“It’s a disaster up here,” said Anne Shade, Bristol Bay Native Association’s child development department director. “Child care desert, as they say.” (via AlaskaBeacon)
Kotzebue’s child care center closed more than a decade ago, and the community hasn’t had one since. Tracey Schaeffer and her daughter Bailey are trying to change that. They are tribally exempt child care providers through the Maniilaq Association of northwestern tribes, which would allow them to watch four children.
“You have to fight to do this job,” she said. “This job that you are not necessarily financially rewarded for. You know, I’m not fighting to be a lawyer, right?” Bristol Bay Native Association serves 31 villages in Southwest Alaska. Four of them have Head Start school readiness programs: New Stuyahok, Manokotak, Togiak and Dillingham. But only the hub community of Dillingham has a licensed child care center. The region covers more than 46,000 square miles.
And she said if someone over the age of 16 moves into the house — say an older child returning from college for the summer or family members coming to stay for fish camp — they all need their fingerprints on file, too. “So suddenly you’re paying for a $3,000 charter to get a fire extinguisher down to Chignik, and it’s going to have to be serviced in a year,” Shade said. She said Bristol Bay Native Association is working with school districts to try and coordinate fire extinguisher inspections to save on costs.Bridie Trainor, the child care program director for Kawerak Inc.
“The state needs to create new regulations to defer to tribal standards and maintain access to state funding. Tribes need the option to license in a way that makes sense for each community,” she said.
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