NAPLES, Fla. — Hundreds of young children in Southwest Florida have had their early learning options taken away from them thanks to dozens of childcare center closures during the pandemic.
FOX4 is looking at the toll this issue is taking on families, and what one local nonprofit is doing about it.
Last week, A Child’s Path closed one of its two Naples daycares. It was the 15 th childcare center to close in Collier County in the past two years. That’s left more than 700 kids without childcare.
Daniela Needler experienced it firsthand when her 2-year-old son’s daycare, Precious Cargo Academy, closed abruptly in October.
“Immediately it was panic,” Needler said. “My husband and I both work full time. I immediately made over a dozen phone calls that day and the next and came down to only two places had spots left.”
When Precious Cargo closed after 20 years of operating in Naples, it said it just didn’t have enough teachers.
“The inability to hire teachers and maintain teachers has been incredibly detrimental to our providers,” said Susan Block, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition.
The Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida, which reports that a total of 37 child-care centers have closed in Lee and Collier counties since March of 2020.
“It’s not a great scenario for young children who need a lot of stability in the care they’re given,” Block said.
As more daycares close, it gets harder and harder for parents of those children to find another one.
“It’s a huge issue,” Needler said. “Naples itself doesn’t have enough centers. A lot don’t have infant rooms, so if you have a small child it makes more difficult. Rent is high. You have to find space, and people to run it.”
Block said the Early Learning Coalition is working to recruit more childcare workers. But she said it can be hard, especially in Southwest Florida where the cost of living is so high.
Needler said she understands that getting quality workers could mean parents have to pay a little more.
“Child care is huge cost, one of the biggest expenditures,” Needler said. “Being faced with paying a little more to pay workers what they need to live in Naples, I think most parents would happily do it versus having their childcare center go down.”
The Early Learning Coalition said that the percentage of Collier County kids who are ready for kindergarten has slipped to 47 percent, while Lee County’s percentage is 46 percent.
