County strains under growing need for child care
When Cranberry Township resident Allison Truman was pregnant with her first child, Noah, last year, she said she did not expect the crisis facing the county’s child care industry.
“It was hard, to be honest, because I always read things like, ‘As soon as you get pregnant, as soon as you find out, you need to get on a day care waiting list,’” Truman said. “And I always thought — not to call it a joke — but I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s no possible way.’”
For a while, Truman was able to work from home and care for Noah after his birth in May 2022. When the balance of work and child care became too much, though, she was surprised to find that options in the area were limited.
Alexandra “Ali” Feicht, owner and director of Ali’s Little Hands Learning Center in Center Township, said her facility has 38 families on its wait list.
The Rose E. Schneider YMCA’s new Early Learning and Child Care Center had 76 potential applicants on its wait list — with only 50 spots available to families.
Both centers cite a national staffing crisis as the main hindrance to child care availability post-COVID.
