State approves new child care micro facility in Owen County

Owen County families will soon have another option for child care, with a new state-approved facility expected to open in Spencer this fall and focus primarily on serving infants and toddlers.

The Owen County Childcare Coalition, Uplands Smart Start and South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) partnered to apply for Indiana’s Child Care Micro-Facility Pilot Program in response to the county’s need for greater access to high-quality early care and learning opportunities.

On Aug. 7, the Indiana Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) notified the partners that their proposal had been approved. The award includes $49,999 to help establish the program, which must be open and operational as a state-approved micro-facility by Oct. 31.

The new facility will be located on the grounds of the Owen County Public Library in the building currently occupied by Owen County Adult Education.

What is a child care micro facility?

Indiana created the Micro Facility Pilot Program as a new approach to expanding child care, particularly in communities where families have limited access to care.

Under the state program, a micro facility is a smaller child care program operating in a non-residential setting and serving between three and 30 children at a time for more than four hours per day.

Unlike a traditional stand-alone child care center, a micro-facility operates as an extension of an established child care provider. This allows the smaller location to share resources, staff and administrative support with the larger provider.

The model also uses streamlined regulations designed to reduce some of the costs associated with opening and operating a child care center while continuing to meet health and safety requirements. Indiana officials have identified community locations such as libraries, schools and shopping centers as potential sites for micro facilities.

The state’s goal is to make it easier for established providers to expand into communities where opening a larger traditional child care center may not be financially feasible.

For Owen County, that model created an opportunity to bring an established early childhood provider into an existing community building.

Library provides home for new program

The micro facility will be housed in the building currently occupied by Owen County Adult Education on the grounds of the Owen County Public Library.

Adult Education is expected to move into a new location this fall. Recognizing the need for additional high-quality early care and learning opportunities in Owen County, the library’s board of directors agreed to make the building available for the new child care program.

Much of the renovation work needed to prepare the building has already been completed. Installation of fencing and additional outdoor improvements are expected to begin soon.

The facility has been approved to serve children from infancy through preschool. However, organizers plan to focus primarily on infants and toddlers, an age group for which finding child care can be particularly challenging for families.

Specific information about the number of available spaces, hours of operation, tuition and the enrollment process is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Experienced provider to operate facility

SCCAP will operate the Spencer micro-facility.

The Bloomington-based nonprofit serves families throughout Brown, Monroe, Morgan and Owen counties and has more than 55 years of experience providing programs and services to families in south-central Indiana.

SCCAP already operates several early childhood programs in Monroe County, including Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Its Early Head Start programming serves children from six weeks through age 3 and focuses on early childhood development and family support.

By partnering with an established provider rather than creating an entirely new child care organization, the micro facility model allows Owen County’s new site to draw upon SCCAP’s existing early childhood expertise, staffing resources and administrative infrastructure.

The Spencer location will also demonstrate the type of partnership envisioned by Indiana’s Micro Facility Pilot Program: an established child care provider, local organizations and an existing community space working together to create additional child care capacity without the expense of constructing a traditional child care center.

Additional information about enrollment and the opening of the new Owen County micro-facility will be announced as plans are finalized.