage for child care workers is around $32,000 a year — on par with entry-level fast food wages despite those credentials.
"We are competing with McDonald's down the street," she said, "that are starting their high school employees out at the same hourly wage as our teachers that are doing all of the things within the classrooms, with a degree."
Falcinelli, both a parent and childcare worker, wishes that teachers like himself could get paid more.
“I had 16 children's lives in my hand,” Falcinelli said. “I've literally had to give the Heimlich maneuver and save children before, and I'm making $16.75 [an hour].”
Falcinelli said many childcare workers are in that sector purely out of love for what they do, regardless of pay.
“We do love it,” Falcinelli said. “The teachers care about these kids deeply, but it's hard when it's like everything feels against you.”
Robinson said the ripple effect goes well beyond child care.
"When childcare collapses, businesses can't get workers to where they need to go," she said. "We are the workforce behind the workforce. We are essential infrastructure in our community. It's just that we aren't recognized as such."
Falcinell also thinks recognition is minimum.
“There's just not enough drive to care, even though it's such an important time in their life.”
Will the new Department of Early Childhood make a difference?
Breeden spoke with WGLT July 2, the day after the new statewide department launched, and called the timing significant. She cited research suggesting early childhood investment yields a strong return, and said she doesn't understand why more employers aren't already involved.
"Everyone needs to be at the table and to have these conversations," Breeden said. "Families, providers — they're burned out. We need fresh ideas. We need new partnerships."
Falcinelli agreed that early childhood interventions are some of the most vital times for development in a human being’s life — especially from ages one through five.
“You're creating all those synapses in the brain, and it's just a really important time,” he said. “Yet, we don't give enough.”
Robinson said consolidating background checks, CCAP and licensing under one agency should ease the miscommunication that has cost her center time and money. But she stopped short of calling it a fix.
"It has the potential to be what we need to see," Robinson said. "I think that people also think what goes into effect as of today is going to automatically fix and resolve all of our issues that we are seeing. That's just simply not possible. It is a great start, but it's not going to happen overnight."
Asked what's still missing from the law establishing the department, Robinson didn't hesitate: Funding.
She pointed to her own center's experience with the state's Smart Start Workforce Grant, meant to help providers meet a new wage floor. The Farmhouse met every requirement — it accepts CCAP and pays teachers at or above the wage floor — but hadn't been open long enough to reach the required CCAP enrollment percentage, so it missed the cutoff for the first funding round.
By the time Farmhouse would have qualified, the money had run out.
"We didn't qualify for that first round. ...It is up in the air whether that will change for round three and round four. But as of right now ... we don't receive it. And that's an extra $45,000 per quarter that goes to our salaries for our staff," Robinson said.
"You can be doing all the things," she said, "but not qualify for the funding that goes into it."
IDEC Secretary Teresa Ramos struck a similar note of caution. Capitol News Illinois reported that Ramos described the rollout as a gradual transition rather than an abrupt switch, with rulemaking on the licensing overhaul continuing over the next year.
What Livingston did that McLean hasn't — yet
If there's a live model for what local collaboration can look like, it's not in McLean County. It's next door, in Livingston County.
In the most recent Birth to Five Illinois region 17 report, Breeden said Livingston was the first community in the region to receive a Birth to Five Illinois collaboration planning grant — $12,500 that brought together elected officials, the county health department and community members to address a childcare desert. The group recently used the money to host a forum for someone interested in entering the early childhood field, walking them through what it actually takes to open a program.
"It was just so beautiful to watch," Breeden said. "Imagine having that upfront, before you even step into that field, and have a great understanding of what those steps even look like."
McLean County doesn't have an equivalent yet. Breeden said conversations are happening — she mentioned recent meetings involving Heartland Community College and the YWCA of McLean County — but nothing has formally coalesced the way it has in Livingston County.
"There are a lot of childcare programs out there. There are some amazing nonprofits," she said. "I just highly encourage us to solidify that collaboration so that we can continue to move the needle."
What employers can do now
Robinson isn't waiting on Springfield to close the funding gap.
One model already in use at the Farmhouse: Employers pay upfront to reserve a set number of openings for their workforce, guaranteeing access before a need arises. If a slot goes unused, the center keeps the reservation fee. If it's used, the employer is reimbursed against the family's tuition.
"It gives us instant working capital," Robinson said. "They're not out anything — they're getting their money back."
She's also watching other states test a three-way cost-share model, splitting the cost of care between the state, the employer and the family — a structure that would let providers raise tuition to match the true cost of care without passing the full increase to parents.
Breeden described another solution within a local business that recently agreed to donate mulch to a childcare provider, saving it thousands of dollars.
"It doesn't always have to be money," Breeden said. "It could be services. ... It could be offering training expertise."
Both women, independently, described the same root problem in nearly identical terms.
Robinson has said elsewhere that the industry's funding model "has been broken" for years — pointing to stagnant CCAP rates, rising costs and thin margins as evidence the system can't sustain itself as currently built.
Breeden agrees.
"I think at this point ... we've talked about the childcare crisis for such a long time, and it is nationwide," Breeden said. "It's not just the state of Illinois, but at this point we do need to take action."
And as a parent, Falcinelli echoes those same concerns.
“That's the problem,” he said. “If it were less of a business and they weren't trying to make so much money all the time, maybe they could pay their teachers more and they could provide a better service.”
The cost of a promotion
Breeden said if she had five minutes with lawmakers, she'd start with one story.
As a former childcare director, she said, the same scene played out a few times a year: An employee receiving CCAP assistance would get a raise or promotion, then come back asking for a letter documenting how that extra income would affect their subsidy.
"That should be exciting for anybody," Breeden said. "But instead, I was having parents and these employees come to me asking if I could write a letter about how that additional money would impact their child care assistance, their tuition, their way of life."
Breeden said she's heard versions of the same story across all four counties in her region.
"What is that saying to our younger generation, our future workforce?" she said. "That mom, dad, caregiver can't be excited and celebrate a promotion."
If Falcinelli had his five minutes of time with lawmakers, he said he’d stress the importance of just how serious childcare really is in our workforce — and how dire funding is.
“The money should be worth it,” he said. “To put up with some of the stress that is involved, and also the stress on top of dealing with the parents — because these are their kids. These are their babies.”
Where that leaves McLean County
IDEC is two weeks old. The licensing overhaul it's built on won't be fully in place for another year.
Robinson said she's still hoping local employers step in before the state finishes writing its rules.
"Illinois is losing $6.2 billion a year from this childcare crisis," she said. "The more that we invest into high-quality child care, the less likely those systems fail ... until we really start stepping up and going, 'Let's just try that solution,' and doing it, we're going to continue to see our doors closed."
When Falcinelli recalled working at a childcare center known as Scribbles, he said excited parents would announce the news to him on their pregnancies.
“Congratulations, that's really great,” Falcinelli would say… immediately followed by, “Go to the office and get on the waitlist because if you don't get on there now, you might not have a spot.”
So for now in McLean County, the waitlist is still the first call new parents make.
“There's a lot of hurdles still left to go,” Falcinelli said.
