Childcare Databases in The Washington Post

"In the beginning, Andrea and Travis Schroeder's hunt for child care in Grand Junction, Colo., was all too typical. They put out a call on Facebook. Crickets. They asked their neighbors. Shrugs. When the Schroeders finally found an open slot, it was at an unlicensed center where, after a few weeks, their adopted 18-month-old granddaughter, Madison, came home 'spouting cusswords.' Their next provider was also unlicensed and would sometimes take Madison with her on other jobs — and not be home when the Schroeders came to pick her up.

Then, eight months after their search began, a member of the couple's church mentioned that she was helping to build a new database of child care providers for the county — and offered to do a search for them. The Schroeders outlined their requirements — preferred location, price, a center that would help them to potty train — and 'she came back with a list of licensed centers and how many openings were available,' Andrea Schroeder said. 'It made it really easy.'"

The Schroeders' story rings familiar to millions of American families who urgently need child care and can't find it. More than half of all children — particularly those from low- and middle-income, Hispanic and rural communities — live in a child care desert, which is defined as an area where there are too few licensed slots for the number of children who need care.

"Imagine you were looking for an apartment and you were only able to see 40 percent of the inventory. And of the ones listed, only 20 percent had the price listed and half listed the number of bedrooms. Would you use that? No, you would not."

According to a survey conducted by Upfront, a New York-based software firm that builds child care databases, only about 40 percent of providers have a website — and only a fraction of those are maintained or updated.

Upfront and a handful of other companies are building on an effort that began in the wake of the pandemic, when state and municipal governments received federal stimulus funds for child care. Now, the private sector is taking note of companies with systems designed to bring the search for child care into the digital age.

"Childcare is the wild west," said Laura Weeldreyer, executive director of the Maryland Family Network (MFN), a nonprofit that serves parents and child care providers. "Enrollment data, price data, attendance data — all the things you need to know — don't exist."

Weeldreyer came to MFN after a career in K-12 education, a sector she describes as "drowning in data." In 2022, bolstered by additional funds from the pandemic-era stimulus, MFN hired Upfront to build a statewide searchable database of providers for parents and its team of child care consultants.

Called LOCATE, it allows parents to instantly see where child care providers are located, what ages they serve and at what price. It also highlights centers that have open spots and provides a messaging platform and contact information. Through recent data-collection campaigns across the state, Upfront identified 1,600 vacancy spots that providers had not previously shared.

For a parent on the hunt for child care, a simple search can feel like a miracle. When Charisé Lake-Shenoda, a 33-year-old mother of twin toddlers, moved to Maryland in the fall of 2023, she spent a month searching for child care while working full time. She joined a paid service, which found nothing, and begged colleagues and neighbors for recommendations.

Then, in October, she saw a post on Reddit about LOCATE. "I went and searched town by town, then emailed a bunch of providers. A woman emailed me back that same afternoon to say she had slots for both children," Lake-Shenoda said. "I started weeping on the phone."

Jane Black, a former Washington Post staff writer, covers food politics, trends and sustainability issues.