‘Families are scrambling’: Daycare deserts in Central Florida means longer wait list

ORLANDO, Fla. — If you are looking for childcare, you know the wait list can be long and costly.

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New information from the Center for American Progress shows the problem is worsening.

Nine Investigates looks into the data and what this means for parents like Lexi Varvaras Ladage.

Ladage and her husband discovered their family was growing and that they’d welcome a baby boy in April of 2023.

“It was perfect timing for us,” she said.

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Her daughter was just shy about her third birthday at the time and attended daycare down the street.

“You just want your kids to go to a good daycare that you trust, and that’s where my daughter goes, ‘So I’m like, he’s going there ‘cause I trust them,’” Ladage said.

But they were shocked when her husband called the school in Nov. 2022.

“We called, and my husband’s looking at me like it’s a year and a half no matter where we go, and I just remember being like, oooh, panic.”

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The opening for her son to be accepted would be in June 2024.

Ladage was due in April 2023. The daycare said it currently had a waitlist until August 2024.

To save that spot, they needed to put down a deposit and pay a registration fee totaling $1,500.

“That’s a lot of money to be asking for,” Ladage said. “And so here you are, stressed out. I’m pregnant and very very sick and we’re like well i guess we’re gonna have to do it.”

And she is not the only one.

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According to Center for American Progress data, child care in Central Florida is scarce in portions of the area.

If you live in Orlando, there are plenty of daycares, but parents will struggle to find childcare in other counties.

Lake County almost completely shows scarce child care, depending on where you live. And in Osceola County, you may have trouble finding a daycare for your child.

According to their study, the Center for American Progress sees higher poverty levels in many areas.

A report from ‘Baby Center’ shows that 40 percent of U.S. families looking for daycare have been put on a waitlist, with an average wait time of six months.

Thirteen percent of those families waited a year or longer.

and the price tag is putting some families in debt or taking away from other financial goals.

A breakdown of more than 2,200 parents surveyed in the U.S.

Most parents say they couldn’t save as much as they wanted to afford daycare, saying they dipped into savings or couldn’t pay off other debt because of the cost of child care.

“Families are scrambling,” Ladage said. “And that’s the last thing you should be worrying about when you’re pregnant.”

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