EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Family-run Little Footsteps Day Care and Learning Center will close its doors on November 27 after nearly two decades of operation, and its owner said this is due to the challenges most privately owned nurseries are likely facing.

“I think there are a lot of daycares out there — and they might not admit it — but I think a lot of us are struggling because of low enrollment and high food costs. The same barriers that we face, I think, are felt everywhere,” said Blanca Gonzalez, owner of Little Footsteps.

Gonzalez said that they opened the nursery 18 years ago with the idea of ​​a place where they could care for their own 4 children instead of paying for a separate nursery.

Gonzalez said they constantly had to raise interest rates, which eventually forced them to close down.

“It was a very difficult decision (to close). All our staff are like family to us. We can’t keep up (with inflation). We can’t increase our prices anymore. We fell into a vicious cycle where we couldn’t raise our prices because families couldn’t afford the higher nursery fees. So we were kind of stuck in the middle,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the heaviest costs to them were rising food and gasoline prices. Little Footsteps provides children with four meals a day and transportation to and from school.

Gonzalez said low reimbursement rates from Texas Child Care Services, which covers some of the costs for qualifying low-income families, also played a role in the closure.

“The main challenge this time was the low reimbursement rate for subsidized child care. “This doesn’t compare to what we charge private families,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez also noted that parents who must rely on subsidies from CCS must be on a waiting list for more than two years to receive approval.

Gonzalez added that on top of these financial issues, they also had to compete with the federally funded Educational Service Center – Region 19 Home Start Program, which recently opened just a few miles from their work.

Parents with children at Little Footsteps said they are concerned about the high cost of child care and the difficulties they currently face in finding someone who can provide the same care that Little Footsteps offers.

“I’ve been here for nine years. My children have grown up here since they were born. So Little Footsteps had been their nursery for a while. So it really affected us in our routines. And it will be difficult to look for a daycare,” said Blanca Martinez, who was about to burst into tears.

“I don’t know if my kids would feel comfortable (elsewhere). They’ve been here for nine years. Here (Little Footsteps) they treat them like family,” Martinez added.

Martinez said her main priority in finding another child care center was to have it open as early as 5:30 a.m. so she could get her four children from school and get to work.

Ariel Chacon has three children at Little Footsteps, and even though she’s had them enrolled there for less than three years, she struggles to find someone who can offer them the same detailed care.

“My children came from a different nursery. “They were mistreated and other things, and now that they’re here, it’s completely (different).” said Chacon. “This nursery takes our children to school and picks them up. “They provide food and everything, and that’s an extra help for all of us parents, especially the single mothers here.”

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