Business leaders highlight rising cost of child care crisis in South Dakota

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - On July 20th, ReadyNation will hold an online panel to discuss “The Growing, Annual Cost of the Infant-Toddler Child Care Crisis in South Dakota” report. The panel will feature parents and business leaders from South Dakota who have directly felt the effects of the childcare crisis and will explore possible solutions to aid families and employers in the state.

South Dakota has approximately 36,000 children under the age of three, with nearly 75% of these infants and toddlers having working mothers. Consequently, many young children are in childcare while their parents work to provide for their families. Unfortunately, South Dakota’s current early childhood education system fails to meet its requirements.

ReadyNation’s report highlights the alarming lack of childcare availability in South Dakota, with 43% of South Dakotans living in a childcare “desert,” where there are more than three children under the age of five for every licensed childcare slot. This crisis could cost South Dakota a staggering $329 million annually in lost productivity, revenue, and wages.

This Thursday members of the business leader membership group ReadyNation will meet to discuss the causes and possible solutions to this crisis as outlined in the ReadyNation report.

The webinar will be available by registration through Zoom and will be held Thursday, July 20 at 12 p.m. The event will include two members of ReadyNation, David Emery, Retired Chairman and CEO of Black Hills Energy, and Michael L. Bockorny, Chief Executive Officer of Aberdeen Development Corporation. They will be joined by Stephanie Weigand, a working parent from South Dakota who has had to deal with the childcare crisis firsthand.

REGISTRATION LINK.

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