Cedar Rapids Daycare Closes Suddenly, Parents Scramble to Find Care

After a lot of time spent at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are headed back to work. With that, childcare is a necessity for many parents, which is why this recent daycare closing is a rough one.

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Child care is something that many parents stress about. Who's going to take care of your kids when you're at work? Who is going to uphold the standard of care you have for your children? It's not easy to find a childcare facility that you're comfortable leaving your little ones with, which is why it can be devasting when that said facility closes.

According to KCRG, Kids Inc. located at 6340 Muirfield Dr. SW in Cedar Rapids closed suddenly causing sixty families to scramble to find care. The report states that the facility serves over 100 children and that parents were told on Wednesday that the daycare would be closing Friday. On Thursday morning, a message was sent to parents telling them the daycare would not open again due to staffing issues and that personal belongings could be picked up Saturday morning. That's not a lot of notice for busy parents.

What's even worse is that many other daycares are full, so many kids are being put on a waitlist. The Kids Inc. Marion location luckily has about 10 spots for kids from the Cedar Rapids location. Although it helps, that's still only 10 out of 100 children. KCRG reports that the owner of the daycares, Becky McNeal, said that she sent out an email to parents as soon as she was informed that "there wouldn't be enough staff to safely watch children under the Department of Human Services regulations." It doesn't look like there's a plan to reopen either, as the report states that the daycare's license expires on Sunday, and they will not be renewing it.

Staffing issues continue to be a problem for just about every business since the pandemic. It's unfortunate that we're seeing it even in our child care systems.