If you’re planning on having a baby, you need to start planning about two years in advance.

That’s about how long parents have to wait for child care at the University of Washington.

With more than 1,000 kids on the wait-list for four day-care centers, child care providers say the lack of capacity is an acute problem that won’t go away overnight.

“The University’s wait-list is just horrendous,” said Cynthia Butler, director of the child care center at Radford Court, the UW’s family housing development near Sand Point. “It’s not going to let up.”

More than 730 of those waiting are vying for an open spot at the Radford Court, Laurel Village and West Campus day cares, which predominately serve students in family housing, along with some staff and faculty.

There are 187 children currently enrolled in the centers, ranging in age from infants to preschoolers. The fourth day care is at Harborview Medical Center and is mostly limited to staff and faculty.

About 100 spaces are reserved for student-parents, and competition is fierce for the highly coveted spots.

The demand for space around the University increased with the recent closure of the Able Child facility in the University Heights Community Center. The kids enrolled at Able Child had to go elsewhere, increasing demand for space in an area that’s already at maximum capacity.

“My son is almost two, and was on the waiting list at all of the UW centers since about six months before he was born,” said Jamila Reid, a clinical psychologist and research coordinator for the Department of Family and Child Nursing’s Parenting Clinic. “There was never a space, so essentially I’ve waited two-and-a-half years to get in there.”

Reid eventually gave up and placed her son in a non-UW program — but even that day care’s wait-list was a year long.

“As a microcosm, the University reflects what’s out there,” said Randi Shapiro, the assistant director of Benefits & Work/Life, a division of UW Human Resources. “No university can meet the full demand for on-site child care due to the large number of faculty, staff and students with young children,” she said.

The intense demand for child care isn’t just inconvenient for student parents. It’s hindering them from successfully completing their degrees, said Sarah Reyneveld, vice president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.

At its Oct. 18 meeting, the UW Board of Regents approved a funding request for $1.25 million in the 2008 state supplemental budget for a new child care facility.

The funding would be used to renovate an existing University building for use as a new center. While a specific timetable is not yet available, the University would like to begin any renovation as soon as the funding became available.

Suzanne Haggard, the executive director of Haggard Nelson Childcare Resources and the operator of the Radford Court, Laurel Village and West Campus facilities, believes the attempt to create more capacity is the right one, but only as the first step in a larger process.

“I think in the long-term, we do need to build more children’s centers — not necessarily bigger ones, but more in different locations so they’re easily accessible to faculty, staff and students where they’re coming and going from class from their homes to campus,” she said.

Haggard’s company has provided child care services at the UW since 1992. She has seen the need for space increase over the years, but doesn’t think building one “mega-center” is the right answer.

But she also feels that the current wait-list is too long. Her goal is to get the ratio of kids in her program to those waiting closer to 50-50.

“That would feel like we’re at least responding appropriately to the need,” she said. “That’s not the case right now.”

[Reach reporter Will Mari at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]