{"id":252651,"date":"2026-04-16T14:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252651\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:26:10","slug":"child-advocacy-group-warns-of-child-care-deserts-across-texas-including-el-paso-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252651\/","title":{"rendered":"Child advocacy group warns of child care deserts across Texas, including El Paso"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 Data <\/a>from Children at Risk<\/a>, a group that studies child well-being, shows \u201cchild care deserts\u201d across Texas, areas where there are far more young children than available care. <\/p>\n

In El Paso, several ZIP codes \u2014 including 79911, 79906, 79908, 79836 and 79838 \u2014 show zero available child care seats per 100 children of working parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of friends who can’t even work because they don’t have the childcare,\u201d one woman said.<\/p>\n

Kim Kofron, executive director of early childhood education at Children at Risk, said consistent, reliable and affordable child care is a major barrier for young families.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest barriers that young families have with, with young children is making sure they have a consistent, reliable, affordable childcare,\u201d Kofron said.<\/p>\n

Even where care is available, Children at Risk estimates there are about 49 child care seats for every 100 children, leaving about half the need unmet.<\/p>\n

Jordan Salas reports on Some El Paso zip codes have zero child care availability, data shows (Credit: KFOX14)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

At Grammies Daycare and Learning Center in West El Paso, co-owner Devina Buentello said the demand is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemand for childcare is huge. Folks need to work. People need to go to school. They want quality care for their children,\u201d Buentello said.<\/p>\n

But meeting that demand comes with challenges, including staffing. Buentello said it can be difficult to find qualified workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s difficult to find qualified, people, you know, in order to, to watch the children. We can’t just have anyone watch the kids. You need to make sure that you have quality people that are patient and loving,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For families, limited staffing and high demand can translate into long wait lists. One parent said, \u201cI think most daycares that you think are the best daycares in town don’t always have spots available. So your kids are waiting six months to a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children at Risk also pointed to funding as a factor, saying families can struggle to access financial help for care. Kofron said federal funding for child care scholarships for low-income families is not meeting demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now the funding that we have through the federal government, to offer child care scholarships to low income families only serves about 25% of the need for children under the age of six,\u201d Kofron said.<\/p>\n

A man described the challenge of finding and paying for care, saying, \u201cIt’s a very big struggle with people being able to find childcare, find affordable child care.\u201d He added, \u201cWe got to figure out ways to make sure kids are taken care of and we’re able to take care of our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children at Risk said addressing the gaps will take more funding and support for child care providers.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: New Mexico DOJ sues CYFD, cites systemic failures and secrecy in child welfare report<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up <\/a>to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 Data from Children at Risk, a group that studies child well-being, shows \u201cchild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-252651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}