AUSTIN, Texas -- As Austin’s workforce grows, the need for more child care centers does too. The city will begin looking at ways to reduce barriers to entry and expansion for child care providers.

An Austin Public Health and Child Care Work Group report released this year says Travis County does not have enough affordable, high-quality child care programs to meet the needs of the growing number of working parents with young children. The report included a number of policy items for council consideration.

The City Council is addressing of those recommendations through a resolution passed Thursday morning. The resolution directs the city manager to review how service fees - including food, environmental, or fire inspections fees - could be waived partially or fully for child care providers.

“To meet those standards is expensive for child care providers, yet the only revenue sources for child care programs are what parents can and do pay and then what the public subsidies afford,” said Cathy McHorse, the early childhood education director for United Way for Greater Austin and member of the work group. 

Single mother Cherelle VanBrakle found an affordable child care program for her two daughters through Open Door Preschools in East Austin. 

“At first, I was nervous. People you don’t know watching your kid, but now they’re definitely like family,” she said. “On most days [my daughter is] not ready to leave, so it makes me feel good that she’s in a place, that she’s super comfortable and loves enough to not want to come home.”

VanBrakle said if it were not for the opportunity at Open Door, her 4-year-old daughter may been have found an option that was not expensive, but she believes it would not give her daughter the learning she needs to get a head start before kindergarten.

“It shouldn’t be that if you have money or if you are in a certain socio-economic status that your child is afforded opportunities later on in life,” VanBrakle said.

Some council members believe if the city can reduce those expensive operating costs for child care facilities, they can invest it back into their services.

“That savings, even if it’s not necessarily passed on to actual tuition for the children, it could be passed on to giving teachers better pay, and we all know that turnover is a big issue in any industry,” said Council Member Delia Garza, who represented District 2 and was the lead sponsor of the resolution. 

“[The city] will ultimately gain revenue in the long run,” McHorse said. “By making accessible, high-quality care, parents are able to better participate in the workforce and the children will have long term better outcomes.”

The city manager is expected to present a preliminary proposal in March 2019.