Columbia Falls Daycare Closes Amid Childcare Shortage

When Mariah Masson was told that her 3-year-old son Sawyer’s daycare would close at the end of May, she started calling childcare centers around the Flathead Valley to see if there were any openings.

Sawyer is now on the waitlist at four daycares, and Masson hired a nanny to care for her son two days a week while she dropped her hours at her dog grooming business by nearly half so she could be with him the remainder of the time.

“There’s just no childcare,” Masson said. “Another daycare in Columbia Falls had five openings but they were filled in minutes. I’m fortunate that I was able to cut my work hours back.”

After eight years in business, Nature Kids Child Care Center, located off U.S. Highway 2 in Columbia Falls, will close its doors on May 31, leaving 50 families to find alternative childcare options.

Owner Nicole Brown said she received an eviction notice after she failed to pay April rent. She said according to the terms of her lease, she was responsible for building repairs, which she could not keep up with in the outdated facility that requires frequent maintenance and upgrades. This spring, the cost of repairs became too high for her to also cover the rent, Brown said.

Following the eviction, Brown reached out to community leaders and planned to find a new location for her state-licensed childcare center, but she couldn’t find a space that fit the state’s regulatory standards or the insurance standards. Safety regulations requiring a certain amount of square feet per child, a minimum number of exits and sprinkler systems created barriers in her search, she said.

Brown thought she finally found a space that would be ready by July, but she had nowhere to operate for the month of June.

“We contemplated being closed down for a month, but that’s a summer month – all the kids are full days,” Brown said. “I would not have my license for that month and any Best Beginnings scholarships or food programs would not be an option. It would have been a $5,000 to $6,000 hit — that was not an option.”

Brown eventually made the difficult decision to close entirely after realizing a new location was not in the cards.

“It’s terrifying for these families,” Brown said. “We are open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and provide two meals and a snack. Parents are now having to work part-time, and some have quit their jobs entirely. Some are talking about moving closer to family where they can have help.”

In addition to the 50 families she already serves, she had 62 kids on the waitlist, 17 of which were not born yet.

Nature Kids also provided care for 12 infants, which many childcare centers don’t have the resources for.

“It’s really hard to find infant care — it’s expensive to provide,” Brown said. “The staff ratio is 4-to-1. There’s bottles and diapers — that’s a lot more work on the adult’s part compared to a 3-year-old.”

As a state-licensed provider, Brown was also able to provide care for foster children and kids with special needs. Nature Kids had an after-school program and transportation from Glacier Gateway Elementary School.

Since the recent closure announcement, parents have been scrambling to find another daycare. Brown said other facilities in Kalispell have been inundated with calls, but nearly all the centers in the valley have waitlists and are struggling with staffing issues.

“I’ve had six to eight daycares reach out to me in the last two days begging for our staff, saying, ‘We don’t know if we can maintain if we can’t get more staff,’” Brown said. “It’s a massive problem.”

After 23 years working in the childcare industry, Brown says she will take the summer off to figure out what her next steps are.

“I am going to take some time and rest,” Brown said. “I am so tired — this has been an internal battle for a long time. It’s a hard area to be successful in.”

For Masson, she said her son will be devastated when June 1 rolls around and he can’t go to daycare anymore. As an only child, he’s able to socialize at daycare and he will miss all the staff and his friends.

“My son has benefited so much,” Masson said. “He was so engaged there.”

“It will impact my son more than anything,” she added.