В Северной Каролине более 40 детей ждут места в детском саду после урагана «Хелен»

Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina, more than 40 children, including 27 infants, are waiting for a spot at McDowell Technical Community College’s Child Development Center in Marion, N.C.  The center itself was not damaged by the storm, but it was forced to close for weeks as the college and McDowell County, which declared a disaster during Helene, dealt with power and infrastructure disruptions. Now, the college is considering applying for a share of the $20 million in funding allocated to expand childcare in communities affected by Helene and Tropical Storm Debby, which hit in August 2024.  The funding opportunity, announced by Gov. Josh Stein and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in a Sept. 2 press release, is a portion of the $75.8 million federal grant awarded to North Carolina through the American Relief Act’s Disaster Supplemental Funds for Child Care. Funding applications will open on Sept. 14 on the NCDHHS Division of Child Development and Early Education website. The $20 million will fund the construction of new childcare centers, renovations of existing facilities, or the purchase of modular units for childcare centers located on N.C. Community College System and UNC System campuses in impacted counties.  More than 200 childcare facilities in disaster counties were impacted by Helene, according to a press release from NCDHHS published a month after the storm, with 55 centers sustaining damage that kept them closed for “the foreseeable future.”  “Childcare was not in a really healthy state in the Western counties before Helene hit,” Rachel Shelton, the program coordinator for the Western North Carolina Early Childhood Coalition, said. “So it was a storm that hit a fragile system.” Shelton said families in Western North Carolina were already struggling to find childcare that was affordable and available. Shelton herself had to enter waitlists before even telling her family she was expecting a child. At the same time, low wages for staff members make it difficult to retain and attract employees.  “Fixing a broken roof is not necessarily going to address the underlying problems of the fragile childcare system,” she said. Though she believes those underlying issues need to be addressed, Shelton said using the $20 million in funding for facility expansions could help address the shortage of available spots in Western North Carolina.  David White, CEO of WNCSource, a nonprofit that offers programs including childcare for low-income families in Western North Carolina, said low wages have made it difficult for childcare providers to compete with other employers. “If we’re only paying $15 an hour and asking people to do really hard work — which, I really think, taking care of infants and toddlers and 3- and 4-year-olds is hard work — you need to be paying folks at least what you’re paying the folks that are working at Target and Chick-fil-A,” White said. WNCSource lost its Etowah childcare center in Henderson County for about a year and a half after Helene flooded the building. The center served about 52 children before the storm and eventually reopened with support from local philanthropic and childcare organizations.  White said the staffing shortage existed alongside childcare deserts in Western North Carolina even before Helene. WNCSource opened the only Early Head Start childcare facility within Polk County just last year. Early Head Start is a federally funded preschool program. This statewide need for additional childcare slots has factored into McDowell Tech’s consideration of applying for the $20 million fund.  The college’s three-classroom center serves infants through preschoolers and operates as a training site for the college’s early childhood education students. Its infant classroom has eight children and only two teachers, leaving little capacity to take in more students from their waitlist.  Katie Dowdle, director of McDowell Tech’s Early Childhood Education programs, emphasized that there is a crisis in the childcare system fueled by staff shortages. She said careers in early childhood education are inaccessible given the price of college and low pay after graduation.  McDowell Tech has previously used Helene-related funds to address this staff shortage by providing scholarships for early childhood education students.  “I don’t need bells and whistles in education,” Dowdle said. “I just want these students to be able to get their degrees and possibly get their degrees for free.” Though the college is still early in the planning process and is considering the funding opportunity, Dowdle said she hopes to expand the center to bring more students off the waitlist. @DTHCityState | [email protected]