Chuck Larson has been involved in early childhood education for 35 years and has never seen a higher demand for child-care teachers and aides in Hawai'i.

The shortage and frequent turnover is adding to already long waiting lists to get into childcare centers on every island and forcing some children to adjust to one new teacher after another.

"This is the worst it's ever been," said Larson, executive director of Seagull Schools Inc., which runs Hawai'i's largest early-education center. "We've been knocking on every door and turning over every rock looking for teachers."

As Hawai'i continues to enjoy one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, early-education aides, substitutes, assistant teachers and teachers — who typically make around $18,000 a year — have discovered they have plenty of options and usually can earn more doing something else.

"It's getting harder and harder to retain staff because of the good economy and because people who work in childcare don't make a whole heck of a lot of money," said Coreen Lee, associate director of People Attentive to Children, or PATCH, a Hawai'i-based childcare resource and referral agency. "They can make more working at McDonald's."

Hawai'i's childcare industry employs an estimated 9,400 people and generates more than $240 million per year in revenue, according to an economic impact study by the Good Beginnings Alliance.

On O'ahu, childcare costs for children 1 to 2 years old average $543 per month, according to PATCH. Statewide, the average is $517.

The most obvious solution to attracting more aides and teachers — offering higher salaries — would also affect parents in the form of higher fees. Parents of younger children would be hit the hardest because they're charged more due to the higher teacher-to-student ratios.

"They raise the price and some parents simply can't afford it," Lee said.

State and federal programs provide money for things like subsidizing parents' childcare costs or offering teacher training. Under Gov. Linda Lingle, for instance, the state has added more than 600 early childhood education slots through an additional $5 million given to the Preschool Open Doors preschool subsidy program, said Lillian Koller, director of the state Department of Human Services.

But there are no government programs that directly increase teacher salaries, Lee said.

"Even if it's a nonprofit or church-based, every program is privately owned so no state or federal money goes directly to them," Lee said.

PARENTS FEEL SQUEEZE

The shortage of teachers is merely the latest pressure point on Hawai'i's newest generation of parents, who have been influenced by the philosophy that they should send their children into "early education centers" rather than simple daycare.

At the same time that more working parents are having difficulty finding daycare, they're also losing a traditional option. The hot job market and high cost of living on the Islands means more grandparents are working themselves and can't take care of their grandkids.

"Grandpa still works," said Carleen Niimi as she picked up her 4-year-old daughter, Nina Flood, and her 2-year-old son, Connor Flood, last week. "Grandma still works. They're my husband's parents. Mine are on the Big Island and they still work, too."

The overall result is waiting lists that can run up to a year or more. And once they're finally in a program, children like 4-year-old Joshua Nu'uhiwa sometimes have to get used to teacher turnover at their daycare centers.

This year alone, Nu'uhiwa has had two different teachers and one new assistant.

"For a month or two months he wasn't sure who was coming in and who was going out," said his mother, Denise Apuna. "It gave him some uneasiness."

But Apuna teaches special education at Dole Middle School and wants Joshua in an environment that emphasizes early education over daycare.

"I see the need and I understand the issues," Apuna said. "But they really need the support in the classroom."

Even before Hawai'i's economy took off, the pressures on parents and childcare centers were enormous.

Hawai'i has 78,000 children under the age of 5 but only 27,000 licensed childcare spaces spread across 907 childcare centers specializing in young children, according to PATCH.

"We don't have enough room," Lee said.

Nancy Moore, director of Pali Preschool, has been looking for an assistant teacher for nearly a month and has received only five applications.

"People just have all kinds of options," Moore said. "Schools are already stretched to their limits and if teachers are ill, that's huge. Everybody's complaining about it."

If she can't fill her vacancy for a permanent assistant teacher soon, Moore said, "I'm going to cry."

WOOING TEACHERS

Ray Sanborn, president of Kama'aina Kids' 16 preschools on O'ahu, the Big Island and Maui, has been working on the problem on three fronts: Passing 100 percent of tuition increases directly into teacher salaries, cutting expenses and diverting the savings into higher pay and adding more benefits.

With a staff of 200, Sanborn still needs 15 more teachers as the new school year is beginning. So Kama'aina Kids began offering full childcare tuition to staff members with at least five years experience, and added a matching retirement program.

"With an average salary of $18,000, it's hard to compete," Sanborn said, "but we're trying."

Seagull Schools is looking for answers in a different direction.

Starting in January, the schools will use a $100,000 grant from the McInerny Foundation to recruit senior citizens and high school students into the child-care industry and train them at Kapolei High School and at Seagull's Kapolei center.

"We're looking at the parts of the population that are not already in the work force," Larson said.

The grant will allow Seagull Schools to start training high school juniors and seniors and allow them to graduate with advanced-placement credits that could lead to the Child Development Associate certificates required by the state Department of Human Services.

"It's our idea to plant the hooks in them," Larson said.

WAITING SINCE INFANCY

None of the plans for now help ease the waiting list at Seagull's 264-student downtown center, where parents and students in some age groups can wait a year for an opening.

Mike Ingraham of Punchbowl planned ahead and has had his 16-month-old daughter, Lucy, on Seagull's waiting list since she was 2 months old.

Ingraham works as a manager at Starbucks, which is also struggling to find workers throughout Hawai'i, and appreciates the problem of being perennially short-handed.

"When Hawai'i calls," Ingraham said, "everyone's got to work."

Lisa Uyehara, Seagull's downtown director, also faces the upcoming problem of temporarily losing two aides and one assistant teacher — all to pregnancies and all at the same time.

As she sat at a child-sized picnic table last week watching parents pick up their children, Uyehara considered the prospect of losing three more people for as much as three months each.

"All of them anticipate returning," Uyehara said. "Thank goodness."

Is childcare worth the price?

Monthly costs to go to work, leave a child in preschool*:

Childcare for a 2-year-old: $543

Parent's work lunches, other food: $148

Work apparel expenses: $53

Work-associated gas costs: $69

Total: $813

Monthly median income in Honolulu: $4,635

* Estimates based on U.S. Census data, State of Hawai'i Data Book 2004, PATCH, Advertiser calculations

Childcare shortage 'worst it's ever been'

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.