ACCOMACK COUNTY, VA - The Accomack County Board of Supervisors is evaluating strategies to expand child care options, particularly in the northern portion of the county.
County Administrator Mike Mason said that part of Accomack has historically been a childcare desert. The renewed effort to address the shortage was sparked by an announcement from NASA Wallops that it would expand its child care facility to handle three times its current capacity.
"The facility we're currently in is a temporary facility,” NASA Wallops Exchange Operations Manager Rebecca Hudson said. “That was really put together when we realized how emergent of a need this was for our community, for our employees, for our civil servants, our contractors, our tenant personnel.”
One of the options the county is exploring to fill the remaining gaps is a partnership with Minus 9 to 5, a child care initiative at Old Dominion University.
“Now we're kind of taking a step back and looking at incentivizing smaller homes, what they call family day homes, and they typically have the number of children up to 12,” Administrator Mason said.
Minus 9 to 5 had success expanding family day home care in Suffolk, Virginia.
One of the only existing child care providers in Accomack County, Children’s Harbor in Onancock, is at capacity. Assistant Director Ann Williams said they would love to expand to fill the need, but that no matter how it is done, the shortage needs to be addressed.
“My bottom line is advocating for children … not wearing my Children's Harbor hat,” Williams said. “I hope that they can really get something going soon so that these parents can go back to work and you know help the families and the shore as a whole.”