A statewide women’s advocacy group warns that child care is difficult to find and becoming prohibitively expensive for an increasing number of parents in Wyoming.

The Wyoming Women’s Foundation said providers also are having trouble hiring and retaining quality child-care workers. The group is part of the nonprofit Wyoming Community Foundation that generally seeks to help with community improvements in the state.

A statewide tour of child-care facilities by the group found that some areas had no licensed child-care facilities. Even in areas with facilities, coverage was often spotty, and many facilities close for the summer or only offer child care for part of the day.

But foundation’s Executive Director Rach(Click to hear commentfrom Rachelle Kenrath)elle Kenrath says an even bigger problem than a shortage of child care workers in Wyoming is the difficulty of paying quality child-care workers enough to remain in their jobs…

The Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance said the state had only 17,564 licensed child-care slots in 2008 to accommodate the 40,293 children up to age 12 that need child care.