Photo by Vanessa Nunes/Getty Images via Penn Capital-Star State House Republicans emphasized that they didn’t want to lower standards or jeopardize safety at childcare centers.

A few years ago, the line outside of the Blair Regional YMCA reminded Sharon Jones of waiting for concert tickets as a youth, with parents sipping coffee in camp chairs in the early hours.

But parents weren’t trying to snag front-row seats for a live performance, they were hoping to grab one of 108 summer camp spots available that year as an affordable childcare option.

“We filled those 108 spots in a very short period of time. I believe it was less than two hours, and we had 38 children on a waitlist,” said Jones, the organization’s executive director.

Though the childcare center has changed its system to avoid that line, the demand — and waitlist — still exist. But Jones said state rules reduced how many children it could serve, even though local school regulations were more permissive.

“If we could make one small tweak to one regulation, we could have taken and given care to those children and been on our way,” said Jones.

Though 32 adults attended Thursday’s meeting in a Blair Regional YMCA daycare room — which has also hosted Zumba classes — it’s limited to 20 school-age children. Increasing the limits for each 800-square-foot room by three or four more children would have eliminated the waitlist, Jones said.

She shared her examples before a committee of state House Republicans scrutinizing the commonwealth’s oversight of childcare facilities at her YMCA on Thursday. ChildCare Aware estimated infant care at a center cost Pennsylvanians nearly $15,000 annually in 2024, about $700 more than toddler care.

Lawmakers hinted at future legislative efforts, criticizing the lack of affordability and citing an analysis from ReadyNation that found Pennsylvania misses out on $6-plus billion in economic activity because of childcare issues.

“For many families, child care is essential. But it’s becoming harder and harder to afford. Parents are facing longer and longer waitlists and rising costs. Providers are dealing with everything from staffing shortages to increasing expenses and complex regulations,” said Rep. David Rowe (R-Union).

He emphasized that, “safety matters first and foremost,” specifying that some regulations overburden the system in a way that is “out of step with today’s realities.”

“This isn’t a call to lower standards. This is a call for consistency, for balance,” Rowe said.

More on state regulations

For Jones, other barriers included state-mandated staffing ratios and funding. Current ratios require one teacher for every ten students, making some daily tasks unmanageable.

“If one child has to go to the bathroom … we need to take nine kids, put them in the hallway, sit them down while one walks into the bathroom two feet away and then they stay there until they come out,” said Jones.

“That same child, three hours earlier, in their school-age room, can ask their teacher to go to the restroom. They can walk freely down the hallway into the bathroom and back out unaccompanied,” Jones continued. “This is one of those regulations that doesn’t make sense.”

Jones also asked for loosening degree requirements for certain positions, noting that she has to be an interim program director. Another staff member with 18 years of experience can’t be director because she’s “a few credits short of a bachelor’s degree.”

Like many businesses, staff is the biggest expense — though Jones said state funding from Pre-K Counts, which assists low-income families, helped for a segment of teachers.

“If we were to increase the cost of childcare, then it affects the parent’s ability to be able to have childcare. (We’re) caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Jones.

With few other options, some businesses have started to sponsor childcare for their own employees, including Altoona-based Sheetz. The Bright Horizons Little Sproutz Learning Center opened because the company had recruiting challenges since parents had no childcare options, said Bill Young, Sheetz’s director of Compensation, Benefits and Risk.

“We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. That means many of our employees work early mornings, evenings and non-traditional schedules,” Young continued. “For those employees, access to dependable childcare wasn’t just difficult, it was often unavailable.”

Business operated more effectively with Little Sproutz, Young added, and some parents said they wouldn’t be able to work without the center. The state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC) made it possible, he noted.

Rowe said that EITC funding came up every year as the General Assembly navigates the state budget, adding that “supporting and growing the EITC program is almost always a fight.”

“There’s never enough to go around; there’s always still waiting lists across the state,” said Rowe. “If this program is working and people are using it … we should grow the EITC program.”

Public school advocates criticize EITC for benefiting private and religious schools as “taxpayer-funded vouchers,” without reporting requirements that might reveal who benefits from programming.

Confusion for

long-standing center

Another provider shared that their church-based center in Blair County was mired in uncertainty after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services acted on a tip that the decades-old program was an illegal daycare.

Mark Lingenfelter, the lead pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Duncansville, said the initial investigation came back with nothing, “that everything was legal and surpassed the standards that are required for a preschool.”

“When one of the investigators submitted her report to her supervisor, she was informed that the rules had changed, and that our preschool was no longer in compliance with state regulations,” Lingenfelter continued. “We began to research how we could come into compliance and we discovered that there are two options: one under DHS and another one under the Department of Education.”

“Neither one of those options were easy to navigate or understand,” Lingenfelter said. “We’re making every effort to cooperate with the state.”

The next hearing will be in June, he added, though the school has been allowed to continue operating.

“I don’t know that I can speak to the motive of others,” Lingenfelter said when asked by a lawmaker about whether he felt targeted because of the preschool’s Christian identity. “But I can tell you that our preschool has been there for 40 years and we’ve never had so much of a problem. There’s nothing but praise in our community.”

The state does allow some religious institutions to operate daycares without a license, but it’s unclear whether there have been any recent rule changes.

Rep. Scott Barger (R-Blair), who hosted Thursday’s hearing, thanked participants for their input and specificity, noting that families often pay more for childcare than their mortgage.

“The situation, to me, seems to be very clear: we need more childcare. The government rule book is not making it easier for centers to provide that. That’s our job to remedy,” said Barger. “This is a real issue that sometimes we forget about or don’t think about because maybe you’re like me, and your kids are past that age.”

“So it’s not on your radar, but it should be on our radar, because of the ripple effect … throughout our communities and throughout businesses,” Barger continued.

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