House Republicans are investigating whether the legislation would limit child care capacity in Pennsylvania

A few years ago, the line outside the Blair Regional YMCA reminded Sharon Jones of waiting for concert tickets as a child while her parents sipped coffee on lawn chairs in the early morning hours.

But parents weren’t trying to get front-row seats to the live performance, they were hoping to snag one of the 108 summer camp spots available this year as an affordable child care option.

“We filled those 108 spots in a very short amount of time. I think it took less than two hours, and there were 38 kids on the waiting list,” said Jones, the organization’s executive director.

Although the child care center has changed its system to avoid these lines, the demand – and waiting list – still exists. But Jones said state regulations limit the number of children the center can serve, even though local school regulations are more permissive.

“If we could make one minor amendment to one regulation, we could take care of these children and be on our way,” Jones said.

Although 32 adults attended Thursday’s meeting, held at the Blair Regional YMCA preschool, which also hosted Zumba classes, the number of school-age children is constrained to 20. Increasing the limits for each 800-square-foot room by three or four additional children would eliminate the waiting list, Jones said.

On Thursday, she shared her examples before a House Republican committee investigating the commonwealth’s oversight of child care facilities at its YMCA. ChildCare Aware estimated that it almost costs Pennsylvanians to care for an infant at the center $15,000 per year in 2024about $700 more than toddler care.

Lawmakers hinted at future legislative efforts, criticizing the lack of affordability and citing a ReadyNation analysis that found Pennsylvania is losing Over $6 billion in economic activity due to problems with child care.

“For many families, child care is essential. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to afford it. Parents are struggling with longer waiting lists and rising costs. Providers are dealing with everything from staff shortages to rising expenses and complicated regulations,” said Rep. David Rowe (R-Union).

He emphasized that “what matters most is safety,” specifying that some regulations overburden the system in a way that is “incompatible with today’s realities.”

“This is not a call for lower standards. It is a call for consistency and balance,” Rowe said.

More on state regulations

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

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

“The same child, three hours earlier, in his school room, can ask his teacher to go to the bathroom. He can freely walk down the hall to the bathroom and leave unattended,” Jones continued. “It’s one of those laws that doesn’t make sense.”

House Democrats: Pennsylvania must prioritize universal pre-K

Jones also asked for a relaxation of degree requirements for some positions, noting that she must serve as interim program director. Another employee with 18 years of experience cannot become a director because she is “a few credits short of a bachelor’s degree.”

Like many companies, the biggest expense is employees – although Jones said state funds come from Counts before Kwhich helps low-income families, helped some teachers.

“If we were to increase the cost of child care, it would impact parents’ ability to provide care for their children. (We are) caught between a rock and a hard place,” Jones said.

With few other options, some companies have begun sponsoring child care for their own employees, including Altoona-based Sheetz. Bright Horizons Little Sproutz Learning Center opened because the company was struggling to recruit because parents had no child care options, said Bill Young, Sheetz’s chief compensation, benefits and risk officer.

“We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This means many of our employees work early mornings and evenings and non-traditional schedules,” Young continued. “For these workers, access to reliable child care was not only difficult, but often unavailable.”

Young added that Little Sproutz has made the business run more efficiently, and some parents said they wouldn’t be able to work without the center. Condition Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program made it possible, he noted.

Rowe said EITC funding has increased each year the General Assembly has dealt with the state budget, and added that “supporting and growing the EITC program is almost always a struggle.”

“There’s never enough resources; there are always waiting lists across the state,” Rowe said. “If this program works and people take advantage of it… we should expand the EITC program.”

Public school advocates criticize the EITC for benefiting private and religious schools, arguing that “vouchers financed by taxpayers’ money”, with no reporting requirements that could reveal who benefits from the programming.

Confusion for the longtime center

Another provider said his Blair County church facility was thrown into uncertainty after the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services responded on a tip that the decades-old program was an illegal preschool.

Mark Lingenfelter, lead pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Duncansville, said a preliminary investigation found no results “that everything was legal and exceeded the standards required for the kindergarten.”

“When one of the researchers submitted a report to her supervisor, she was informed that the policies had changed and that our preschool was no longer in compliance with state regulations,” Lingenfelter continued. “We started looking at ways to ensure compliance and discovered that there were two options: one within DHS and one within the Department of Education.”

“None of these options were easy to navigate or understand,” Lingenfelter said. “We are making every effort to cooperate with the state.”

He added that the next hearing would be in June, although the school had been allowed to continue operating.

“I don’t know if I can comment on other people’s motives,” Lingenfelter said when asked by a lawmaker whether he felt targeted because of the kindergarten’s Christian identity. “But I can say that our kindergarten has been in existence for 40 years and we have never had such a big problem. There is nothing else we can do in our community but praise.”

The state allows some religious institutions to run kindergartens without a licensebut it is unclear whether there have been any recent changes to the regulations.

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

“To me, the situation seems very clear: we need more child care. Government regulations do not make it easier for centers to provide it. It is our job to address this,” Barger said. “It’s a real issue that sometimes we forget or don’t think about because maybe you’re like me and your kids are that age.”

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