A childcare working group facilitated by the Haines Economic Development Corporation met for the second time on Tuesday for a discussion about the state of childcare in Haines and efforts to improve access. 

Haines Mayor Tom Morphet chaired the meeting, which featured a roundtable of around five people, including local business owners and stakeholders from Chilkat Valley Preschool and the Chilkoot Indian Association. The goal, Morphet said, is to identify challenges and seek a path forward to increase daycare and preschool availability in the area.

“Our preschool is struggling,” he said. “We’re down to one residential daycare.”

Haines Borough used to provide funding for the Chilkat Valley Preschool, Morphet said, though hasn’t directly appropriated funding for that purpose since 2018. Some COVID-19 relief funding was allocated to the school and the borough provides space for the school.

Other avenues for improving access to childcare raised during the meeting were restoration of a daycare assistance program to help pay for children to attend a licensed facility; seek partnerships with local tribes to expand federally-funded Head Start programming after school; or creative ways to help encourage more people to start childcare programs by providing assistance with important logistics like finances, taxes and licensing.

Much attention was also paid to the statewide organization that works to connect families with childcare, thread. That group doesn’t have a permanent presence in Haines, though employs some staff in Juneau who are responsible for the full Southeast region. Members of the working group suggested working to bring thread to Haines to advise or provide assistance in developing childcare.

The next step, members said, could be a deeper exploration of what barriers there are for people to start their own daycares in their homes. Summer Lynch said she’d reach out to the municipal government in Juneau to ask what successful programs they have to support and encourage development of childcare. 

The group didn’t set another meeting date on Tuesday, but said they would meet again in mid-to-late November.