When Amber Lempke’s son was younger, she took a curious deep dive into owning a day care.
Fast forward more than a dozen years, and Lempke is set to open a Primrose School franchise in York County this winter. She and husband Michael are one of many individuals, organizations and new business owners working to implement solutions to create more child care opportunities in the region.
“It’s over a year waiting list anywhere you look right now,” Amber said. “And the child development centers on the bases for the military installations are completely full.”
Despite growing demand from working families and increasing public investment, many Virginia communities continue to face significant shortages in affordable, high-quality child care, according to a July report from the Shovel Ready Virginia Task Force.
The task force provided recommendations to strengthen Virginia’s child care infrastructure and workforce, including making it faster for new sites to operate and existing ones to expand. It also recommended supporting entrepreneurial ventures in areas of high demand.
The Lempkes broke ground on their 13,000-square-foot day care and preschool building at the end of June and hope to open in December. The 12-classroom facility will employ 26 full- and part-time teachers to provide educational child care for 198 students, ranging from infants to 5-year-olds.
In her work as a chief people officer for a Newport News defense contractor, Lempke recalled several expectant mothers struggling to find child care.
She also sat on the board for First Spark, a Virginia-based nonprofit that supports early childhood development, and found it staggering how many children were not ready for kindergarten.
“Part of that was COVID-related, but it was also because there weren’t a ton of great child care options for 0 to 5,” Lempke said. “I decided it was a really big need and something we wanted to do.”
Lempke has been busy providing virtual tours of her center and guiding prospective families through Primrose’s balanced learning curriculum.
“That was another selling point for me,” she said. “I didn’t want just a day care. I wanted an actual school that would provide learning opportunities for the children.”
The York County location already has more than 30 families enrolled and its infant room is completely full, she said.
‘100% behind this’
The $8.5 million expansion of Resurrection Lutheran Church’s child development center on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard in Newport News also will add child care capacity in the region.
“The congregation is 100% behind this,” said Brad Mason, congregational president. “We’re not doing this because we want to necessarily serve the congregation; we want to serve the community.”
The church dates to 1954 and has provided nonreligious-based child care and elementary school off and on for the past 20 years, Mason said. The project broke ground in March after five years of planning. The majority of money for the expansion is financed through the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod’s extension fund at a lower interest rate with a flexible payback, he said.
The expansion will more than double the child care facility’s capacity to 225 full-time spots for children 6 weeks to 5 years old. Current enrollment is at 100 children. The center’s staff will also double, from 30 to almost 60 employees.
The new 18,000-square-foot facility — adjacent to the church but with its own electronic access security system — is expected to be completed by April or May, Mason said.
‘Get them started’
A pilot program launched by Minus 9 to 5, the lead agency for Ready Region Southeastern, also helped five licensed child care providers start their businesses. Four are in Suffolk and one is in Chesapeake.
Jane Elyce Glasgow, executive director of Minus 9 to 5, said the $30,000 investment — $6,000 per child care program — enabled it to establish 24 family day home spaces, with four able to provide overnight care. Only 25% of the spots — or six of the 24 — remain open, Glasgow said.
Glasgow said leaders aim to replicate the program in other Hampton Roads cities, with hopes for additional funding through private investment.
The nonprofit hired a child care capacity coordinator in December to look at supply and demand and see how it could increase access or develop creative ways to help solve the problem.
“But there’s not one single solution in child care that we’re going to be able to solve all the problems,” Glasgow said. “It’s a myriad of different solutions that need to happen.”
The program, which took applications after a recruitment process, helped the day homes set up as businesses by paying fees associated with licensing and state filings, background checks, health screenings and lead and water testing fees. It provided five hours of business training with an early childhood consultant company, child development training and health and safety training.
Each day home received a laptop, child care management software and individualized technical assistance for marketing and website design. They were given educational materials needed, including blocks, toys, books and other necessities, including cribs, high chairs, baby gates and fire extinguishers.
“Our goal was to get them started, get their businesses established and then help them get the resources they need to build a bigger business that would allow them to care for more children,” Glasgow said.
Carolyn Beasley started her family day home, Twinkkle Tots Nursery in Suffolk, in less than two months thanks to the pilot program.
“I couldn’t imagine how long this would have taken,” Beasley said. “I would have gotten it done eventually, but they provided everything to get it done expeditiously.”
She offers child care for infants to 6-year-olds, including during nontraditional hours of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“This program has given me all of the foundational tools that I need and now I have a better understanding of what my responsibility is to be an early childhood educator,” Beasley said.
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, [email protected]