City Leaders Consider Hiring Child Care Czar

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento city leaders are taking new steps to help make it easier for parents to find daycare for their kids.

The city council will consider hiring a new full-time Child Care Czar Tuesday.

Azia Cherry struggled to find a daycare provider for her eight-month-old son Samuel.

"In today's economy, quality child care is hard to come by," Cherry said.

We first interview Cherry about Sacramento's child care crisis last year when she was still pregnant with Samuel. She said at six months pregnant, she was not able to get on any waitlists.

Cherry and her husband work full time and every daycare facility they looked at was either unaffordable or had no open space.

"The longest wait we saw was five years, so at that point, some of these kids aren't even going to need child care anymore," Cherry said.

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Sacramento Vice Mayor Eric Guerra said 95% of Sacramento parents need some kind of child care, but only 26% are able to find it. But how will hiring a new full-time child care czar help?

"This new employee is going to be in the economic development department, looking at removing the barriers to starting a business like permit fees, regulations, making it easier to start your business," Guerra said.

They will also help the city seek out new money that Governor Gavin Newsom has committed to spending on subsidized child care.

Cherry gave up looking for daycare. She and her husband now take turns caring for Samuel while the other is at work.

"We just had to basically figure it out, cause what were we going to do? I couldn't quit my job," Cherry said.

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It's a problem city leaders hope to solve soon before it negatively impacts the local economy.

"If we want to grow as a city and we want to attract or keep our own talent, we have to have something for their families to stay here in this city," Guerra said.

The city's goal is to have a strategic child care plan drafted by the end of October.