Nearly all counties in The Smoky Mountain News coverage area have fewer childcare facilities than just several years prior, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Haywood and Swain counties experienced a 10-19% net decline between July 2024 and January 2026. For Macon, among a handful of hardest-hit counties, that figure jumped to over 20%, a net loss of one out of every five centers.
But both public K-12 and public higher education have risen to the occasion amid these startling figures, expanding existing childcare resources while dreaming up new ones. Haywood Community College has run its on-campus Regional Center for the Advancement of Children for over a decade since taking over operations from Southwestern Child Development Commission. The college also offers an early childhood development program for students, which HCC President Shelley White said has been an invaluable RCAC partner.
“We do have people that come work for the center and are also enrolled in the program or individuals that finish the program and come to work in the center, so there is a strong connection there,” she explained.
HCC staff and students have enrollment priority, but most children come from families with no college affiliation. RCAC Director Denise Worley cited campus location as the core reason parents choose this site for their children.
“Our biggest population comes from the hospital and some of the local businesses,” she said, adding that it’s also common for the center to care for children in Department of Social Services custody, since DSS, like the hospital, is just down the road.
RCAC can host around 130 heads at max capacity, but due to current staffing, it’s closer to 110. That number includes the two classes of pre-K — one N.C. pre-K and the other private pay, with identical curriculum — also hosted on campus.
“We do keep a waiting list for most of our classes because there’s such a shortage,” White said.
The childcare center run by Jackson County Public Schools originated in the throes of such a shortage. As JCPS Executive Director of Federal Programs and Elementary Education Laura Dills recalled, almost three years ago, the district had more than a handful of pregnant employees. “Jackson County has really limited care for infants,” she said, adding that at the time, Mountain Projects had temporarily closed its infant room.
Teacher retention was already a problem. And since returning to work postpartum necessitated a daycare option, the district risked losing several faculty and staff. So JCPS began to consider something unprecedented within the county: offering an infant/toddler classroom for employees’ children. Thanks to a Dogwood Health Trust grant, the Scotts Creek Elementary space opened in November 2024 to eight students, including three with parents that didn’t work for the school system.
“We definitely prioritize the needs of our staff and infant toddler, but can support others,” Dills explained.
To comply with safety regulations, a room divider was placed between infants up to 12 months old and toddlers ranging from 13 months to 3 years. Two staff members were always present. “This year, we’re actually planning to be fully just a toddler classroom,” Dills said, adding that it’ll hold 10 children. “We’re just going to flex year-to-year to either be fully toddler or infant and toddler based upon the majority of needs of the people who need our resources.”
Haywood County Schools is on a mission to restart a nearly identical service, which first ran from 2000 to 2014 before succumbing to funding cuts. Listen-and-learn sessions with employees convinced administrators to return to the program.
“Through those conversations, we had a good handful of people ask about childcare and if there was anything we could do to help,” said Assistant Superintendent Graham Haynes.
The program won’t bring HCS any extra cash, but Haynes said that’s unimportant.
“We want to break even on it. We’re not trying to make any money,” he explained.
Credit: Lily Levin photo
The childcare room will be located at Bethel Middle School. Haynes anticipated it wouldn’t be ready by the start of this academic year, although room renovations and inspections have been completed. The holdup lies in demand and cost: determining the class size and monthly fee necessary to break even.
HCS will also need to hire staff. There are several silver linings to childcare employment, which often depend upon the facility. For example, RCAC Director Denise Worley said the center’s inclusion within HCC makes it a more attractive place to work. RCAC staff members are on the college’s payroll and, like public school teachers, considered state employees with access to state benefits.
Dills, like White, credited the importance of an early childhood education development program in encouraging future professionals.
“[Smoky Mountain High School] students can even go out and do some internship-type programs, and we’re hoping that that draws their interest, so that can funnel them over into an SCC or a WCU, either associate or bachelor’s degree in early childhood,” she said.
But neither benefits nor partner programs have adequately addressed staffing vacancies, a massive problem for childcare centers statewide — and likely to also impact HCS. Worley said the pandemic exacerbated the issue. Burnt out from COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, long-term staff fled the industry.
“It left centers to have to pick up the pieces,” she recounted.
That observation is backed by quantifiable evidence. A 2023 University of California-Irvine study investigating pandemic-related childcare industry impacts in North Carolina reported “a significant drop in the number of 5-star providers and an increase in the number of lower-quality providers.”
North Carolina’s longstanding star system evaluates providers based on staff education and program standards, requiring all infant/toddler center lead teachers to possess a North Carolina Early Childhood Credential or else an equivalent degree or certification. Any site seeking a competitive 4- to 5-star rating must adhere to said regulations.
As a 5-star provider, RCAC consistently seeks out candidates with an associate or bachelor’s degree. And yet it has no way of offering a competitive salary.
