Lend Your Voice to Support Expanding Child Care in Detroit

On Feb. 15, 2024, the Detroit City Planning Commission will consider a proposed zoning amendment to reform existing regulations for licensed child care facilities in Detroit. Currently, child care facilities in Detroit can provide space for less than half the children under 5 in the city. The proposed reforms would help support and expand child care, making it easier for families to find safe, quality spaces for their little ones.

Child Care Benefits Us All

Child care facilities are tightly regulated by the State of Michigan and provide safe, high-quality, and affordable services for young children and their families. But quality child care is crucial for maintaining healthy, thriving communities.

  • Child care is the first step of early childhood education and sets kids up for success with lasting academic benefits well beyond high school.
  • Child care enables parents to remain in the labor force, increasing household income, boosting economic productivity, and benefiting their community, while ensuring that infants and toddlers are in a safe and nurturing environment.
  • Availability of child care facilities and services helps communities grow by attracting new residents – especially young families – and businesses whose employees need child care options.

Helping Care for Our Children

To address Detroit’s unmet need for child care, the proposed zoning amendment includes the following reforms:

  • Align child care zoning permissions more closely with schools, religious institutions, recreation centers, and other neighborhood civic organizations, allowing for child care facilities in more residential- and recreational-zoned areas.
  • Allow more residents to establish home-based day cares in additional zoning districts.
  • Eliminate unnecessary land use public hearings and fees for higher-capacity home-based day cares in residential districts. Despite the City’s never denying this type of zoning appeal, child care providers must pay more than $1,000 for the hearing.
  • Prohibit home-based day cares in apartments and other multi-family dwellings.
  • Require spacing between day cares to prevent their over-proliferation in any one location.
  • Require notice be sent to neighbors of child care facilities, including contact information for state and local regulatory agencies.

On Feb. 15, we hope to hear from all stakeholders affected by this decision, including: child care providers; parents of young children; residents living near existing day care facilities (particularly home-based facilities); business owners whose employees rely on day care to remain in the labor force; and organizations supporting child welfare, early childhood education, and community development.

We need the support of as many people as possible to show that we’re a city dedicated to the welfare of our children.

Support Detroit Child Care

This is our collective chance to make sure the voices of Detroit’s families, children, and child care providers are heard. Together we can clearly show the importance of access to quality childhood education and child care by supporting the proposed amendment. Here’s how you can help:

Attend and Provide Comment at CPC’s Hearing:

Showing up (in-person or virtually) is the most impactful way to support the ordinance. Everyone in attendance will have 1-2 minutes to speak directly to the CPC commissioners.
Join us: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15
In-person: Coleman A Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Avenue, 13th Floor, Detroit
Virtually: City of Detroit Zoom
By phone: 312 626 6799, Webinar ID: 963 5559 3579

Submit Written Comments Ahead of the Hearing:

Email your comments before Feb. 15 to have them included in the CPC commissioners’ meeting preparation.

Sign the Petition in Support of the Ordinance:

We need as many people as possible to sign to show the breadth of support for our children. Click here to sign

Spread the Word!

Anything that you can do to help spread the word through your own professional, personal, and social media networks would be amazing. Encourage people to attend the public hearing, write emails to the CPC, and share the link to the petition. This issue doesn’t just affect child care providers and families; increasing quality child care benefits all of us.

Inspiration & Talking Points

Want some inspiration for your comments and messages? Try some of these:

High-quality child care is labor intensive and creates sustainable local job opportunities that do not require a college degree. In Detroit, over 95% of independent childcare business owners are women, a vast majority of whom identify as women of color.

Child care enables parents to remain in the labor force, increasing household income, boosting economic productivity, and benefiting their community, while ensuring that infants and toddlers are in a safe and nurturing environment.

Approximately 37,000 Detroit children under 5 years of age need space in a licensed child care space. However, Detroit currently has capacity for only about half of them, leaving more than 15,500 kids – and their working parents – without the care they need.

Child care is the first step of early childhood education and sets kids up for success with lasting academic benefits well beyond high school.

Availability of child care facilities and services helps communities grow by attracting new residents – especially young families – and businesses whose employees need child care options.

Posted on February 12th, 2024 | View All Posts