Dozens of childcare providers closed their classrooms Thursday to rally at the statehouse. It was billed as a Day Without Childcare.
Childcare providers called for state funding to replace federal COVID-19 relief funds set to expire next month. Many childcare centers used the federal grants to raise salaries or offer benefits to retain teachers, and say they can't survive without this funding.
Danielle Caldwell is an early childcare educator who attended the rally.
She said, "If you do not invest in the infrastructure of childcare, there will be more than one day without childcare. It will be a permanent day without childcare."
Caldwell closed her own home-based childcare center in Durham to seek a job with health and retirement benefits.
Earlier this year, the North Carolina Child Care Resource and Referral Council surveyed providers on how the loss of federal funds would affect them. Most, 88 percent, said they will have to charge parents more, and nearly a third of respondents said they expect to close permanently.