CHEYENNE - Child care is available to fewer than half of the roughly 40,000 Wyoming children under age 12 who would benefit from it, a report released Friday says.

Wyoming's low unemployment rate - and resulting high demand for child care - is one reason.

But other reasons include low wages paid to child care providers and zoning laws that discourage home-based child care, according to Deanna Frey, executive director of the Wyoming Children's Action Alliance.

"It's just good business - good community building - to attend to these issues," Frey said.

The alliance produced the child care report for its annual Kids Count program with help from a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

According to the report, Wyoming has 40,293 children under 12 who use child care or would use it if it were available. The alliance arrived at that number by taking the census count for Wyoming's 0-12 population and estimating that 48 percent of children in that age group have parents who work and have no other relatives to care for them.

Marc Homer, Kids Count coordinator for the Wyoming Children's Action Alliance, said he surveyed day care facilities around Wyoming and concluded that they can accommodate 17,565 children under 12.

He said professional care for children and infants under 2 is in especially short supply. Albany County ranks best in the state for its availability of under-2 child care, but still has only half as much capacity as that age group needs, according to the report.

Counties in booming gas-producing areas have even less day care for kids.

Sweetwater County has only 18 percent as much day care for children under 2 as it needs. Five other counties have less than 25 percent as much under-2 day care as they need: Uinta, Campbell, Fremont, Sublette and Lincoln.

Caring for the youngest children requires more training, limiting the supply of available providers. But Homer said child care before 6 a.m., after 6 p.m., and on weekends and holidays also is in hard to arrange in Wyoming.

"There are lots of families working these odd hours, and in Wyoming there's often not extended families living nearby," he said. "It becomes real gauntlet a parent has to run to secure care for their kid or kids."

He said lack of day care ultimately affects Wyoming's economy. He said many parents would rather be working but choose to stay home instead of paying big day care bills.

Frey said day care costs often are borne by young parents who are just getting started in their careers and making entry-level pay.

"When you look at the cost of care for an infant, it's more than a year of tuition at the University of Wyoming," she said.

Frey said the latest state figures show that the cost of child care for infants in the state averages from about $6,500 a year for care in private homes to more than $7,700 a year in private centers. She said prices drop as children get older.

Frey said several communities around the state - including Sheridan, Chugwater, Casper and Cheyenne - are recognizing the problems and working on solutions. She said the best answers will involve businesses, government, private foundations and churches.

"Families aren't going to be able to do it alone," she said. "We've got to be able to look at the combination of all these entities working together to help support this so these kids are in sound environments."