Family News
Finding Child Care

According to a recent national report on the status of child care today, the demand for child care is exploding. Every day in Massachusetts, approximately 285,700 children under six spend time in child care. Half of all Massachusetts children under three are now cared for by someone other than their parents, whether both parents work or not.

Yet, despite the growing need, it can be difficult and time-consuming for parents to find high-quality care that is affordable and accessible. And, as every parent knows, one of the most important decisions they’ll ever make is who will care for their children when they can’t be there.

During these last weeks, as parents gear up for the new school, the demand for child care  information has increased dramatically.   Many of the hundreds of calls that have poured into CCRC echo a common sentiment of anxiety and frustration by parents overwhelmed by their search for care.  The following  story illustrates the difficult challenge of locating quality child care, and the help CCRC may provide.

A parent called the Child Care Resource Center in search of child care for two of her children.  Her family was relocating to Massachusetts, in four months, and she was frustrated about finding child care.  Prior to calling the CCRC, the parent used the internet to search for day care centers in the Boston area and then she visited the centers on her few trips to Massachusetts.  The parent traveled all around the towns to the northwest of Boston visiting centers and adding her name to waitlists.  She was left with no indication of openings in any of the programs she visited. The parent returned home from her trips upset with the impending move.  How would she be able to start her new job in four months if she did not have care for her children?  The parent raised this issue with the human resource department at her new place of employment.  Human resources encouraged the parent to call CCRC.

When the parent called the Child Care Resource Center, she was immediately connected to a family services specialist.  The specialist went over the current trends in child care in the Boston area; information the parent could not access on the internet.  The family services specialist told the parent she could search for centers in specific towns and then contact each center to find out if they could anticipate openings for both children in four months.  The family services specialist located 12 child care centers with anticipated openings for both children in four months.  The counselor provided this information to the parent along with information pertinent to child care in Massachusetts.  The parent found a center she liked with openings for both children and it happened to be convenient to work.  In a follow-up survey sent out by the Child Care Resource Center the parent wrote, “What a wonderful resource!”  The parent found the counselor, “helpful, sympathetic and very responsive.”

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