As part of the DC Childcare Task Force, I'd like to say our providers need much more support from our community. They work diligently in their homes and centers today, but their challenges can be many like paying competitive wages and benefits, finding qualified teachers and having enough capacity/seats open to serve our children so parents can get back to work. And the daunting task of understanding all the regulations imposed on them by the state.
Just like we need roads to get to work, we need centers so parents feel comfortable leaving their children so they can go to work or reenter the workforce.
I look forward to working with our community leaders to find the resources we need to not only support current providers, but also open up new seats so we can attract more workforce to our community.