TULSA, Okla. — United Women Empowerment, or WE, released the findings of a study on how the licensing process impacted childcare access.
“Many towns require businesses, including home day cares, to obtain an annual business license or permit. Cost and application process for these varied by location," said Wendy Doyle from UnitedWe.
One of their findings included how long it takes to go through paperwork.
“The amount of paperwork can be burdensome and can take hours of dedicated time to stay on top of," said Doyle.
Crystal Newsom is the owner of Purpose Learning Academy in Tulsa.
She said she had to be very diligent to get her daycare licensed.
“I would say if you really go hard, you can really get it done in about 30 to 60 days," said Newsom.
Still, she said the biggest obstacle for her was the amount of money needed to apply for licensing and open and maintain a daycare center.
“It would be great if we could get more funding. I think that’s what’s needed," she said. “To maintain a certain quality of staff, certain quality equipment, being able to pay your staff for their expertise- you don’t wanna just hire anybody.”
Newsom wants to make sure families have a place they can trust their children to learn and grow.
"A lot of daycares are just that- they’re babysitters," she said. "Here, we take pride in actually loving and caring for the children and giving them educational information they need to succeed.”
Newsom also said Tulsa is a bit of a daycare desert, with parents having to scrounge and look for places they feel comfortable leaving their children.
"We get calls every day. We're almost at the point where we have a waitlist," she said.
According to the UnitedWE and Oklahoma State University study, there are more children in Oklahoma than there are spots in licensed facilities. The supply is not evenly distributed.
There are about 3,000 licensed childcare facilities in Oklahoma. However, half of counties reportedly have more than two children per available spot. Counties like Cherokee and Beaver have far more — 17.88 and 19.67 children per available spot, respectively.
Currently, Newsom is licensed to care for 48 children, but she is working to get licensed to accommodate more children.
UnitedWE proposed local governments decrease the variability in health, safety, and zoning permits across the board.
Then, potential daycare owners can better understand what to prepare for when getting their licenses. This would also help open daycare centers quicker, providing more places for children to enroll.
To see the full study and its findings, you can visit the UnitedWe website here.
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