Alaska is in the midst of a childcare crisis, according to the Alaska Public Media. Since 2019, the state has seen roughly one in five licensed childcare facilities close.
Researchers estimate that Alaska is losing about $150 million from the economy annually due to parents missing work to watch their children. Since the start of summer, a task force convened by Governor Mike Dunleavy has been looking at ways to fix the state’s childcare sector for both providers and families.
State Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg leads a task force and says that the group is close to finalizing its recommendations after hearing from multiple focus groups and childcare providers.
“I think what we’re hearing from providers is they are passionate about serving kids and they want to serve in a quality environments and what we hear from parents is that they lack access to that quality childcare,” says Hedburg.
Hedberg believes that one of the biggest problems in this situation is the background check process. There are some barriers within the licensing and then there’s recruitment and retention issues that play into every childhood sector.
“What are the things, if you wanna enter the childcare sector and you want to start a childcare center, what do you need? And so starting going through that licensing process, some of the barriers that we heard was around ‘what type of license should I apply for?’ So one of the recommendations is providing more technical assistance to potential employers that want to start their own childcare sector,” says Hedberg.
Between background checks and additional documentation, Hedberg says that this can really slow down the turn around time, which can discourage many childcare opportunities.
