EXCERPT FROM: York Daily Record
By Erin James
The parents of children enrolled at Learning Tree Child Care in Gettysburg learned Dec. 4 the 30-year-old program would shut its doors in February because of rising costs and declining revenue.
Not even a full 24 hours later, Susan Seibel-Willard's phone started ringing off the hook.
On the other end of the phone were desperate parents hoping the director of the child-care program at St. James Lutheran Church could enroll their son or daughter.
"I started getting phone calls on the weekend on my cell phone - which is unlisted," Seibel-Willard said. "I had people in tears."
Difficult as it was to say, Seibel-Willard had to be honest with the callers.
"We're not going to be able to help very much," she said, adding that the waiting list for child-care services at St. James is more than 100 names long.
The closing of Learning Tree will directly affect the families of only about 40 children enrolled there. But it may also worsen what some say is an already serious shortage of quality child care in Adams County.
Megan Shreve - the director of South Central Community Action Programs (SCCAP), which operates the Wee Care Learning Center daycare program in Gettysburg - said "there's not enough good quality child care" in Adams County.
"Seeing a program close in Adams County is just tragic," she said.
And the economy has only complicated the challenge, Shreve added.
For example, some parents with children enrolled at Wee Care pulled their children out of the program this year and enrolled them elsewhere when the Pennsylvania budget impasse threatened to shut down subsidized social services like SCCAP.
Though Wee Care managed to stay open, the program lost money.
"It's kind of a strange situation," Shreve said, adding that some programs may not have the infrastructure in place to meet the demand for child care when the economy recovers.
There's a similar economic phenomenon going on at other child-care programs like the YWCA, which offers daycare at three centers in Adams County.
Just two years ago, there was "a great need and shortage of services," said YWCA Director Deb Yocum.
That's why the YWCA opened a third center, she said. But enrollment has dropped off significantly since then - presumably because parents either cannot afford child care or because they have lost their jobs.
"You certainly don't need child care when you're laid off," Yocum said.
For Lutheran Social Services of South Central Pennsylvania (LSS), the decision to close Learning Tree came down to rising costs in health and liability insurance, said spokeswoman Crystal Hull.
Public support in the form of donations have also been on the decline in recent years, Hull said. About 15 employees will lose their positions, but some may be retained by Lutheran Social Services.
"We're doing what we can to match them to other positions," Hull said.
In the meantime, Adams County parents remain in the toughest position of all.
Though an LSS press release cites a decrease in demand for child care "during this period of economic downturn," parents like Kelly Lawver are struggling to find quality programs that are affordable, of high quality and open for new enrollment.
Lawver is the clerk of courts at the Adams County Courthouse and the mother of a 2-year-old daughter currently enrolled at Learning Tree for five days each week.
Lawver said she was devastated by the news that Learning Tree would close.
"Our kids spend more waking hours with the Learning Tree staff than they do with their own family," she said. "They are our family. It's extremely hard on these kids to tear them apart from their family."
The emotional toll is just one aspect of the loss, however. Lawver said she is attempting to enroll her daughter in a new program, but she has been unsuccessful so far.
Staff at one program - which Lawver declined to identify - told Lawver that her name still appears on a waiting list from three years ago. And she's still not next on the list.
"It's very hard to get in," she said.
The biggest challenge for parents is finding a "quality" program, said Seibel-Willard, the director of the St. James daycare.