High-quality child care is essential for the vibrancy of local economies and child and family well-being. However, many child care providers struggle to remain financially viable because child care programs are expensive to operate, and the revenue they earn from tuition may not cover the costs of high-quality care. Outagamie County and the Greater Fox Valley Alliance for Child Care partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to examine the challenges the region’s licensed child care providers face with profitability and to identify innovations, such as public-private partnerships and shared services models, to improve the business viability and economic development of child care. The figure below lists key challenges our survey identified. These findings were supported by anecdotes shared in focus groups and interviews with child care providers.
UniverCity Year Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu