SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane city leaders and the school district announced a new plan to expand child care access across the city and reduce costs for families, with a goal of placing child care centers at every neighborhood school.
The announcement comes as many Spokane families struggle to find high-quality, affordable child care — a challenge that has grown more difficult following recent state and federal cuts to child care programs.
Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Adam Swinyard said the need is urgent.
“We know that childcare and access to affordable childcare is crippling the opportunity for our families to thrive in Spokane,” Swinyard said.
Rather than waiting for support from higher levels of government, school board leaders and local child care center owners decided to build a solution themselves. The plan calls for expanding existing child care centers and opening new ones inside neighborhood schools — a move designed to make child care more accessible, more affordable and allow working parents to stay employed.
Colleen Condon, owner of Lilac City Early Learning Center, said the demand for affordable child care has only grown — and the consequences are real.
“The need has always been there. The need continues to grow. We see women exiting the workforce in droves because they have their second child and now child care is too expensive. They’re not bringing in the wages that they need to to sustain it, and we don’t want to see that continue to happen,” Condon said.
Condon added that local leaders have remained committed to finding progress even without action at the state or national level.
“Even if things aren’t happening at the nation-wide level or the state-wide level to move things forward, we’re still here. We’re still showing up. We’re in constant contact with each other doing different work group projects and things like that and really finding the spaces where we can make progress for our own community,” Condon said.
Mayor Lisa Brown said the pilot program is set to roll out this fall and is working to bring in state and federal funding to help it succeed.
“We hope that this pilot helps inspire those investments that we definitely need,” Brown said.
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