There are many challenges that face today’s working parents, no doubt about it. Who stays home with a sick child, for instance? And what about arranging carpools for after-school sports practices? And let’s not even get started on homework and preparing dinner.

But those challenges can pale by comparison to the challenges that come with finding quality child care for infants and toddlers – what’s a parent to do when there’s a wait list or when there simply are no satisfactory options?

N.C. Rep. Frank Sossamon doesn’t have the answers, but he said finding a solution begins with raising awareness through a couple of forums, the first of which takes place in Henderson on Tuesday, April 30.

“I’m trying to create awareness and then provide education…so we can move forward as a community,” Sossamon said on Tuesday’s TownTalk. The forum for the general public begins at 6 p.m. at Perry Memorial Library, 205 Breckenridge St.

Sossamon said the state of childcare is getting close to crisis level, with parents of young children finding either not enough options for adequate childcare centers or wait lists for centers to accept their child.

“They are not babysitting centers,” Sossamon emphasized, “they are child development centers” that support emotional, physical, psychological and nutritional development of young children so that they are prepared to start kindergarten.

Dr. Tony Cozart, director of Franklin Granville Vance Smart Start, said that when he was a school principal, he could tell which kindergartners had attended a quality childcare center. “They were far ahead of those who hadn’t,” he said. Those who hadn’t had the benefit of a quality childcare experience are “children who will be behind from Day 1,” Cozart said.

Some experts have said this area is a “childcare desert,” citing statistics like five children are vying for a single spot in a child care center.

Sossamon said it’s staffing – of lack thereof – that holds childcare centers back from being able to open up spaces. Federal money that was used during the COVID-19 pandemic are drying up, and it’s going to affect childcare centers as much as any other sector, from public education to small businesses.

Cozart described what’s happening as “a slow death.” Existing centers remain open, but maybe they have to eliminate a classroom, reducing the number of children it can enroll. “The next thing you know, you don’t have enough (students and money) to function,” he said.

The upcoming forums will have an information session from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. for anyone interested in learning more about starting a childcare center. Entrepreneurs and others, including area church representatives, are invited to attend.

Sossamon said he would encourage churches to make use of existing facilities and consider launching a childcare center.

“If churches would look at it as an extension of their ministries,” he said, “a childcare center is is a good way to attract young families.”

Sossamon said he expects the childcare situation to be a topic during the upcoming legislative short session. “If we don’t get some additional dollars to fund those day care centers, they’ll fall off the cliff…because they don’t have the money to operate.”

He said it’s all of our responsibilities to help childcare centers survive – maybe there’s something that local government, or businesses or individuals can do to support them, Sossamon said.

He and his fellow legislators are going to have to come up with some money for childcare centers across the state – they understand the seriousness of the situation, and he emphasized the negative economic impact a lack of childcare can have in our own area.

“When we’re recruiting industry to come to our community, if we don’t have childcare, then there’s 99 other counties that they can look at,” Sossamon said. “We’ll miss out because of the lack of childcare centers.”

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