On Thursday, March 7, Roanoke College hosted the inaugural Future of Talent Summit, bringing together representatives from local and state government, the presidents of five higher education institutions and leaders from industry sponsors and employers in the region. The summit catalyzed a discussion on workforce development in GO Virginia Regions 2 and 8 and how our regional colleges can play a role in these efforts.
As a recent transplant to the Roanoke area (or re-transplant in my case, arriving the first time in 2016) and a father of two toddlers, I couldn’t help but notice one thing was glaringly absent during this summit on workforce development — a conversation on the inaccessibility of child care in the region. There can be no robust workforce development plan that does not include increasing access to child care, especially when we live in a child care desert in the western part of the commonwealth.
Last fall, two reports highlighted child care’s inaccessibility (both due to cost and limited vacancies coupled with long waitlists) in our commonwealth. In October 2023, the United Way of the National Capital Area released a report on the cost of child care, showing that Virginia has the ninth highest child care costs in the United States, 27% higher than the national average. Further, the report calculates that the average Virginia household (median household gross income of $80,615) will devote 18% of its annual gross income to child care per child. Also last October, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) released the report Virginia’s Self-Sufficiency Programs and the Availability and Affordability of Child Care. Among the report’s findings, one of the starkest is that the cost of child care is unaffordable for 85% of Virginia households with infants and 82% of households with toddlers. Further, the report details the unmet demand for child care throughout the commonwealth, particularly in our region, where there are 2.3 kids per daycare slot.
While there has been some effort in the 2024 General Assembly to address the child care shortage, it is just the beginning of what is needed. In December 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed $448 million annually for early learning and childhood development programs over the next two years. Earlier this week, HB281 and SB13 — allowing localities to waive zoning requirements for permitting the operation of a child care program in an office building — passed the House of Delegates and Senate. The legislation could lead to more child care facilities available to the public. Likewise, HB407ER — an amendment to the Code of Virginia to allow those families receiving Medicaid or WIC to categorically satisfy income eligibility requirements for the Child Care Subsidy Program (CCSP) — passed the House and Senate unanimously. However, while HB470ER may reduce the paperwork requirements involved with the CCSP, it does little to address the affordability and availability of child care. The Virginia Department of Education estimates all families and children eligible for Medicaid and WIC already meet the income requirements for CCSP. Meanwhile, HB627 most certainly would have expanded CCSP by extending eligibility to child care provider employees, thereby creating a tool for increasing the recruitment and retention of child care providers available in the commonwealth. However, legislators carried that bill over to 2025.
It is clear that addressing the lack of accessible, affordable and quality child care in the commonwealth — particularly in the western region of Virginia — is not an easy task, as Cardinal News reported back in November. Workforce development planning conversations also cannot ignore the issue.
As we continue the workforce development conversation in and around GO Virginia Region 2, I encourage our elected officials, higher education leaders and industry executives not to forget that access to affordable, accessible and quality child care in our area is a “must-have” not a “nice to have” if you truly want to develop a robust plan to recruit and retain talent in our region.
Ryan King is innovation manager for Carilion Clinic. (Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy). His comments reflect his own views, not those of his employer.
