Two childcare centers in Floyd County announced recently they are closing, leaving dozens of parents without many options. It’s a familiar problem in many rural areas.
The small community of Floyd in the New River Valley has attracted a number of families in recent years. The area has nearly 700 children four and younger, according to the US Census, but the community has very few childcare options.
“Most have a wait list of a year-and-a-half or more,” said Lindsay Whittaker, a mother of two kids who had been attending Copper Hill Child Care center until the facility’s owner announced last month she’s retiring. The center will close at the end of October.
Another childcare center in Floyd, called Yellow Hen, also announced last month they too are closing.
“Many of the people that I’ve spoken with are in panic mode. It’s having such an effect that people are thinking about quitting their jobs and changing their whole structure of their lives,” Whittaker said. “It feels important enough to pay attention to.”
Whittaker and her husband both commute to Roanoke for work, so they were able to move their kids to child care centers there. But they spend an hour-and-a-half each day in a car. “And then by the time we get home, it’s like survival mode,” Whittaker said. “Dinner, ready for bed. That’s the whole day.”
Even though their days are longer, Whittaker said she knows they are among the lucky ones.
The retiring owner of Copper Hill Child Care says she knows of about 30 children still enrolled at their facility who haven’t found another option.
She said families who need care for their children in the afternoon are particularly struggling because there are even fewer options for aftercare in Floyd County.
Another child care facility in Richmond, operated by the YWCA, is also closed currently after teachers organized a strike Monday. Teachers say they are protested chronic understaffing at the facility. Licensing officials have issued the center, called the Sprout School at Second Presbyterian, three safety violations in the past year.
