Terri Kaluhiokalani, an accountant living in Beechview, found daycare for her child, then later preschool — but not without a lot of trying.
“It did take about seven or eight months to find that place,” she said, referring to the daycare. “You know, we got on wait lists, and it took a while to get there.”
Knowing how challenging it can be to find childcare — from her own experience and from other parents posting on social media — she’s already thinking about afterschool programs for when her child starts kindergarten next year. It’s been difficult to find local programs, she said, so a year in advance, she’s been asking around.
“I see other parents posting in our neighborhood page that they need care, and I’m like, ‘hey, does anybody know of anything?’ And no one does, because there isn’t anything,” she said.
“I can sometimes work from home, so we can adapt our schedule, and we have other relatives that can fill in as necessary,” she said. “But I worry about other families.”
Childcare poses financial and logistical barriers for families across income levels, forcing parents to get creative. For those who provide the care, the work can often be a strain.
“I see other parents posting in our neighborhood page that they need care, and I’m like, ‘hey, does anybody know of anything?’ And no one does, because there isn’t anything.”
Terri Kaluhiokalani
The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates the average cost per year of childcare for those below five in Pennsylvania at $12,628 — slightly less than the national average. It also reports about 57,000 childcare providers across the state, making a median wage of $13.07 an hour.
Though the school year helps some parents pair a 9-to-5 work schedule with their child’s time at school, it also brings its own unique challenges finding afterschool programs. Pittsburgh’s Public Source found sources for help — and creative solutions.
Available help, broad needs
Early Learning Resource Centers connect parents in Pennsylvania to childcare services and provides financial subsidies. There are 19 locations, including ELRC Region 5, which exclusively serves Allegheny County residents. (Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties share ELRC Region 4.)
Janese Jackson, Region 5’s outreach and resource liaison, said the center serves people across the county, though many are concentrated in Pittsburgh’s North Side and East End neighborhoods. “At least hundreds” of Allegheny County children are on waitlists for childcare facilities, according to Jackson.
“Honestly, since the lockdown in 2020, we lost a lot of childcare providers, and it hasn’t gone back to what it used to be,” Jackson said. “So, the availability of childcare providers, the centers themselves and then of staff, especially the trained and experienced staff, is short.”
Availability is just one problem for parents, though. For those who get past the waitlist, the cost may be prohibitively expensive. Through the Child Care Works program, ELRCs pay for a portion of a family’s childcare costs. The need extends far beyond those with the lowest incomes in the county, according to Jackson.
“Our program for working families is called ‘low-income,’ but the income levels vary widely,” Jackson said. “We have some families who, technically, are really average earning, but if they have three, four children, they’re qualifying as low-income, just based on their family and the cost, again, of childcare.”
High costs prompt co-op
Letosha Lindley, a mother of three in Washington, has tried over the years to hire babysitters. Of consideration is her middle child, who has autism, which made public school too overwhelming for him.
“I’m a pediatric nurse, and you’d think I’d be able to afford childcare, but even hiring high schoolers to babysit for us, the situation we found ourselves in over the summer was asking for $25 an hour, and she wasn’t qualified in any way,” Lindley said. “She didn’t have clearances, she wasn’t CPR certified.”
Paying that $25 an hour, she rationalized, would essentially bring her own hourly pay down to $10 an hour. This prompted her to start a Christian homeschooling co-op, which she says has gotten lots of attention.
“I just advertised it on Facebook and was like, ‘hey, who’s interested in a co-op right in downtown Washington?’ And I had 15 families respond almost immediately with interest in wanting to join,” Lindley said. “I actually have 12 families total that committed, and they’re paid and they’re ready to go.”
Nannies urged to ‘stand up for yourself’
On a warm, busy morning at O’Hara Township Community Park, ducks waddled out from the ponds onto the grass and walkways, and dozens of children ran around the playgrounds together. Jaynee Osborne, a nanny with rainbow-colored glasses, kept an eye on the two kids in her care and mingled with other nannies in a rented pavilion.
Being a nanny is her full-time job. She loves it.
Still, it can be challenging and isolating, so she likes to organize nanny get-togethers at parks and libraries. On Aug. 6, this group of nannies was observing the National Nanny Playdate, but they try to get together once a month anyway.
“It’s hard sometimes, because you’re on your own,” said Kathy Loevner, an almost-40-year veteran of the nanny profession. “And otherwise, it’s good to know that there’s other people that are working with the same thing.”
For those who can afford it, hiring a nanny can bypass some of the logistical challenges of securing scarce daycare. Nannies in Pennsylvania tend to receive pay through a standard W-2 set-up, but a lack of oversight and the preference of some parents to shirk a contract and pay under the table can pose problems. Osborne said she’s lucky to work with an amazing family who always operates above-board but that others aren’t as fortunate.
“I definitely know among my friends, they’d all say my bosses are the most understanding,” Osborne said.
Osborne said that although many nannies don’t have written agreements, her group tries to promote them as a best practice. The get-togethers can turn into venting sessions, but they also build each other up. “You’re like, ‘no, you deserve to have health insurance,’” Osborne said. “‘Stand up for yourself.'”
Working in childcare … to pay for childcare
When Juli Strang-Tryc had her first child about 16 years ago, her family joined together to help. She finished schooling to be a teacher but couldn’t find a teaching job, so she went back to school for another education certification. When her child turned three, she started working for an early childhood school that offered a discount for the child to enroll while Strang-Tryc worked there.
Strang-Tryc, of Munhall, said her pay was “so low” that even with the discount she had no expendable income left over. “If you’re a teacher, a parent, with children in care, despite your earnings, it typically just becomes a wash. So we had a really great care situation, but not so great of a financial situation.”
Six years later, she had another child who she also enrolled at her same workplace. The situation remained the same: a good childcare set up but strained finances. She loved her work, despite its challenges.
Around three years ago, though, she worked through frequent illness during her third pregnancy. Eventually, she transitioned from classroom work to writing curriculum.
“As a mother, by my third, your motherly instincts, you just want to be with your child, and you know that you’re the best person to care for them, to teach them,” Strang-Tryc said. “And as a teacher, you’re watching so many parents bring their children to you for this expertise, for this love, for this care. And the willingness to pay insane amounts of tuition. And it can put you at the epicenter of an emotional hurricane.”
Though Strang-Tryc has stepped back from the classroom, she still finds ways to support other mothers. She volunteers for Mother Forward, a grassroots organization that advocates for paid leave and other childcare-related policies. She has been meeting and learning about the struggles of other mothers, both locally and in other parts of the country.
“I just think that’s a place where we’re lacking as a society,” Strang-Tryc said. “Disempowering mothers to feel like they need somebody else to take care of their baby so that they can go back to work, to not really make an income. It’s just a nasty cycle that you live in and you bear witness to, day after day, as an early educator and a parent.
“And it’s really freaking hard.”
Matt Petras is a visiting professor of English for the University of Pittsburgh and a freelance reporter based in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at matt456p@gmail.com and on Bluesky @mattapetras.bsky.social.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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