The DHR awarded employee support through the “American Rescue Plan Act” helped many childcare employees dramatically when it was first rolled out.  

Now, however, it appears that this well-intentioned state support may instead have actually been the beginning of the end of our industry.  

When it ends in September of 2023, childcare centers face the impossible choice of finding a way to immediately add $6 to $9 per hour for each full-time employee to continue paying staff what they’re currently earning, or dealing with a mass exodus of teachers as they leave the industry in search of what they used to make.

This unintended consequence of the termination of this program warps the existing thin-margin business model for centers in our state into one that simply cannot be sustained without astronomical tuition increases for already-strapped and daycare-poor parents.