For many families in Hampton Roads, making ends meet depends on finding affordable child care. The challenge is easing somewhat, thanks in part to the efforts of entrepreneurs, church groups and nonprofits such as Minus 9 to 5, but there’s much work to be done to meet the need in our communities.
The good news is that additional child care options are on the way for much of the region. From a new 198-child facility in York County to the $8.5-million expansion of a church-run child development center in Newport News to five new child care providers in Suffolk and Chesapeake, progress is being made.
But the disappointing — and not unexpected — news is that those additions are nowhere near enough.
At a Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce event in April, business leaders and others learned that more than 20,500 children on the Peninsula need care outside their home, but there are only 16,400 available spots. In South Hampton Roads, the situation was no better — more than 61,000 children under 5 needing care, but only 47,200 spaces available.
“We only have capacity for about 77% of the need,” Jane Elyce Glasgow, an associate professor of pediatrics at Old Dominion University, told the crowd. “It’s even worse for infant and toddler spaces, with about 28% capacity for the need.”
Glasgow doubles as executive director of Minus 9 to 5, an initiative led by Old Dominion University, largely funded by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and supported by more than 100 nonprofits, hospitals and community members working to improve child care options.
Minus 9 to 5 has launched a promising pilot program that helps licensed child care providers start their own businesses. Recent successes include assisting the startup of four child care businesses in Suffolk and one in Chesapeake.
The pilot program invested $6,000 in each of those businesses, helping the owners pay various fees and navigate paperwork, ultimately creating a total of 24 spaces.
That’s not a large number, to be sure, but the initiative — and others like it — are essential to close the gap in high-quality, affordable child care. As Glasgow said this spring, “There’s not one single solution in child care that we’re going to be able to solve all the problems. It’s a myriad of different solutions that need to happen.”
Glasgow’s group hopes to secure more funding from local businesses and other community members to expand its program and continue chipping away at the need.
Fortunately, there’s growing interest in the problem among business leaders. Many of them gathered with elected officials, pediatricians, military leaders and others at ODU in May to discuss the risks posed to economic development by the child care shortage.
For local businesses, it’s difficult to attract and retain high-quality employees if they can’t arrange suitable care for their children while they work.
“Roles we can’t fill, teams stretched thin, talented employees walking away — not because they want to, but because the child care system simply doesn’t support their ability to stay,” Tara Ramsey, CEO of the bio tech firm Instant Systems, said, echoing concerns raised in a guest column in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press earlier this year.
Perhaps less apparent is the risk this gap poses for the future of Hampton Roads businesses in the future. Many child care facilities offer educational programs — helping them to gain a foundation for learning before they start school.
“By investing in the earliest stages of a child’s life, we not only ensure a bright future for each child but also unlock the full economic potential of our entire region,” Glasgow told the group.
The General Assembly has an important role in addressing this problem, too, by expanding publicly funded child care and shortening the waiting list (more than 10,000-children long at the start of the year).
But much will need to be resolved locally. Programs such as Minus 9 to 5 deserve the community’s full support — for the sake of the children, their parents and the future of our region.
