Keene nonprofit to close child care program in August

May 19—Despite the high demand for child care in the region, a shortage of staff has led a Keene nonprofit to decide it will close its child care program this summer.

However, Rise for baby and family will continue to offer its early intervention program, which serves infants and toddlers who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities, the organization said in a news release Friday.

The decision to close the child care program, which currently serves 18 families, came after Rise had to lower its enrollment due to a lack of staff, the organization said. But that became too costly, according to Executive Director Alicia Deaver.

"This is not financially sustainable and we have now arrived at the difficult decision that we must close our child care program," Deaver said in the news release.

The closing will be effective Aug. 11.

The shortage of child care teachers has been and continues to be a significant problem in New Hampshire; earlier this year experts testified in Concord that a lack of affordable and available child care had reached crisis levels in the state. They noted New Hampshire's economy is facing a generalized worker shortage, which is made more severe because people without access to child care must stay home to take care of their children.

Across the industry, child care offers chronically low wages, which also drives staffing shortages. Child care workers nationwide made a median hourly wage of $13.71, or about $28,520 a year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in May 2022. In New Hampshire, the BLS reported that child care workers earned an average of $13.04 per hour, or $27,130 a year.

A February 2021 study for the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services says 54,000 children under 6 needed child care but there were only 33,000 licensed slots.

Rise, founded in 1981, serves children ages 6 months to 3 years in its child care program, according to its website. In addition to an increase in demand for child care, the organization also saw a 16 percent increase in the number of children participating in the early intervention program, called Family Centered Early Supports and Services, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the news release said.

"We had to make the very difficult choice to adapt our service delivery model to ensure agency viability and our ability to continue to serve the Monadnock Region's youngest children and their families through early intervention," Deaver said.

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