A City Checks Out Day Care

The City of Yorba Linda appears ready to become active in securing more day care for the children of people employed in the city. How involved the city actually becomes is still to be determined, but the Yorba Linda City Council is looking hard at options. Unfortunately, that’s more than a lot of other cities are doing.

The issue was raised in Yorba Linda last month by Councilman Henry W. Wedaa, who believes that the shortage of day-care facilities is a serious problem that local government has a responsibility to address. Wedaa suggested that Yorba Linda address it by passing a law requiring large companies moving into the city to provide day care for employees’ children.

The proposal has met with mixed response. Some land developers, companies, residents and other council members don’t like the idea. Others, such as Carol Hatch, executive director of the Orange County Commission on the Status of Women, thinks it’s a “tremendous” idea.

The approach isn’t new. Two cities in California, Concord and San Francisco, already have ordinances that require developers either to provide on-site care or to pay fees to pay for child-care programs for their employees. Other communities across the nation are examining the approach.

But whether what works in Concord is appropriate for Yorba Linda will take some hard thinking. Councilmen last month first ordered a study of Wedaa’s suggestion and then instructed the city staff to explore for possible interest in joint efforts between major property owners and the business community to provide day care. That report is due to be presented to the council on Tuesday.

The best solution would be for more companies to recognize the proven advantages of providing day-care facilities. But, despite the proven advantages of less absenteeism, reduced personnel turnover and higher employee productivity and morale, too few companies are providing or to any extent subsidizing any form of child care.

The need for child-care facilities in Orange County far outstrips what is available. If overnight the available spaces were increased tenfold, they would still fall short of what’s needed.

If that gap is to be closed, it will take a coordinated effort among parents, business firms, schools--and government. Yorba Linda should proceed cautiously. There are a number of difficult questions about such a law. But analysis might also find such rules congenial to companies who employ large numbers of working parents and who would figure that locating in Yorba Linda would put them on an equal footing. At least Yorba Linda is working on the problem. The shame is that so many other cities, with the same or greater need, are not even thinking about day care for their children.