JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mayor Donna Deegan on Thursday unveiled the Childcare Solutions for Early Learning Task Force report and recommended a new initiative, River City Care, aimed at making child care more affordable and accessible while strengthening Jacksonville’s workforce.
The task force’s report, the mayor said, frames child care as infrastructure — workforce, economic and community — rather than merely a family issue.
“When child care works, families work. When families work, businesses thrive,” Deegan said.
The report found Jacksonville families pay between $1,000 and more than $2,400 per child per month for child care, costs that for many rival or exceed housing expenses. Officials said those pressures force families to choose among child care, housing, transportation, groceries and health care.
Statewide consequences are large, the task force said: child care challenges cost Florida an estimated $5.38 billion a year in lost economic potential, including about $4.47 billion in employer costs from absenteeism, turnover and lost productivity.
The report noted 64% of Florida parents with young children reported missing work or school because of child care disruptions, and 15% said they had left a job because of child care issues.
Workforce shortages and low pay for early educators were cited as central barriers to expanding capacity. The average early learning educator in Duval County earns just over $37,000 a year, while a survival budget for a family of four in the county approaches $80,000, the report said. Many centers operate below capacity because they cannot recruit or retain qualified staff, officials added.
Lynne Sherman, the city’s executive director of health programs and leader of the task force, said early learning in the years from birth to age 3 is critical for brain development and later school success.
“We have to stop thinking about child care as babysitting and start recognizing it for what it truly is: early care and education,” Sherman said.
River City Care would focus on improving affordability, expanding capacity — especially for infants and toddlers — strengthening workforce compensation and career pathways, creating a centralized navigation system for families and partnering with employers on family-friendly workplace solutions. The initiative also calls for consistent quality standards across programs.
Deegan emphasized the proposal does not call for an expansion of municipal spending. The city, through Kids Hope Alliance, already provides $3.5 million toward early learning to the Early Learning Coalition of Duval County, which helps secure an approximately $3 million state match, she said.
City officials said they will seek partnerships with employers, philanthropy, health organizations, education institutions, faith communities and nonprofits to implement recommendations.
Parents who took part in the task force’s focus groups said child care is where children learn and grow, not merely a place to keep them while parents work.
Minnie Hines, a parent representative, said child care can consume a large portion of a household budget and that navigating programs and enrollment can be overwhelming.
“When I see my child bringing home homework and excited about learning to read and write at 4 years old, it reminds me how much these early childhood teachers contribute to our children’s future,” Hines said.
Yasmina White was the parent who called in to First Coast Connect on its “Ask the Mayor” segment.
“I simply just called in and said, ‘Have you had a thought about creating a task force related to childcare?,’” she said.
She got emotional during the press conference because it meant so much to her.
“I have two young children and I know families that are impacted by this cost burden,” she said.
Arica Brown is a parent who is paying over $1,000 a month for two kids. She also has a child with special needs, which made costs even higher.
“If we could just get more involvement, keep spreading the word, going out to different centers and things like that, I think that’s the main thing that I would like to see,” she said.
Cheryl Fontaine, a task force member and executive director at the Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida, called the recommendations “well grounded” and urged leaders to treat early learning and quality child care as essential infrastructure for the city’s future workforce and prosperity.
The 24-member task force included representatives from education, health care, business, philanthropy, government, nonprofit and early learning sectors.
City officials said the report is a starting point and that next steps include convening the task force and community partners to identify objectives, map existing resources and pursue collaborative, nonmunicipal funding strategies to expand access to high-quality early learning across Jacksonville.