Child care providers across Minnesota will close their centers on Monday as part of “A Day Without Child Care.” Events are planned in St. Paul, Virginia, Bemidji, Duluth and Rochester through the coalition Kids Count on Us, which represents more than 500 community-based child care centers across the state.

“I opened my first site in 2009,” said Monique Stumon, the owner and director of School Readiness Learning Academy in North Minneapolis. “We started out with 12 kids, and within a matter of two months, we grew to 30 kids.”

She now operates multiple locations. Her goal is to help prepare students for elementary school.

“We have to give these kids a better start so they can be successful,” said Stumon.

She sees firsthand the stress providers and families are under amid the current child care crisis.

“We have more grandparents caring for kids now, we have more foster kids coming through our doors now, co-pays for parents have gone up,” said Stumon, describing the challenges. “We have a lot of families that are struggling to try to keep up with child care.”

Her center will close at noon on Monday as part of “A Day Without Child Care.”

“It was hard for us to do it,” she said. “I’m in a community where if people don’t go to work, they can’t feed their kids. I’m in a community that if I don’t go to work, I could get fired the next day. We decided to do half a day so that we can accommodate a number of families still giving them child care but closing because it’s very important we make a stand.”

Providers will gather to call for more public funding to make child care affordable and increase base wages for teachers. According to Kids Count on Us, compensation accounts for 85% of child care center budgets.

“It’s important we look at early childhood in a different way,” said Stumon. “I think it’s important we fund early childhood. I don’t think any family should pay more than 7% of their income.”

A 2022 report from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows single parents spent nearly 22% of their income on child care.

The Wilder Child Development Center is hosting an event on Monday where teachers and families can make signs and participate in a march.

“We decided we wanted to make some noise,” said Angela Clair, the director of early childhood services at the center. “Child care is an issue for everyone. If you own a business, you have an employee that has kids, they need somewhere for their kids to be so they can work. It involves everybody.”

One priority for those organizing the events is increasing funding for Early Learning Scholarships.

“We have a lot of families that come to us with the Early Learning Scholarship and child care assistance, and there’s a waitlist for both programs right now,” said Clair. “Families are stuck in the middle of, ‘I need to go to work, I need childcare’ and ‘How do we pay for it?’”