What’s next? One child care provider’s moment of limbo

'After 18 months, I’ll have to decide if things are still the same'

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I feel honored to share the story this week of Michelle Chambers, owner and director of A+ Child Care and Learning Center in Monroe. I spent a day in October talking with Chambers about her journey to early education and her questions of what’s next.

I spoke with Chambers and teachers next to empty cribs. Chambers’ most recent pandemic blow was having to close her infant room after a state consultant told her it no longer made financial sense. She was having to borrow money to pay the teacher’s salary. She had also lost four teachers and half her enrollment since the start of the pandemic.

After 27 years building the center from the ground up, Chambers had made the painful call to close her doors a couple months before my visit. Two weeks later, she heard about the state’s roll-out of federal 18-month relief grants.

“After 18 months, I’ll have to decide if things are still the same, and if I have to close my doors,” she said.

Chambers got into the field after working as a behavior management technician with the public school system. She would knock on families’ doors to  communicate about discipline issues,  priding herself in the trust she developed in the community. When she started noticing those visits were for children who were younger and younger, she started “soul searching.”

“I wanted to reach them and mold them so it wouldn’t be a shock when they went to kindergarten,” she said.

Past this moment of relief, a combination of federal and state policymaking will influence the decisions of Chambers and thousands like her — and the well-being of children, families, and businesses. North Carolina would receive about $3.34 billion in the next three years in federal funds if the Build Back Better legislation makes it to the finish line. But states would have to opt in and provide matching funds to implement the initiatives.

Spend some time with Chambers’ story here. Thank you for reading.