I live in a small (<2,000 people) rural western community, where the only daycare and preschool available to working parents is our local church. This service is free, but many of my peers, and I, are not interested in our children attending this daycare. This presents a certain set of problems that we are trying to troubleshoot, and the best solution seems to be a formal daycare and preschool business. Does anyone know of any good resources out there for starting a secular daycare and preschool for economically disadvantaged communities? Given that we all have jobs already, and are not trained in daycare and preschool administration, we’re also interested in finding someone who is interested in running it.
I guess the first thing I’d do is contact an existing daycare company, like KinderCare, and just present them with your situation. The bottom line is going to be money and legal headaches. Either they’d be interested, and there you go, or they wouldn’t. And if not, then you’re next bet would be to find a consultant of some sort who’s gonna want a lot of money to assist you. Bottom line - money money money. Remember education isn’t a right in the US, it’s a product.
I live in a small (<2,000 people) rural western community, where the only daycare and preschool available to working parents is our local church. This service is free, but many of my peers, and I, are not interested in our children attending this daycare. This presents a certain set of problems that we are trying to troubleshoot, and the best solution seems to be a formal daycare and preschool business. Does anyone know of any good resources out there for starting a secular daycare and preschool for economically disadvantaged communities? Given that we all have jobs already, and are not trained in daycare and preschool administration, we’re also interested in finding someone who is interested in running it.I don't know what state you live in but the laws governing daycare centers vary. My advise is to first consult your state agency For guidelines. And yes, as Cuthbert stated it can be costly for a private institution. I live in a small village as well and our local daycare, (not church affiliated BTW even though we have several that have them) charges a $500.00 monthly fee for each child. They also provide homeschooling if requested but I have no idea what the additional charge may be nor am I aware of the curriculum. I do know that insurance fees can be exorbitant as can rent on the property unless you're wanting to buy it outright. I do like the idea though and wish you well! Cap't Jack
Thank you for your quick replies! It does depend on the family situation, but speaking from mine, $500/mo per child would be a dramatic decrease in what my childcare costs are currently for a nanny (my only alternative option). We understand that this would not be a free service - our main concern is reliability and quality of care. And we know it’s a hard road ahead… and that we may not even be able to accomplish this before our kids are ready to enter school… but we want to at least try with what limited time and resources we have.
I am hoping that I might tap someones mind who has been here before, or knows of someone who has, and has knowledge of sources of other support such as foundation/federal/state grants or the like… so that we might be able to attract someone local to this effort, or even someone in the childcare field who wants to move to a beautiful, remote, mountainous area and start a business in support of values common to the CFI forum community!