VIRGINIA, USA — Some child care providers in Hampton Roads are at risk of losing key funding. Thousands of Virginia families will soon scramble to find child care, if they are not already.
On September 30, American Rescue Plan funds totaling $24 billion for child care stabilization will expire.
"Day care centers, there's not enough of them in this community on any day of the week," said Thaler McCormick, CEO of ForKids. "So, the idea that we are going to lose a critical group of day care providers in this community right now is, it's pretty scary for our team trying to help families."
Team members at ForKids' call center takes hotline calls from families who are struggling with housing.
"So, we are gearing up to see more calls because when people lose their day care, they lose their jobs and when they lose their jobs, then they lose their housing," said McCormick.
More than 88,000 children are projected to lose access to child care in Virginia and nearly 14,000 child care programs are likely to close, according to researchers with The Century Foundation.
Along with concerns over a possible government shutdown, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said he is also worried about the looming expiration of this pot of child care funding.
"But it we can do this short-term spending bill and then reach a full-year, fiscal-year '24 budget deal by November 17, I am hopeful that in the deal, we will include the same kind of robust increases in child care funding we were able to in last year's budget deal," said Sen. Kaine.
A spokeswoman with the YMCA of South Hampton Roads said the pandemic-era funding expiration won't affect how they operate, but they expect the demand for child care — especially affordable child care — at their facilities to increase.
"We already have long wait lists, which we try our hardest to accommodate but with licensing, we just can’t take everyone," the spokeswoman said. "We also have a scholarship program, which helps a lot of families but again, we only have so much capacity."