Quality early childhood education benefits everyone

It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of Learning Ladder after 30 years of caring for the children of Cottage Grove. Our last day will be Friday, August 23rd.
 
We have thoroughly enjoyed caring for your children as they learn and grow. We cannot thank our amazing and dedicated staff enough for the loving care they provide day in and day out.
 
We understand the high cost of childcare and have done everything we could to try and keep our fees affordable for families while paying respectable wages to our remarkable teachers. Unfortunately, our foundation has been slowly chipped away and we can no longer afford to remain open. After Covid, governmental grants and assistance programs helped prop us up for a while, but those programs have, or are about to end.
 
Sadly, we are not alone in closing our doors. Over the past decade, over 4,000 childcare programs across Wisconsin have shut down, and more continue to do so each week. There is a childcare crisis in our state! Linda has been lobbying for years to enact legislation that will make childcare affordable for all and plans to continue her advocacy efforts.
 
We thank all the thousands of families who have shared your children with us over these past 3 decades and wish you all the best. 

With heavy hearts,
The Kudrna Family
 
Many of you may wonder how we got to this point. The childcare industry is often misunderstood and regarded as little more than babysitters. A certain population in this country still believe that parents (mothers in particular) are expected to stay home and care for the children. These mothers who are unable to find or afford childcare are being excluded from the workforce and losing pace for promotions. Any assistance programs are viewed as entitlements. We encourage you to keep reading to learn more about the challenges childcare programs across our state are facing, Linda’s personal fight for affordable care, and what you can do to get involved to help ensure your next provider can succeed.
 
TLDR;

• For a childcare program to be successful, older classrooms (4’s and up) are needed
• We have lost nearly all our 4 & up year olds to district sponsored & taxpayer funded “Free 4K” and other unlicensed day camps
• Federal & State covid relief has or is ending
• You can help by contacting your representatives and urge them to pass childcare friendly legislation

 
First, a little background on tuition, staff-to-child ratios and how income is generated. Staff-to-child ratios, or classroom sizes, are strictly regulated for licensed childcare programs. They start out at 1 to 4 for children under the age of two, and gradually increase to 1 to 18 for school age children. Picture a pyramid with school-age classrooms on the bottom supporting the younger age groups. Within these parameters, an older classroom can generate two or three times the revenue of an infant room, even when individual tuition rates are higher for a younger child. When we break down the income and expenses by classroom, the younger (0-2) age groups operate at a loss. We depend on the older age groups to make up the difference.
 
The natural question is then, why offer care for these younger age groups or charge them more? The simple answer is that there is a much higher demand for care for children under the age of two. This is due to the smaller ratios and fewer providers willing to care for younger children. Infant waitlists are often a year or longer. To run a profitable standalone infant room, rates would need to increase 2- or 3-fold, $1,000 or more per week. This is simply unaffordable, especially for young first-time parents with all the other costs associated with a newborn.
 
In recent years, programs like Learning Ladder have slowly been losing 4-year-olds and school agers. There are a few reasons:
 
The first is due to the recent proliferation of public schools, including Monona Grove, offering taxpayer funded “Free 4K”. (Remember MGSD’s $13 million dollar a year referendum that passed in 2023 and showed up on your property tax bill last spring?) There are several theories on how to implement a 4K program. The prevailing best choice is the Community Collaboration option. In short, public schools collaborate with their local childcare providers to offer off-site classrooms. With this option, children remain in childcare programs that they are already familiar with, eliminate or reduce transportation and other costs for the district, and simplify wrap-around care for parents. For the first decade of Monona Grove’s 4K, this is how it worked in our community and Learning Ladder, along with other local childcare providers ran successful classrooms in our buildings. Then, after the completion of the new Granite Ridge elementary school, MG cancelled our contracts, took our 4K classrooms, and moved them to the district. On top of that, the district began offering their own limited wrap-around care at below market rates. Unfortunately for us, these types of wrap-around programs are not required to follow the same regulatory and licensing regulations that we do, and we cannot compete on costs. As a result, we have essentially lost all our 4-year-olds. This one classroom once accounted for 20% of our total income.
 
As Cottage Grove has grown, we have seen an increase in other day camp type care options for older children open. These programs are also unlicensed by the Department of Children and Families and therefore do not have the same burden of regulations, requirements, and fees as licensed childcare programs. In addition, these programs, like the school district’s after-care options, do not provide care for younger age groups. This allows them to charge fees well below what we can offer. As a result, our school-age enrollment has declined significantly, losing another 25% of our business.
 
