About a week after Mountain State Spotlight wrote about Clay County’s only childcare center, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw visited Taylor Tots Daycare to hear firsthand about challenges faced by the childcare provider in his district.
Workers at the Wallback center told Hanshaw about rising costs, a lack of available staff and the growing difficulty families faced in finding care in the county.
Hanshaw told the staff he wanted to continue discussions about the challenges facing the childcare industry and to schedule another meeting.
But Taylor Tots will close at the end of June, leaving Clay County without a licensed childcare center for infants and toddlers.
Owner Allie Taylor said she made the difficult decision to close because it became too expensive to operate, and she isn’t sure what’s next for her, her staff or the parents she serves.
“Parents are panicked because we were the only ones around,” she said.
The closure comes as West Virginia’s childcare system faces mounting pressure, leaving thousands of children without access to care and many families with few options. Over 200 centers have closed within the past two years.
At the same time, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the state’s primary fund for assisting needy families has been supporting programs it can no longer afford.
He said he would be specifically looking for changes with childcare assistance, among other areas, as officials search for millions of dollars in budget savings.
In 2023, West Virginia spent about $22 million in funding on childcare assistance, making it the assistance program’s second-largest spending category.
Providers across West Virginia say low worker pay, staffing shortages and rising operational costs have made it increasingly difficult to keep centers open, especially in rural communities where families already have limited options for care.
Taylor Tots served up to 27 children in a county where more than 90% of young children lack access to care.
“We’ve had to send parents information for centers in Kanawha and Braxton counties,” Taylor said. “We gave them a month, and we hope it’s enough time.”
Morrisey is reviewing childcare funding
Last week, the Morrisey administration announced it was searching for savings within the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, commonly known as TANF.
During a press conference, Gov. Morrisey announced his administration had identified millions in potential savings through agency audits.
As part of that process, he said he discovered West Virginia’s TANF program was facing a $43 million funding gap.
Kelly Allen, director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said on social media that she was concerned about lawmakers and the governor needing to use TANF funding reserves to keep the state budget flat.
She said the money could be used for multiple programs, but it is primarily for child welfare. But because lawmakers haven’t put enough regular state funding into childcare, the state is now using that money to plug budget holes that years of underfunding created.
Childcare providers have repeatedly warned that cuts to subsidies or unstable funding could make it harder for low-income families to afford care and place more financial pressure on centers already struggling to stay open.
But House Finance Chair Del. Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said lawmakers weren’t warned during state budget discussions about major TANF funding problems.
Criss questioned whether the administration’s projected shortfall represented an immediate budget emergency.
“I’m inclined to believe this is an artificial crisis,” he said.
The debate over the assistance funding comes as West Virginia’s childcare system has already struggled. Over 28,000 children lack access to childcare across the state, while families struggle to afford care costs and providers are underfunded.
Hanshaw said two years ago that childcare was one of his top priorities for the Legislative session. But he introduced no legislation to fix it, and though he is the speaker of the House with a Republican supermajority, the legislature passed no childcare proposals, and the 2024 session ended without any plan to help parents and providers.
During this year’s Legislative session, a Mountain State Spotlight reporter stopped Hanshaw outside the House chamber and asked him how state leaders planned to address child care shortages.
He requested we direct our questions to his spokesperson. She did not respond to our questions.
Hanshaw did not respond to additional requests for comment this week about the center’s closure.
For parents like April Taylor, the closure leaves more uncertainty about how they will continue working while finding care for their children. April Taylor is a nurse who needs care for the seven-month-old child she is fostering.
Without another center nearby, she said, she has no other options.
“I’m now a desperate mother.”
Henry Culvyhouse contributed reporting.