RANDOLPH — A Randolph child care program is slated to add six more spaces in July with the help of a grant from Let’s Grow Kids and the Vermont Department of Children and Families Child Development Division.
The $10,000 Make Way for Kids grant will allow Kierstan’s Little Ducklings — a three-star registered home-based child care program that opened last summer — to double the number of spaces available for children ages birth to 5, said the program’s owner, Kierstan McConnell. It also will allow the program to become licensed.
“I’m happy to be able to offer parents in the Randolph area and surrounding towns another great option for child care,” McConnell said in a news release from Let’s Grow Kids, a Burlington-based nonprofit that aims to make high-quality, affordable child care available across Vermont by 2025.
McConnell’s waiting list has 17 children and it “continues to grow by the week,” she said in an email.
The expansion of McConnell’s program comes as many Vermont families are struggling to find quality, affordable care for their young children. Three out of five infants likely to need care in Vermont don’t have access to any regulated program and nearly 80% don’t have access to high-quality programs, according to a recent report from Let’s Grow Kids.
“Ensuring all our kids get a strong start is our best chance to make the biggest impact on Vermont’s future,” Let’s Grow Kids CEO Aly Richards said in the release.
As part of the expansion, McConnell said she plans to use the grant funds to purchase a bigger table for all of the children to be able to sit together for meals and activities, more infant high chairs, a sensory table, a stroller that can seat six children for walks in the neighborhood, a refrigerator for storing extra food, a music center with instruments and a CD player, art materials and more nap mats and cribs.
In addition to welcoming more children into her care, McConnell said she will use the grant funds to become a licensed program, which will require her to hire another staff member and comply with additional regulations.
“Although slightly challenging to accommodate the regulations from licensing, I am up for the challenge!” she said in the email.
Previous recipients of Make Way for Kids grants in the Upper Valley include the Bridgewater Area Community Foundation to create a new child care program that will serve eight infants and six toddlers, as part of the foundation’s effort to convert the former Bridgewater Village School to a community center. Another such grant supported adding 16 new spaces at Woodstock’s Rainbow Playschool.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
