VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When Virginia lawmakers convene for the 2025 General Assembly session this January, Virginia Beach Delegate Michael Feggans has said he will work to secure a budgetary item which would fund three in-school daycares across three schools in the city.
According to a drafted budgetary language document shared with 13News Now, the daycare services would be available to teachers and school staff at three schools within House District 97: one elementary school, one middle school and one high school.
Feggans, who won election to the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates in 2023, said the idea for the budget item came when touring a local elementary school alongside the Virginia Beach superintendent.
"I started looking around, we didn't have anything like that within the budget. I talked to the school superintendent, he thought it was a great idea," Feggans said.
"It addresses one of the key issues we hear a lot about, in terms of issues of daycare, we know childcare is always expensive and it's difficult for working families being able to navigate that," he added.
Delegate Feggans said there will be a matching funds request of $500,000, and that a possible name for the budget item and pilot program could be the "Classroom & Care Connection" but it's still not set in stone.
Based on the program's framework, the city's Parks and Recreation department would be responsible for staffing the daycare facilities with "trained childcare professionals." The city's Human Services department would ensure childcare providers met licensing and regulatory requirements, while VBCPS would be responsible for providing suitable space within the schools.
Childcare problems in Virginia
A 2023 study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee highlighted Virginia is no stranger to the national trends of a growing problem with affordable child care.
It found across the state, child care costs surpass 10% of the state's average income, exceeding the 7% threshold deemed "affordable" by the federal government.
By this standard, infant childcare is considered "unaffordable" in many as 85% of households in Virginia.
There are an estimated additional 140,000 daycare slots needed to meet the appropriate demand in Virginia, with 30,000 of those coming from the "Eastern" region of Virginia which includes the city of Virginia Beach.
“A lot of early career educators had to make the decision between staying in education or leaving to find a career that paid enough to cover childcare," said Heather Sipe, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association.
Sipe added this initiative would be a "game changer" for the division, and drastically help with improving teacher retention rates which have become a national issue exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Surprised it’s taken us this long. In corporate America there’s a lot of businesses that are moving to this, other countries been doing this for years, a benefit they provide their staff, because you have retention when you make it easier to provide work and family," Sipe said.