Letter: North Dakota child care system at its breaking point

The kid care disaster in North Dakota has been a difficulty lengthy earlier than the pandemic, so after I grew to become pregnant in 2020, we notified our daycare instantly to safe a spot. Our daycare couldn’t commit as a consequence of staffing shortages exacerbated by the pandemic, so I spent a lot of my maternity go away stressing about the potential for being pressured to stop a job that I cherished as a consequence of not having youngster care. Entry to reasonably priced youngster care is important for folks to stay within the workforce and to take care of high quality employment.

When my maternity go away ended, with a view to return to work, we needed to depend on our household for a number of weeks till we may get into daycare. Inside weeks of securing a spot, the daycare began having staffing shortages which resulted in school rooms closing each week, forcing my husband and I to overlook extra time at work.

Day-after-day, I see posts on social media from working mother and father determined to seek out care for his or her kids. These mother and father are attempting to return from go away, looking for earlier than/after college care, or are being notified their daycare is closing on quick discover (generally completely).

We’re at a breaking level and can’t delay this till the following legislative session.

We want actual innovation and funding to deal with this disaster. North Dakota’s youngsters, households, communities, employers, and financial system depend upon it. It’s important that North Dakota policymakers prioritize the success of high-quality youngster care packages and their workforce. We want motion now.

Jamie Lange lives in West Fargo.

This letter doesn’t essentially replicate the opinion of The Discussion board’s editorial board nor Discussion board possession.