Childcare needs in the North Country: Survey suggests growing frustration with childcare availability

WATERTOWN- Childcare access in the North Country is arguably one of the most prominent issues locally, and yet it appears the issue often times is overshadowed by other hot topics.

Since 2015, the Center for Community Studies at Jefferson Community College has been keeping track of childcare via their annual community surveys.

The annual surveys help keep tabs on how North Country folks feel about a wide array of topics.

Sometimes, the Center for Community Studies will conduct a special survey that focusses strictly on a specific issue. Earlier this spring, the team executed a survey focusing only on childcare access and most of the findings might come across as shocking to some.

In a nutshell, childcare needs were a standout issue in this spring’s Current Issues Community Survey.

Though approximately 40-percent of adults interviewed a decade ago suggested good to excellent childcare access throughout the North Country, those statistics seem to have taken somewhat of a nosedive.

Today, statistics show only about 10-percent of local folks across Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and St. Lawrence Counties believe access to childcare is good or excellent.

For context, this survey was carried out between March 31 and April 11. Just over 2,500 adult residents were interviewed, including 623 parents who had children 12 and under.

The Center partnered with childcare experts and leaders in all of Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, and St. Lawrence Counties in developing the study survey instrument and sampling methodologies used in this study.

Not only were employment and economic impacts on current parents investigated, the employment and economic impacts on adults who are providing free childcare to family and close friends was studied as well.

Stay tuned, we will soon invite Director of the Center for Community Studies, Dr. Joel LaLone, to join North Country News for a new on-air series diving deep into the feelings and attitudes towards local childcare.

About the Center for Community Studies: Since 1999, the Center for Community Studies at Jefferson Community College has completed hundreds of research surveys for the community and for private companies. The Center ties professional knowledge from full-time faculty members to students learning statistics and mathematics to clients in the region who need data to solve real-world problems. The Center, the only local research entity of its kind, produces a plethora of high caliber information. Jefferson Community College is the only SUNY community college to have such a research center.

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