Jackson County a Model for Child Care Options

Thursday, October 27th, 2022 -- 10:01 AM

(Madison Lammert, Wausau Daily Herald) -While perhaps most known for its forested landscape, Jackson County is also making a name for itself with its rigorous efforts to increase quality child care options within its borders. 

According to Madison Lammert with the Wausau Daily Herald, in the past 10 months, nearly 90 child care slots have been added in Jackson County largely due to the multifaceted efforts of the Jackson County Child Care Task Force and its network, which consist of child care providers, business leaders and employers, elected officials and more.

The network is also getting recognition from the state, as it recently won an award from the Wisconsin Economic Development Association. These successes, industry experts say, can serve as fertile ground for other communities to learn from as they navigate their own child care woes.

Years before the pandemic, Jackson County businesses began noticing a common problem: Employees were missing work due to not having consistent, quality child care.

In fact, 2018 data from the Center for American Progress showed the majority of the county's census tracts are child care deserts, or areas with more than 50 children under age 5 that have either no regulated child care options or three times as many children under 5 per each regulated slot.

Such conversations led to the formation of the task force in 2018 to further examine the scope of the problem. The task force worked with the 7 Rivers Alliance, an economic development agency in La Crosse, to put a dollar figure on the damage lack of child care was causing businesses between employees missing work, being late for work and losing focus at work: $2.5 million a year in lost productivity.  

“(Employees) weren’t able to work to their full potential because of the impact the lack of child care was having on their family,” said Marianne Torkelson, a longtime task force member, current chair of the Jackson County Child Care Network and vice president of business development and training at Co-Op Credit Union.

The lack of child care in the area is so much of an issue that some families are wary of taking jobs in, and relocating to, Jackson County. Torkelson said she has heard of people turning down jobs in the county once they realized providers can have year long waitlists.

As the task force and its broad membership base continued to assess the scope of the county’s child care landscape and potential solutions, they recognized having a separate, but interrelated, nonprofit entity would give them access to many grants and other resources.

Thus, the Jackson County Network, which Torkelson is the chair of, was formed by the end of 2019.

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