Scores of ideas about how the Austin area can address its child care shortage were aired during a town hall meeting on Monday. The group will be invited back for a meeting on Dec. 11 to continue its process, finalize strategies to help existing providers, and try to define additional options.

“By the end of the year, we will publish a community solution action plan,” said Jeff Andrews, a business development specialist for First Children’s Finance, who has been guiding the community on analyzing child care needs in the community.

The almost-three-hour meeting drew over 100 providers, parents, and community leaders to the meeting at the Hormel Historic Home, concerned about the impact of a shortage — although there were some in attendance who did not believe there was a shortage, but rather, a lack of communication about where the open slots were in the community.

A group of local agencies banded together to address the problem, said Diane Baker, the executive director of United Way of Mower County. The group applied and received help from First Children’s Finance, a Minneapolis-based agency that could provide “structure and bring people together,” she said.

Data from 900 respondents to three surveys was used to analyze how short the Austin area was in child care slots.

That data showed the city of Austin to be short just over 800 openings, with a zip code and school analysis yielding a 1,370-slot shortage in an area roughly covering Mower County and a few portions of Freeborn County, including Albert Lea.

Andrews said perception is different between parents and providers. While 52 percent of providers believe there is good availability of child care, only 8 percent of the community believes it to be good; 41 percent in the community believe availability to be poor, while no providers thought the availability was poor, according to the survey.

Families, according to the surveys, found safety and a healthy environment a top priority; licensure second; and an educational curriculum third. They also want the daycare to be conveniently located with a provider who has a high level of education; that the provider has received high marks from Parent Aware, a rating system to determine whether a provider is current on best practices. And, many want the provider to be someone they know.

Providers had a different perception of child care. According to the survey almost 50 percent of providers report they make less than $8 an hour; rates range from $125 to $140 a week for family daycare; center care charges range from $150 to $197 a week.

Survey results showed a definite link between finding child care and the local economy. Data said 22 percent of respondents said they withdrew from the workforce or declined employment due to lack of child care arrangements. Forty percent said they had been absent from work due to lack of child care; 30 percent said they could not work overtime due to provider hours; another 28 percent said they were late for work because of child care challenges. Still another 20 percent said they were unable to work another shift due to child care needs.

But some weren’t convinced that a shortage actually exists. Angie Hughson, a provider for 19 years, said she had contacted every licensed provider in Austin and found spots available in many of them. While she said there was a shortage for infant and toddler placements — whose numbers are restricted in child care due to their age — overall, there were plenty of openings in Austin, if people only knew about them.

She added there were some good ideas that sprang from the evening’s conversation. She liked the small group discussion afterward. She said she favored the idea for an information website “that everyone could access,” both providers and parents, that provided information about openings, where the homes were located, and other details about the provider and the operation.

Hughson also said after discussing cultural issues regarding child care, she thought having a mentoring group to help other cultures learn about local child cares and “maybe even help them with licensing so they can have their own child cares,” she said.

She did say, however, the provider fees cited in the survey “aren’t anywhere near what I get paid; and the problem is, if they (parents) see that and think they can’t afford that, they won’t look. But I don’t charge anywhere near that.”

Joan Larson, a provider for 30 years, agreed with the need for an information hub, and said communication about openings had changed over the years. For instance, some businesses would contact providers if they had an employee looking for child care, “but that doesn’t happen anymore,” she said.

She understood that parents working on second and third shifts have a hard time with child care. She said in those cases, it would be OK if a business provided an in-business child care operation for those shifts. But for the first shift, there was plenty of openings elsewhere, she said.

Right now, she added, she has five openings in her in-home daycare.

Other providers said they had heard of another center opening in the community, which would further depress their ability to attract children. Hughson said she knows of two providers who are closing down because they cannot find children to fill slots.

Hughson wants to see a better image of in-home providers portrayed in the community; a video shown ahead of the presentation Monday put those providers in a bad light, she said.

“If we did some of the things they portrayed in the video, we would be shut down,” she said.

Andrews said that he had not heard of a center opening in the community.

He added that while not everyone attending might have liked what they heard, “It was a good evening … but an evening based in reality,” citing survey results.

“It is not the intent of the FCF to take away what already exists today,” he said. “Our only intent is to grow quality child care.”

He added that FCF history has shown that, in fact, a new center might not be the best answer for a community, depending on a lot of factors unique to each community. While it might be the answer for some, it might not be for others and its FCF’s job to point a community in the right direction.

Other survey highlights

Community Factors

•New immigrant population looking for culturally-appropriate care.

•More dual-working parents.

•More jobs, more employees needing daycare.

What Parents Want

•Parents want more centers, specialized offerings, drop-in care/sick care, quality food/organics, curriculum/and increased knowledge of how important quality options are.

•Hard for parents to adjust when providers are not open.

•Not enough infant and toddler care available.

•Lack of child care for workers of second and third shifts.

•Cost of child care is high for parents.

What Providers Feel

•Difficulty for family providers, due to regulations.

•Low pay and no benefits.

•Long hours, no flexibility.

•Lack of respect and understanding of the business and a difficult career.

•Cost of delivering child care is high.