Last fall, when Amanda Lawson set her mind on opening a licensed day care center, she had hoped it would be running by Jan. 1 . While that date has passed, the end of what Lawson says has been a difficult process may soon be in sight.

Officials for the state’s Department of Early Learning (DEL) are expected to come next week for a site visit, the final step in what has been an arduous licensing process. Still, there are no guarantees that the facility will be awarded a license, as it is still being evaluated, according to Heather West, the Northwest’s regional administrator at DEL.

“We certainly want to support all communities, but each site has to meet requirements,” West said. “That’s why we go through the lengthy process — to make sure every area is covered.”

Lawson and Vashon Children’s Center lead teacher Sandy Gilliam trace their experiences from last August, when Lawson first contacted the DEL about becoming licensed, to the present, and the picture includes encouragement from some staff at DEL and obstacles that both women say seem like intentionally set roadblocks. Indeed, in late December, Lawson sent a long email to DEL supervisors and then on to state lawmakers, detailing her frustrations.

While Lawson is new to operating child care programs, Gilliam has considerable experience with them, having worked for more than a decade as a child care worker and program supervisor for Childhaven,

a therapeutic child care program for families in crisis. There, she said, she was the supervisor when state workers made their routine licensing visits, and those went smoothly.

“They were so supportive and reasonable and willing to work with us,” she said. “I was expecting it to be the same, quite honestly.”

As of Monday, the women had not been informed a site visit would soon be scheduled, and when Lawson learned the news from a reporter, her enthusiasm was evident.

“The only word that comes to my mind is excitement,” she said. “I can’t wait to fill this place with children, see their smiling little faces and get to know their families.”

Lawson, a mother of two young children, decided she would open a day care center after moving to the island more than a year ago and encountering the island’s lack of day care options, especially for infants. This fall she leased the lower floor of the VYFS Playspace, which has in the past been home to both a preschool and a daycare, and hired Gilliam as the lead teacher. The women applied for a license in mid-November, a process that can take up to 90 days. In the two months since then, they have prepared the center, and now, when guests walk in, they see a freshly painted space that appears ready for children — small tables and chairs in place, books and toys on the shelves, and cribs and changing tables at the ready.

“We are set up in a beautiful space to offer high quality child care,” Lawson said. “There is no reason we should not be licensed.”

The women say they have adhered strictly to the legal requirements for setting up a day care center and have sometimes superseded them, but they still have been requested to make changes, some of which they believe fall outside of the legal requirements and would make running a center and addressing the island’s child care needs more difficult.

For instance, the two set out to serve 22 children at a time — four infants, four toddlers and 14 preschoolers — but are now unsure how many children and of what ages the state will allow.

Before they submitted their application, they attended a meeting with a DEL staff member who raised several concerns, the most significant of which, Lawson and Gilliam say, is that she indicated four toddlers and four infants could not share the 400-square-foot room divided by a half wall, as Gilliam and Lawson had planned. Later, a different DEL staff member recommended that they accept eight babies for the infant room and have “waddlers” from 12 months to children 5 years old share the larger room in the facility. The 600-square-foot space is divided in half for that age spread now in preparation for the site visit, but they feel it is an inappropriate move for both age groups, and it could also mean that they would be able to accept fewer children than in their original plan. An alternative idea DEL staff suggested was that they not offer care for either babies or toddlers —  a route both women say they do not want to take.

An additional obstacle Lawson and Gilliam say they are facing is that the first DEL official they met with told them that staff members would not be able to use the designated staff bathroom, located off the proposed infant room. Instead, Gilliam said, staff are to use another toilet in the building, but that too would reduce the number of children who could attend, as by law, no more than 15 people — children and adults — are allowed to use one toilet.

Gilliam said she and Lawson are hopeful the site visit can clear up some of these problems.

“Our hope is they are going to let us go back to our original plan,” Gilliam said. “That would be our ideal.”

She noted that reasons for these changes do not appear in state laws, and complying with them would create significant problems.

“I think our original plan made sense for the space and for the needs of our community,” she added.

DEL has also raised questions about the building’s septic system, which was built for a church congregation and rebuilt in 2001, when the YMCA bought the building and provided a gym in the top floor and a day care in the lower floor. A DEL official has told the women she believes it is only suitable for 11 people — including adults — and Gilliam said she has provided further documentation of the septic system and believes that should be found adequate as well, but is not sure how that will turn out.

Hoping that these challenges — and others —  can be solved, Gilliam said she is looking forward to getting back in the classroom after a break of three years.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “There’s this energy with little kids. … I’m looking forward to it.”

Gilliam will have company leading the classrooms, and Lawson said they interviewed many people and have staff identified, but have not hired them yet, believing it prudent to wait for the license, given the outstanding questions.

“We still don’t know what we are going to get, how many age groups, or the number of kids per room,” Lawson said.

Assuming they get their license, Lawson said they will hire another full-time teacher and a part-time teacher, but will add more, depending on need.

Heather Christensen, the new minister at the Vashon Unitarian Fellowship, and her partner are among the nearly 20 parents who have signed up to be notified when registration opens. They moved here in November from Alaska for her to take the job after having been told that there would be ample child care for their young daughter, now 18 months old.

Christensen said they were naive in believing it would work out easily.

“I think we thought how hard can it be to find child care for a 15- or 16-month old,” she said. “There is just nothing. … It has made our transition to Vashon more difficult.”

Her partner was an airplane mechanic in Alaska and is now looking for a job. Part-time child care would allow her more time to do that and would benefit Christensen as well.

“It would free up my time to be a minister, and it would free up my partner to think about what she would like to do next,” she added. “She can’t even begin looking. She must look after Willa.”

Christensen added that she knows many families on Vashon are affected by the island’s slim child care choices.

“It is a new struggle for us, but a lot of moms and dads have been struggling here for a long time,” she said.

For more information on Vashon Children’s Center and to be notified when and if registration opens, see its Facebook page. Registration will also be announced in The Beachcomber and other online venues.