POINT ARENA, CA., 1/26/26 — On Monday, South Coast Day Care’s director Julie Lotter welcomed a class of toddlers into their new playroom. According to Lotter, the day care, located in the former St. Paul’s Church on School Street, is now home to the first licensed toddler care program for children as young as 18 months in Point Arena.
The new service is a welcome addition for Point Arena parents, who have had historically limited childcare options, especially for children under two years old.
Last winter, South Coast Day Care’s administrator Kevin Polk conducted public surveys to determine what kind of childcare parents in Point Arena and Gualala needed most. Toddler care topped the list. While South Coast Day Care has previously offered after-school programs for kindergarten-age children, and part-time and all-day care for children two years and up, they never had a classroom set aside for toddlers. The new toddler care program can accommodate children from 18 months and features a space and curriculum tailored to the age group.
Polk said that many parents cannot afford to stay out of work until their child turns two. The purpose of opening a classroom for younger children is to “focus on helping families who have to work,” said Polk.
Lotter, who grew up in Point Arena, knows that childcare in the region has been hard to find — and equally hard to offer. Due to a small employment pool, hiring enough caretakers can be a challenge. Staffing becomes even more difficult when providing care to under three-year-olds, as younger children require higher child-to-teacher ratios.
To increase staff, South Coast Day Care was able to help teachers pay for state-mandated Early Childhood Education courses at Mendocino College. Lotter hopes these newly trained employees will act as a continued resource to the city, much as she has. After gaining over 30 years of experience in early childhood education in Seattle and elsewhere, Lotter returned to Point Arena to serve the school where she began her career. Coming back to her community to share her expertise has been, as she says, “like a full circle moment.”
In order to stay true to South Coast Day Care’s mission of supporting working families, Lotter and Polk have also had to devise ways to keep the day care’s services affordable. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the average cost of childcare in Mendocino is $1050 per month, a financial burden that for some means childcare is more expensive than rent. South Coast Day Care plans to reduce tuition for parents who volunteer their time and skills. The day care is also a nonprofit that accepts donations, and Lotter and Polk hope contributions might cover a significant portion of their overhead.
Keeping costs low has become even more imperative as access to childcare subsidies has been reduced among Point Arena families. Polk noted that after COVID-19, fewer South Coast Day Care families’ incomes qualified them for financial aid made available through the California Department of Education.
In addition, on January 6, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced it would be freezing access to $10 billion in federal child care and family assistance funds in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York over fraud concerns. The move comes a month after the Republican-led House Oversight Committee launched fraud investigations into Minnesota’s social services programs.
In response to the Trump administration’s move, California has joined other impacted states in a lawsuit, resulting in a temporary block on the freeze order. According to North Coast Opportunities, a nonprofit that connects Mendocino families with childcare subsidies, aid will remain available as “California has committed its own investments into funding for child care.”
Though funding remains intact, South Coast Day Care is prepared for the possibility of a full freeze. To support families who cannot access subsidies, “We have intentionally kept our rates lower than any other private nonprofit daycare center in the county,” notes Polk. As the threat of a funding freeze looms, childcare facilities in the impacted states must develop strategies to stay afloat — especially a vital community resource like South Coast Day Care.
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