EXCERPT: “Working parents in rural Minnesota are struggling to find day care. And the younger the child, the harder it is . . . Research from the Center for Rural Policy and Development shows a massive day care shortfall, especially in the northern and central parts of the state. In northwestern Minnesota alone, they estimate roughly 2,500 children need day care, and can’t get it. That’s mostly because small in-home day cares — places licensed to handle about a dozen kids — are closing at a startling rate. The Center for Rural Policy said there’s been a 25 percent drop in capacity statewide, in just the last 12 years.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2DX8RdF
(INSIGHT: Last year’s report, “A Quiet Crisis: Minnesota’s Child Care Shortage,” raised a major conversation on the child care shortage facing all of Minnesota and the impact it is having on just not families but also on employers and the economy. A year later, we’re revisiting the issue with a two-page update: http://bit.ly/2yVy0ri)