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Child Care in Crookston - Stepping up to ease the shortage

Crookston Daily Times - 8/16/2018

Aug. 13--A December 2017 story in the Crookston Daily Times on the First Presbyterian Church reaching out to welcome child care providers sparked interest in a former Tri-Valley Head Start employee to look into starting her own child care business and she's now accepting families.

Stephanie Nelson of Crookston told the Times that she started the process in April and is finally opening her child care rooms to accept 10 kids under her C1 license.

Nelson graduated from South Central College in Faribault with an Associates degree in Child Development, but not before joining the AmeriCorps in 1998 and starting her journey at the University of Minnesota Crookston Children's Center. She was placed with Tri-Valley Head Start in East Grand Forks in 2007 and transferred to Crookston in 2015. After reading the Times' article on First Presbyterian, she toured the building and everything went "pretty smooth."

"I received a grant from Child Aware through the City of Crookston and started training," Nelson explained. "They have monthly classes in Crookston, but I also traveled to Argyle to complete everything sooner."

"I am building up to be star-rated through Child Aware," she added.

Nelson currently has three preschool openings, ages two and under, and one school age, ages two and older, opening. Her infant/baby spots filled up right away though some are not starting until November. She says she has tried to ease into it, but her social media post to network her business fielded half a dozen phone calls at once.

Inside First Presbyterian Church, Nelson has two classrooms and access to the fellowship hall or multi-purpose room and full-sized kitchen. She also has a private pick-up/drop-off door near the parking lot making it easier and more secure for everyone.

Her child care hours will be from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Nelson has yet to display a curriculum because she wants to base her activities off the interests of the children and their individual development. She will have a flat rate of $130 per week with part-time hours of 20 hours at $75 per week. Drop-in care will be $30 per day and drop-in care families will still need to go through the entire process of filling out the application and forms, plus provide immunization records, said Nelson.

And, she has already prepared her food menu which includes breakfast, lunch and a snack.

"I'm getting to do what I love," said Nelson.

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