Report highlights barriers childcare industry faces in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A new report identifies barriers and opportunities to increase access to quality childcare across the state.

The draft of the report will be presented at The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations on Thursday.

The report also makes recommendations on how state and local governments can work together to increase access to quality daycares.

Meredith Sykes is a new mom. Her daughter is two and a half months old, and Sykes has already been talking about daycare options for nearly a year.

“The convenience of the location was important for me because I work from home, so I didn’t want to have to look too far,” she said. “At the end of the day, it was really the quality of the care.”

Like so many parents they’re getting creative, “Thankfully I have three months maternity leave and my husband has three months paternity leave that he could take after mine. We were kind of strategic in how we did that, so we could push off the daycare costs as long as possible because it’s very expensive.”

The report highlights cost is a barrier, Sykes says.

“I was seeing anywhere from like $1600 to $2200 a month which is wild because I mean that could be rent for someone,” she said.

Sykes said just when you find a good spot, you may have to wait.

“You also have to take into consideration the waitlist fees that you can accrue by applying to different daycares cause you’re not necessarily guaranteed to get in anywhere.”

Some of the recommendations included in the report are “aligning state and local pre-inspections of a daycare” and “aligning zoning for childcare businesses with zoning for schools and churches.”

For Sykes, with all of these challenges, they already have a daycare lined up.

”She’ll go in April. It’s going to be hard to send her but I know we found a good spot," she said.

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