JACKSON, Wyo. — The Town of Jackson now has a list of Early Child Education and Childcare providers in the Jackson Hole area, available on the town’s site.
Expanding Childcare and Early Childhood Education is one of the Town Councils’ two-year priorities and the resource page is one of the early action items. The page will be updated annually and was compiled with the help of the Department of Family Services (DFS), which licenses early childhood education providers.
There are currently 18 providers listed on the website.
“Helping people find information and supporting accessible options for Early Childhood Education and Childcare is a win-win for our community,” Mayor Hailey Morton Levinson said. “The Town is also planning to offer childcare during public meetings when they happen in-person again. As a mother of three, I am proud to help expand the possibilities for when and where care for young children is provided.”
Town staff also included information about substitute teaching after hearing from local early childhood education providers about the challenges related to finding substitute teachers.
According to the new webpage, the state is working to simplify and streamline the process for early childhood education substitutes to easily work for multiple providers. In the meantime, DFS maintains a list of qualified substitutes for licensed providers to access with a password and has created a probationary period for Substitutes already qualified at one provider to start working for a different provider during the qualifying process for that provider.
In April 2021, the council and the Board of County Commissioners passed resolutions proclaiming “the week of the young child,” honoring, ‘the those committed to enhancing the lives of young children and their families and encourages all citizens to work to make an investment in early childhood education in our community.”
According to the proclamations, “27% of children, 0-3 living in Teton County live below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. 16 million children ages birth to 3 in the U.S receive local government programs and services.”
