DMPS' child care waitlist is 300 students long
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Photos: Courtesy of Nancy Henderson
A Des Moines teacher says the district's lack of available child care spaces is hurting staff members who are trying to balance work and caring for their own children as well.
Why it matters: Iowa has a shortage of 350,000 affordable child care spots, per a 2023 post by the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines.
- Those shortages force parents to make difficult decisions, such as paying high child care costs or stepping out of the workforce.
State of play: Nancy Henderson, a special education teacher at Ruby Van Meter, says she's struggled since 2022 to get her kids, ages 8 and 10, into Metro Kids Care, the district's after-school program.
- This month, she found they're 47th and 48th on the waiting list at Greenwood Elementary. When day care sign-ups opened on June 6 at noon this year, Henderson says she had to work and couldn't get an early slot.
- Now, she's practicing walking with her kids between home and school before she has to go in for professional development before the school year starts. Henderson says she can't choose other child care options because they don't bus kids from Greenwood or they're too costly.
- She says August is too late to inform teachers whether they got a spot or not.
How it works: Metro Kids Care is an after-school and summer program that's operated at schools across the district.
- Available spots are dependent on staffing levels at each site, according to an email from Phil Roeder, spokesperson for DMPS. Each site serves between 30 and 110 students.
- Spots are first-come, first-served, and while demand may exceed capacity, the district balances how many spots it opens with the cost of hiring staff and trying to avoid overstaffing, Roeder wrote. They follow the state's mandated student-to-staff ratios.
- The program is funded by the $70-$85 weekly tuition costs.
Flashback: In 2022, a lack of available staffing forced three Metro Kids Care sites to close, despite a waitlist of 200+ students, the Register reports.
By the numbers: For the 2024-25 school year, Metro Kids served 1,265 students at 21 sites.
- This year, the program expects 1,054 spaces, which could change based on staffing levels.
- The waitlist is 300 students long across 25 sites as of last Wednesday.
What they're saying: Last year, Henderson says her kids had to walk between home and school for several months because she couldn't leave her role at Ruby Van Meter to pick them up.
- That may continue until the waitlist declines this year.
- "No parent should ever be put in that position," Henderson wrote to the DMPS school board. "And no educator should be forced to choose between their job and their children's safety."