AUSTIN (KXAN) — City Council will consider a resolution Thursday to identify and fix major impediments to starting and operating child care facilities in Austin in its latest effort to make affordable care available to more families.

The resolution directs the city manager to look at fee structures, permits, and zoning restrictions to determine ways to make it easier and cheaper to start and operate day care centers. That could include waiving certain fees associated with the process and allowing centers to open in more places in the city.

The problem, as many parents know, is there simply aren’t a lot of options for high-quality, affordable care in parts of Austin.

“I think with the city booming like it is, there’s a lot of demand for good child care,” Jessica Osborn said.

The working mom found her 3-year-old daughter, Lily, a place at the Stepping Stone School on East 40th Street a couple years ago. Finding a place that was close by and provided what she was looking for was difficult.

“It is a challenge to find something that meets all that criteria and then also is available when you need it,” she said.

Lily was on three different waiting lists, including at Stepping Stone, before she got the spot there. Too many other parents know the feeling of uncertainty that comes with the search for child care.

Stepping Stone operates 20 child care facilities around Central Texas and enrolls around 2,100 kids, owner and executive director Rhonda Paver said.

Construction crews are finishing work on the system’s 21st facility, slated to open later this month. It’s just two blocks away from the Stepping Stone School that Osborn got her daughter into. That facility currently has a waiting list of 60 families.

“This particular school has shown us that there was a demand, a desire, a need,” Paver said.

Around 70 families are already enrolled for the new center that has yet to open.

In the draft resolution, council members pointed to research that shows there’s a real need for more options in Austin. A 2016 study the members cited found the number of kids who need care “has consistently surpassed the available capacity of child care facilities.”

Last year, the progressive think tank Center for American Progress compiled data across the country and mapped areas it called “child care deserts:” areas with 50 or more children under 5 where there are no or few options. Several areas around Austin qualified for that designation.

KXAN reported earlier this year council was looking toward public-private partnerships and working more with Austin ISD to use under-utilized space, among other ideas, as ways to ease the burden on families looking for child care. This new resolution takes it a step further, examining the reasons people don’t start child care centers.

“The process itself is pretty time-consuming and has a lot of barriers — or, let’s just say, hoops to jump through,” Paver said.

The hoops are there for a reason, she said, and she appreciates that child safety is the priority at local, state and federal levels. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to simplify the process and make it more affordable.

Paver founded the first Stepping Stone School in 1979 and has grown the system over the last several decades. But for someone just starting out, she said, there are many tiers of regulations, codes and permits to navigate.

“Many people I believe, who are very good-hearted, want to do it,” but simply can’t or don’t want to endure the headaches associated with it, Paver said.

The resolution going before council instructs the city manager to come up with a preliminary proposal by March 5, 2019, including recommendations for how to cure those headaches, for council to consider later in March.

Paver supports the work being done on the city level to streamline the process so more people are able and willing to start child care facilities.

Osborn, meanwhile, is happy with her daughter’s daycare. She’s pregnant with a second daughter, due in December, and Stepping Stone will provide space for her, too.

“If we had to start the search all over again,” she said, “it would definitely be a bit nerve-wracking.”