'We need more daycare' — rural parents say

PINE PLAINS — Parents and child care leaders gathered Wednesday, Feb. 25, to discuss concerns about early child care access and affordability in the rural northeast corner of Dutchess County.

County legislator Chris Drago, who represents the towns of North East, Pine Plains, Stanford, Milan and Red Hook, hosted the event at the Stissing Center on Church Street to seek community feedback following news about a proposed pilot program that would expand funding for child care, particularly for children under three, in Dutchess County.

The proposal follows Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement in her State of the State address that she is seeking $60 million for Dutchess, Monroe and Broome counties to expand child care, with an emphasis on children under three. The funding, pending approval as part of the state budget due April 1, is a component of her broader effort to expand affordable child care statewide, including a push toward universal access for children under five.

Billed as a fact-finding session ahead of the state budget vote, the forum opened with presentations from representatives of Poughkeepsie-based child care advocacy and training organizations. Parents expressed concerns about access in the far reaches of the county, where services have long lagged behind more densely populated areas.

Kim Yarnell, a parent who lives in Millerton, said she struggled for years to find childcare. She was one of the parents left scrambling for care last December when the North East Community Center announced the sudden closure of its Early Learning Program.

"When I first got pregnant in 2019, I was on a waiting list for two years," she said. "So that's the kind of situation we all face every day."

Parents emphasized a lack of providers in the area, saying the biggest barriers in rural communities are cost and availability. Webutuck Elementary School Principal Amanda Coppola said parents regularly tell her they can't afford child care, a struggle she said she can relate to.

"I have a four-month-old at home, and I just finished my first month of paying for daycare, and it's expensive," she said. "Funding, as far as tuitions or lowering tuitions, I feel is one of the biggest needs that I hear. And now that I'm living it, I hear even more."

Local parents, child care providers and nonprofit representatives outline the challenges they face in accessing and providing childcare in rural northeast Dutchess County during a forum at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains on Wednesday, Feb. 25. Photo by Nathan Miller

Representatives of the Child Care Council of Dutchess and Putnam presented facts and figures to the group, saying that within Drago’s legislative district there are roughly 300 children under three who need care, but licensed facilities have capacity for only 95.

Outside of Red Hook — the district’s most populous town — licensed providers have capacity for just 29 children.

That data underscores parents’ anxiety. The governor’s proposal emphasizes working within existing child care systems and infrastructure, but those resources are limited in northeast Dutchess County. Parents said there's a significant need for infant care, with some reporting they drive more than 30 minutes one way to Connecticut to access the nearest available care.

"We just need more daycare," Yarnell said. "It's not complicated, like, we need more daycare."