And lastly, since Covid many parents have continued to work from home. Although they may still be “on the clock”, they are able keep an eye on their own children for those few hours after school and piece together care over the summer and school days off.
 
The loss of these older children eroded away the base of our pyramid, but was offset, for a time, by Covid era funding. The federal Payroll Protection Program helped for a while, but that money quickly ran out. Another program, Child Care Counts was created in 2021 by the State of Wisconsin specifically to assist childcare programs. At first, this was a lifesaver for us. The one caveat was that the funds can only be used to directly increase staff wages. With this grant money, we were able to give our teachers a much deserved $2.50-$3.00 per hour raise without increasing tuition. In the last year, these grant funds have been cut by 65%, leading to significant tuition increases to try to make up the difference. Childcare workers are already one of the lowest paid, especially considering the educational and college degree requirements. We refuse to take back their 20% raises as doing so would not only be unfair, but would also lead to teachers leaving for other, better paying jobs.
 
As a result, labor costs have crept up from 65% before covid to almost 90% this summer. In September, we expect it will climb above 100%. We would be unable to cover payroll, let alone rent, insurance, utilities, food, supplies, and all the other costs associated with running a business.
 
What can be done?
Linda, along with a group of other childcare advocates from across the state have been meeting with government representatives, holding press conferences, helping to write new legislation, and lobbying for fair and equitable laws that will make childcare affordable for families and providers. The legislation they hope to pass include
1) requiring school districts to collaborate with providers to offer 4K and 3K classrooms in childcare programs with fair and equitable funding,
2) requiring all childcare providers, including school sponsored, church sponsored, day camps, etc. to be licensed under the same set of rules, and
3) the permanent funding of Child Care Counts at the original funding levels.
 
You can help by reaching out to your representatives and urging them to pass these affordable childcare laws. Share our story and how your family has been affected. If this change affects your job, ask your employer to reach out. Many legislators ignore the simple man, but businesses can have a larger voice.
 
If you have made it this far, we thank you for taking the time to learn about the struggles we have been facing for years. We have been operating in survival mode behind the scenes for so long that it almost seems normal. Although this is nothing new and much has been shared before, the message is often lost in the chaos of everyday life. Real change for childcare in Wisconsin will only happen if more voices speak up. Share your story far and wide, and just maybe we can make a change that will benefit all children.

 Welcome to the Learning Ladder Family!
​We realize you are facing a very important decision and appreciate your interest in our learning center

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Fully licensed by WI DCF
5 Star Rating by Wisconsin Youngstar
Accredited by National Accreditation Association

ARE YOU READY TO SEE OUR SCHOOL IN PERSON?

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SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

• ​Welcoming, warm, and joyful family-oriented environment.
• Open year-round, with convenient hours from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. 
• Nutritious breakfast and snack provided daily.
• Culturally diverse enrollment.
• Qualified, long-term, teaching staff.
• Hands-on Administration support.
• Full service early childhood school providing education and care for Infants & Toddlers, 3K & 4K, School-Age  Wrap-Around Care and a fun- filled Summer Camp.
• Outdoor park-like playgrounds with creative and exciting play areas. 

SAFETY

• Locked entry.
• Instant electronic record of your child’s arrival and departure.
• Computerized record of all individuals authorized to pick up your child.
• Security cameras.
• Daily health check and double check attendance in classrooms.
• First Aid and CPR certified teachers.
• Fire drills are performed monthly.
• Evacuation plans are in place and practiced annually.
• Excellent credentials and training. Our staff-interview process includes state and federal background checks, reference verification, fingerprint verification, a comprehensive orientation and a minimum of 25 additional training hours each year.

LEARNING ENVIORNMENT

• A philosophy that embraces the joy of early childhood development with a focus on social and emotional growth.
• Optional enrichment courses periodiaclly offered including: Yoga, Swimming, Gymnastics, Dance or Karate.
• Separate age-appropriate classrooms.
• Children successfully transition into both public and private schools with high level of readiness skills.
• Age appropriate theme-based and emmergent curriculum topics.
• Child assessments and parent-teachers conferences.

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Family Communication

     Frequent ongoing communication between parents, teachers and our administration team is essential for your child to get the most out of their early education. We will begin our journey together with a tour and detailed orientation.
     Once enrolled,  we primarily use the Lillio (formerly HiMama) app for quick daily communication. This app allows teachers to send electronic updates, photos, messages and reminders to parents directly to your phone and/or email throughout the day. Parents and teachers love how easy it is to communicate with each other.
     Additionally, Lillio has a digital portfolio where your child’s teacher will add pictures of the daily activities. And let's not forget, the ongoing assessments, checkpoints and parent conferences.