Child care centers that have kept waiting lists for years are now advertising to fill openings. Some centers are struggling to make ends meet, as costs rise and enrollments decline. A few have shut their doors.
The stalling economy has begun to take a toll on Maine's child care providers, as parents lose jobs or look for ways to cut expenses.
"One of the first indicators of the economy is child care. (Parents) get a pink slip, and they come pick up their child and say, 'I don't need child care anymore,' " said Lori Freid Moses, director of the University of Southern Maine's Child and Family Centers in Portland and Gorham. "The other thing that's happening is parents are making different choices because they have a grandmother, a family member, a friend or a neighbor" who can fill in, even part time.
"Initially, we were seeing it in Greater Portland," she said. "And the more I talk to people, I see it throughout the state."
Freid Moses said the USM centers have openings for the first time in years. Some of the parents shopping for care, she said, are coming from centers that recently closed, including the YMCA in Portland and On Our Planet in Cape Elizabeth.
An administrator at the YMCA said the drop in preschool enrollments in recent months was one of the factors behind the closure of its center on Oct. 31. The drop in demand followed a decline in outside grant funding, as well as increasing rent and utility costs, said Hildy Ginsberg, the executive director.
"It kind of tipped the decision," she said. "We weren't filling the full-time slots as we were going into fall. We didn't have a waiting list any longer. We'd had a waiting lost for a long period of time."
The former operators of On Our Planet could not be reached.
There is no data in Maine or nationally that shows how many children are in child care. But providers around the country say the trend toward fewer children in child care is clear.
At a center in suburban Illinois, where half of the children have stopped coming in the past three months, their playmates are sensing the shift. "They don't know what's happening. They're confused," said Diane Kesterton, director of New Horizons.
The trend appears to be just starting in Maine, where some day care providers are reporting declines and some are not. All, however, said they expect the economic fallout to increase.
"Usually at this time of the month, we see a lot more preschoolers registering," said Annette Hoglund, co-owner of Portside Learning Center in Portland.
Unlike infant care and toddler care, which typically are needed so parents can work outside the home, preschool is often a discretionary expense by parents who want to prepare their kids for school. The falling preschool enrollments are especially worrisome to child care centers because caring for preschoolers is more lucrative and helps cover the higher costs of providing infant care.
"You have to have a certain amount of enrollment to really survive," Hoglund said. Meanwhile, the rising cost of everything from toilet paper to snack foods is putting pressure on centers to raise rates even as parents are looking to cut costs, she said.
Portside has not lost any families to the economy yet, although some, including a parent who was laid off, have scaled back their hours. "We've had people ask, 'Well, can I cut down to three days and have my mother help out?' " Hoglund said. "I'm worried right now. My enrollment is OK, but I watch the news every night."