Angie Reinoehl/MDN What will be a communal cafeteria and play area is filled with building tools and supplies as interior construction moves forward for the Bottineau Children’s Academy.

BOTTINEAU – According to data from North Dakota Health and Human Services, North Dakota is facing a glaring childcare shortage.

Data for 2024 shows 123,923 children, ages birth to 12, of working parents potentially need childcare while the statewide wcapacity of state-licensed child care programs sits only at 37,234. This means only 30% of the potential demand is being met.

Bottineau County is slightly above the statewide average, with 37% of the potential demand being fulfilled. However, this statistic shows there are 539 children with parents struggling to make it to the top of daycare waitlists.

To address this shortage, Riley Kleven and his wife, Sara Kleven, have ventured to start one of the county’s largest preschool and daycare centers, Bottineau Children’s Academy.

Kleven Properties LLC secured a low interest loan of $300,000 through the North Dakota Department of Commerce’s Daycare Loan Program. The rest of the required funding was obtained with a commercial loan.

The academy sits just off Main Street and will be located in the former U.S. Department of Agriculture building. The building is adjacent to a defunct hardware store, which will be demolished and replaced with a fenced-in outdoor playground.

The academy will boast six classrooms, a communal cafeteria and play area as well as a complimentary coffee bar for parents in the child drop-off zone. Each room will be keycard accessible to ensure safety and also will have external doors for quick access to the outdoor play area. Four of the rooms will be equipped with high-tech Promethean Interactive Whiteboards to assist teachers with learning activities.

Demolition started last fall and is scheduled to be completed within the next few weeks. Upon completion, the facility will undergo an inspection, which will then allow the Klevens to finish their license application through the state. Doors are scheduled to open in mid-February.

Kirsten Hopp, the director of Bottineau Children’s Academy, said the facility will be able to accommodate up to 74 children, ages 6 weeks to preschool age. Children will be split among six classrooms and cared for by 25 staff members, including a full-time cook. The academy already has several staff members hired but is offering relocation assistance to draw more qualified individuals to the Bottineau area.

The idea for the facility started in 2020 when the Klevens read data from Child Care Aware, an information hub for daycare providers and parents, and noticed the glaring need for more licensed facilities. Sara Kleven had recently opened a dental practice, but when she started hiring employees, she saw firsthand how this shortage was affecting working parents.

“Some of her workers said they can start when they get daycare but that they’re on a six-month to a year waiting list for daycare. That doesn’t really work for working families, working mothers in this town. That’s what we’re focused on in this center – is to be proactive for the working families, the working moms and dads, to make it easy for them to work and be at ease, where their kids can learn, play and grow with other kids. That’s our motive for building this,” Riley Kleven said.