Want to Open a Day Care?

By David E. Crosby, Pastor

First Baptist New Orleans

January 24, 2008

You would think that facilitating the opening of day care centers in Orleans Parish would be one of the highest priorities of our city government.

Think again.

The storm shut down two-thirds of the licensed centers in the parish. The number of operating centers dropped from more than 275 to 86 in the entire parish.

Thirty months later that number has crept back to 96. Ten centers have been licensed since the storm. A young father told me last week that his unborn child was on a 500-name waiting list for infant care. Two centers in our city have more than 800 children on their waiting lists.

I know the story of two churches that still await permission from local government to take care of the preschoolers of working parents.

First Baptist New Orleans, operating in a nearly new facility and with existing licensure to care for preschoolers part-time four days a week, has worked now for more than eight months to achieve licensure for full day care. We replaced our two-hole sink with a three-hole sink. We installed additional alarms. We secured the approval of the health department and the fire marshal. As far as I know, we completed everything the state and city wanted us to do—four months ago.

We called City Hall 20 times and left messages. The office was too busy to answer with a living human being. We sent emails. We arrived in person at the appropriate office. We were told they could not find a building permit for the construction work on the church. We resolved that misunderstanding after two months by communicating that we are using an existing building for the center, not constructing a new one.

The licensing process for another church has been similar but longer—14 months and still no permission to care for kids.

I know that good people with good intentions are working to grant these permits. We don’t want unsafe conditions for the little ones. I know our city employees are trying to follow procedure and protect children.

And I know that this is no way to respond to an emergency shortage of child care in our city. It illustrates a systemic problem at both the local and state level. It is the reason that many people who want to do business here decide to go elsewhere.

This cumbersome process consumes personal energy, frustrates citizens, and finally steals their enthusiasm and interest for the projects they wanted to launch.

We can do better, and we must do better if our economic future as a city and state is to be different than our past.

Here are a few suggestions.

First, treat requests for licensing day care centers with the urgency and priority that they deserve in our city at this time. We need a hundred new centers open yesterday. Young families moving into our city simply cannot find quality, affordable child care. The permitting process is part of the problem. Let’s fix it.

Second, consolidate all necessary information into one simple and easy-to-understand packet and process. Stop sending citizens from pillar to post, floor to floor in City Hall, and person to person. Showing up downtown should not be a necessary part of this formula.

Third, develop a strategy to assist churches in their quest for licensing. In many cases they already have facilities built for children that are empty during the week. Many churches are well-equipped to provide this service in the community, and many are willing to subsidize costs by providing space without market-value reimbursement.

Fourth, provide economic incentives for new day care centers that will lower the costs and increase their profitability. While our church day care center will be nonprofit, many people are eager to provide child care as a way to make a living.

Somebody can figure this out. Let’s do it now and fix this glaring deficiency in our recovering city.