Local Childcare Facilities Seeing Continued Trends Of Long Waitlists

One local childcare facility says parents are putting their child on the waitlist as soon as they find out they’re pregnant.

Danielle Preston is the Co-Director of Little Sprouts Mother’s Day Out in Cookeville. She said the long waitlist is in response to working parents struggling to find childcare facilities. A recent state report revealed that more than 80 percent of working parents reported employment disruptions due to inadequate child care, citing affordability, quality and access as major challenges.

“In order for our two-income households to be able to provide two incomes and have children they do need childcare,” Preston said. “Our facility is only a part-time facility and so we have parents who are only able to have part-time jobs or say a little bereavement for stay-at-home parents.”

Preston said their waitlist just as a part-time facility can range anywhere from 15 to 35 kids at a time. She said Little Sprouts Mother’s Day Out typically has a smaller classroom size to make sure the kids’ needs are being met.

“If we could take all of the kids we could,” Preston said. “If we had more classrooms and could take more then we would. But right now, we’re at capacity.”

Preston said she believes there are multiple levels to fix this solution. She said not only do parents in the Upper Cumberland need access to affordable childcare, they need it to be in a more convenient location. She said they even have parents come all the way from Sparta in hopes of getting childcare.

Cookeville’s London Bridge Childcare Director Tammy Fontenot said she is seeing similar trends

Fonenot said in her mind, there is more the state could do to step in and help address the childcare crisis facing Upper Cumberland locations.