“The way that childcare is funded, it’s mostly out of pocket or through subsidies, and so in order to be able to pay a wage that would be comparable to K-12 teacher wages, it’s nearly impossible,” White explained.
Worley discussed the result of such a substantial wage-degree misalignment.
“Here you have these educated, highly experienced, really good early childhood professionals that are not getting paid, and they’re not getting recognized,” she said. “A lot of them went to public schools because they get those benefits and they get their summers off.”
According to Dills, while childcare is a passion-driven role, material conditions also come into play.
“It is a calling for a lot of people. But even with the calling, you still have to be able to pay your bills,” she said.
Worley, analyzing the trends she’s seen throughout her 33 years in the childcare sector, came to a similar conclusion.
“The quality has definitely improved over the last 30 years. The kids are getting a lot more, and there’s so much more recognition about what kids need … But along with that, though, the requirements have increased. You need to have degrees, education, whatever. But again, you go back to the pay. There’s no pay,” she explained.
Low pay is largely a policy decision. Before the state budget was approved earlier this month, childcare subsidy rates varied significantly by county and were based on 2021 market values. The state funded urban centers more than their rural counterparts at a difference of up to $700 per child. And reimbursements did not keep pace with true operational costs.
According to the N.C. Task Force on Child Care and Early Education , “some rural childcare providers are only receiving 46% of what they spend to provide care for each infant they serve through the subsidy program.”
Funding deficits also impacted subsidy enrollment, which are income-based and enable families to attend programs with reduced or no payment. As of December 2025, the total waitlist for childcare subsidies was 15,512, up from 2,164 in July 2024. Meanwhile, fewer students were enrolled: 54,633 in December 2025 versus 65,268 in July 2024.
Fortunately, with the passage of the budget, the General Assembly appropriated $97 million in recurring federal block grant funding in service of “implement[ing] a statewide rate floor based on the North Carolina Child Care Market Rate Study 2021 Final Report,” flattening the pay table and reducing gaps between urban and rural municipalities.
As for state funding, the legislature devoted $77.8 million from the general fund toward childcare subsidies. This represented 13.1% of overall funding and was about a $34 million increase from the prior budget .
Because subsidy funding influences center capacity, additional appropriations should free up enrollment spots. But advocates argue with equitable tax policy targeting the wealthiest North Carolinians, the legislature could pull from an even larger general fund to sustainably appropriate state dollars. This reduces reliance on federal funding, which is sometimes meted out to one program at the expense of another equally valuable program. Plus, the $97 million in recurring funds is not an all-encompassing solution. For example, JCPS’ infant/toddler classroom tuition is $900 per month. Dills said the true monthly program cost for each child is closer to $1,600 or $1,700. But charging that amount would price out the very population it was designed around. And the dollar loss is acceptable, she reasoned, because the daycare center goes a long way in offsetting other costs.
“It’s not a program that we even are able to break even in, but we just see that it would cost so much more if those teachers went home and we weren’t able to rehire them,” Dills told The Smoky Mountain News.
Along those lines, childcare staffing vacancy carries a greater risk for JCPS than it might for other centers.
“If I had to close the infant toddler classroom, then that would upset five or six teachers in our district who each have their own classroom with anywhere from probably 15 to 30 kids,” she noted.
Worley explained that a tuition analysis of RCAC alongside several other Haywood County childcare facilities indicated the HCC center is “pretty much at the lowest end of the spectrum.” RCAC tries to keep things affordable, especially in this day and age when so many parents are struggling.
At the same time, its doors have to stay open. As a result, said Worley, a tuition increase is unavoidable at some point in the future. She surmised that if things keep moving in this direction, childcare generally will become unsustainable.
“Somehow at the state level, there’s going to have to be some changes,” she said. “This system is going to continue to crumble if something’s not put in place to hold it together.”
Swain County Schools and Macon County Schools do not have infant/toddler care for employees.
Pre-K also a struggle
The second piece of early childhood education is pre-Kindergarten.
A statewide no-cost program, N.C. pre-K is situated under the Division of Child Development and Early Education funded by the state Department of Health and Human Services. Eligible 4-year-olds come from families whose gross income is at or below 75% of the State Median Income , though if a family does not meet that criteria, a student may still be eligible based on factors such as disability, limited English-speaking ability or chronic health conditions.
The program is offered at public schools, private childcare centers and Head Start facilities. Like childcare education, pre-K also comes with certain requirements. For example, teachers must be certified and meals provided. Teaching assistants must possess an associate’s degree or credential. Unlike at RCAC, funding is braided at public schools, so N.C. pre-K students often share the classroom with children whose families that paid privately or received other subsidies. JCPS hosts one pre-K classroom in four out of five of its elementary schools and two in Fairview Elementary, the largest in the system.
The private pay rate is $625 per month for JCPS employees and $750 per month for everyone else. Cullowhee Valley School holds a mixed N.C. pre-K classroom with several developmentally delayed students and an extra teaching assistant. Operations are funded by the Exceptional Children’s program.
