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.
