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The Flagstaff City Council and local leaders in early childhood education discussed the current state of child care in Flagstaff during a recent meeting.

United Way of Northern Arizona President and CEO Liz Archuleta, Rebecca Cirzan and Dave McIntire, the city's community investment director, gave a presentation at the May 13 city council work session. 

Cirzan, who is the director of the Early Childhood Learning Center at Northern Arizona University, said about 48% of 3- and 4-year-olds in Coconino County are not enrolled in preschool and that there aren’t enough spaces for infants and toddlers.

“We’re not close,� she said, noting that it is common for people to start looking at options and trying to get on waitlists early in pregnancy.

“It’s really dire and it really is impacting us in many ways,� Cirzan said. “Even if you’re not a family with young children, we are seeing this across the board in our community in a bunch of different ways.�

The city has had two child care centers close this spring, Cirzan said, leaving 150 fewer spots for ages birth to 5 and several parents looking for last-minute replacements. She also said there are staffing shortages in the places that remain open, further reducing the number of available spots. 

A 2021 report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that Arizona’s economy lost around $1.77 billion a year due to child care issues. Almost three-quarters (74%, or $1.24 billion) of this came from parents missing work due to a lack of child care over the past three months.

The presentation outlined three elements of child care that need to be considered: access, affordability and quality. 

Care is considered affordable by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at 7% of a family’s income. According to Cirzan, Arizona's average is 12% and Coconino County's is 15%, with the cost of attending a child care center for an infant similar to college tuition.

The area is exceeding the state's average for quality, she said, with 41% of child care options meeting the standard for high quality. Arizona, meanwhile, meets just three of 10 quality benchmarks for 2023, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research's state profile.

Cirzan said research had shown long-term benefits for children who received high-quality care, including rates of those receiving special education services, graduating high school and beginning some form of postsecondary education. This also included items outside of school, such as homeownership and incarceration.

“We know that when we invest in young children, we get the highest return on investment than we do from other age groups," she said. " � This is the time when we need to be thinking about where we put our dollars and where we invest, because otherwise, we're paying for it on the back end."

Planning a response

Efforts to address these needs in Flagstaff have already begun and several groups are involved.

Archuleta spoke about Elevate PreK, which will be planning ways to scale up after finishing its pilot program in July. Elevate began in 2021 in partnership with Candelen and has been administered by UWNA for the past year.

The pilot is a preschool program for 4-year-olds in households making between 101% and 250% of the federal poverty level who aren't already enrolled in preschool. 

Archuleta said the program has shown academic achievement for participating students and increased job advancement for their families.

Elevate has completed a feasibility study on possibilities for scaling up its model in Flagstaff and is planning to use some type of working group to determine a strategic plan for doing so.

Cirzan discussed lab schools as part of the solution.

She leads the Early Learning and Development Center at NAU, which opened in spring 2023. It provides high-quality child care as well as workforce training and modeling new practices.

“Part of the idea is that we’re furthering the field. We are a pipeline for the workforce, we train preservice teachers but also other disciplines,� she said, listing public health, social work, speech language pathology and continuing education for teachers as examples. � ... We’re able to do research and disseminate our work through research and national presentations as well as being able to collaborate with schools and communities.�

McIntire said several of the public comments during the council meeting on a city workforce development study had to do with child care. As a result, staff began looking into it and decided to partner with those already attempting to find solutions in the city.

The idea is to use some of the city’s workforce development funding alongside other funding sources to pay someone to develop a vision for a “functional program� in Flagstaff -- which would look at what's needed to support all three aspects of early childhood education and how to bring it about.

Previous conversations had considered using city funds on scholarships to child care centers or families, and McIntire said that option would likely have “a very limited impact on a problem that is a much larger scale."

The next step is to bring this plan to local organizations, such as Coconino County, Coconino Community College, NAU and the school district among others.

“I think the idea would be over this next year is to be able to look at the childcare landscape and the structure and create a strategic plan that makes sense for our community, because, as you’ve seen, it’s complex,� Cirzan said. “You can’t just tweak one area and assume all the areas are fixed."

She added: "I think the goal would be to pull the minds together and create an approach that makes sense, that really leads to the path that we want to see.�

A recording of this meeting is available at , with this item beginning around an hour and five minutes into the May 13 city council work session.