On February 22, 2024, the Detroit City Planning Commission voted yes to a zoning amendment to reform existing regulations for licensed child care facilities in Detroit. Next this zoning amendment will go to the Detroit City Council for final enactment.

SIGN THIS PETITION TO SUPPORT THESE IMPORTANT REFORMS AND EXPAND ACCESS TO LICENSED CHILD CARE FACILITIES IN DETROIT.

The Incredible Value of Child Care

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. Indeed, licensed child care facilities provide incredible value to their communities in so many ways: 

• Child care is the first step of early childhood education and sets kids up for success in kindergarten and elementary school, with lasting academic benefits through high school.
• Child care ensures that infants and toddlers will be cared for in a safe and nurturing environment.
• Child care enables parents to remain in the labor force, increasing household income and boosting economic productivity.
• The availability of child care facilities can help communities grow by attracting new residents, especially young families.
• 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 child care business owners are women, a vast majority of whom identify as women of color.
• Home-based day care brings crucial extra income into the provider’s household, ensuring their ability to fully maintain their property and remain a stable presence in their community. 

The Unmet Need for Child Care in Detroit

By current estimates, approximately 37,000 Detroit children under 5 years of age need space in a license child care facility. However, Detroit currently has capacity for only about half of this need, leaving more than 15,500 kids - and their working parents – without the care that they need. This shortage is particularly acute in home-based facilities: Nationally, nearly 30% of families rely on home-based child care; however in Detroit, only 6% of child care openings are home-based. If Detroit is going to expand its labor force, improve economic development, increase its population, support community engagement and take care of its children and their families, it must enable more child care options in all of its neighborhoods.

Proposed Reforms to Expand Access to Child Care in Detroit

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

• Allow freestanding child care centers in additional residential and recreation zoning districts. Under this reform, the zoning permissions for child care centers will be more closely aligned with those for schools, religious institutions, recreation centers, and other neighborhood civic organizations.
• Allow more residents to establish home-based day cares in additional zoning districts, even if they live in areas zoned for commercial or mixed-use purposes.
• Eliminate unnecessary land use public hearings - and associated fees - for higher-capacity home-based day cares in residential districts. The City government has never denied zoning approval for a home-based day care in a residential district. However, the existing public hearing process remains mandatory and can cost applicants more than $1,000, creating significant hardships for aspiring day care providers. 

Opposition Without Merit

A small number of vocal opponents to these reforms have complained that additional home-based child care options will disrupt their peace and tranquility of their neighborhoods in the form of increased traffic, noise, and other nuisances. However, according to its property maintenance records, the Detroit City government has never received a nuisance or property-related complaint arising from the operation of a child care facility.

DETROIT’S CHILDREN ARE ITS FUTURE, NOT A NUISANCE.

To further protect their surrounding communities, the proposed zoning amendment:

• Prohibits home-based day cares in apartments and other multiple-family dwellings
• Requires spacing between day cares to prevent their over-proliferation in any one location.
• Requires notice be sent to neighbors with contact information for state and local regulatory agencies. 

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION:

BECAUSE you want Detroit’s youngest residents to be cared for in nurturing environments by experienced and state-licensed child care professionals, and

BECAUSE you want their parents to be able to remain in the workforce without fear for their children’s safety and welfare while on the job, and

BECAUSE you support expanded career opportunities for Detroiters as day care providers and early childhood educators, and 

BECAUSE you believe that high-quality and affordable child care options should be accessible to children and their families in all neighborhoods, and that Detroiters are best cared for by Detroiters, and

BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE THE DETROIT CITY COUNCIL SHOULD TAKE ACTION NOW TO EXPAND ACCESS TO LICENSED CHILD CARE FACILITIES IN DETROIT

We will share upcoming Public Meeting times with City Council as soon as they are scheduled.