“We believe in heterogeneous grouping, and we want all of the kids to love each other and support each other,” said Dills.
HCS, with five pre-K classes of 18 students each, takes heterogenous grouping even further. “Four of our sites include developmentally delayed students,” said Elementary Supervisor Karley Wells, also speaking about the importance of classroom integration.
As for pre-K itself, all educators interviewed by SMN thought it to be an essential program. “There’s so much evidence that children who have exposure to high-quality early education, they perform better in school, and they are more socially well-adjusted and definitely perform at a higher level later in life or in their academic career,” White said.
Dills echoed that statement.
“I’m just really passionate about kids having some type of learning experience before kindergarten, if the family can accommodate it or find opportunities. So, as a county, I want us to keep having lots of options, not just with the school, but across our community,” she said. Worley, meanwhile, described pre-K as a replacement for kindergarten.
“Our N.C. pre-K classroom and our private pre-K classroom operate like a Kindergarten classroom because we know once they get to public school, Kindergarten is not Kindergarten anymore. It’s more like first grade,” she said, adding that kids without an introductory level of education struggle in elementary school.
In fact, according to the N.C. Early Childhood Foundation, pre-K attendance boosts academic and social success and boasts long-term positive impacts. And yet in the 2024-2025 academic year, North Carolina pre-K failed to meet the national average, reaching only 21% of four-year-olds. Staff retention could be one underlying factor.
“The salary for a teacher assistant just doesn’t cut it for the cost of living right now,” Wells admitted.
HCS hopes to pay teaching assistants more at some point, she said, but right now, it doesn’t have the budget. Whether the district will offer more pre-K classes is also a future consideration.
“We would love to expand. I can’t officially say that we’re going to do it next year. It takes a lot to set up that site. There’s a lot more site specifications as far as the bathroom and the sink and the temperature of the water,” she said.
Another part of the problem for public schools hosting pre-K classes is that despite paying more per teacher, reimbursement amounts to thousands less in per slot than for private centers and pales in comparison to childcare subsidies to begin with.
Even though retaining lead educators typically isn’t a challenge for public schools — which offer the most competitive wages of any provider — reimbursements barely amount to a drop in the salary bucket. Dills spoke to this predicament.
“The hard thing for me, from a budgetary standpoint, is that because we are school based, we pay our pre-K teachers on the teacher pay scale, which is certainly higher than what they might make in some private childcare places,” she said, noting that even if costly, it’s a point of pride for the district. Title I is a viable, if imperfect, solution.
“I really have to lean a lot on my Title I funding because all of those N.C. pre-Ks are in Title I schools, so that’s great because preschool is one of the first factors in helping limit learning loss for students,” Dills explained, adding, “but it does limit the funding we can use for other Title I supports.”
Macon County Schools hosts N.C. pre-K “at several elementary schools throughout the district,” Superintendent Josh Lynch wrote in a message to SMN.
“Our goal is to ensure that children enter kindergarten ready to learn by providing a strong foundation academically, socially, and emotionally,” he continued.
MCS offers a private pay option to those who do not qualify for N.C. pre-K with a $100 monthly discount for all district employees, though because of recent increases to income eligibility thresholds, the program is reaching more families.
“Recruiting and retaining high-quality educators continues to be a challenge across North Carolina, and early childhood education is no exception,” Lynch wrote, though he did not mention specifics.
Swain County Schools offers a five-classroom, 80-student N.C. pre-K program, which employs five teachers, seven teaching assistants and an on-site director. But the district has also struggled with finances.
“We beg, build, steal and borrow from different accounts to try to fund it,” joked Superintendent Brandon Sutton, explaining that North Carolina only reimburses about 50% of SCS pre-K operating and maintenance costs.
“[NC pre-K is] not a requirement. It is something we do because we saw a need,” he said, explaining that there’s sometimes a waitlist for enrollment.
But increasingly the district is running against a potentially prohibitive problem.
“It is getting more difficult to sustain [the program] as funding has reduced,” he said.
An October 2024 multi-university study found that funding devoted to NC Pre-K “generated positive effects on student reading and math achievement through eighth grade.”
But in the recently passed budget, the General Assembly did not increase general fund appropriations to N.C. pre-K, despite two years of inflation. As in 2024-2025, the state devoted only $47.4 million to the program.
Wells was nonetheless optimistic about what education might look like down the line. She recalled at one of N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Maurice “Mo” Green’s listen-and-learn sessions, an employee advocated for implementing universal pre-K. And Green, she said, took it to heart. The current state strategic plan postulates that N.C. educators need to think about learning as beginning pre-Kindergarten and continuing post-high school.
“[It was] thinking about the whole child before they enter and after. So that was promising,” she explained, adding, “We do still want universal pre-K for everybody, but one day we’ll get the funding to be able to do that.”