DURHAM, N.C. – For more than three decades, Kate Goodwin has worked in the early childhood field. While many centers across the state have struggled and closed over the last few years, her center, Kate’s Korner Learning Center, just celebrated its first anniversary.

Goodwin said she did not get to this landmark alone.

“It took a community to make this center work. It takes a community to continue to have it work,” Goodwin said.

What You Need To Know

  •  North Carolina lost more than 200 child care centers in recent years

  •  Fewer centers mean more children are left out, with families struggling to find available spots

  •  Kate Goodwin believes the early childhood field needs to focus on staff retention and investment

  • Her center just celebrated its first anniversary in Durham

Since the start of the COVID pandemic, there’s been attention on child care centers across the state. According to NC Child, from February of 2020 to the summer of 2023, more than 200 centers closed across the state.

The loss of centers puts pressures on working families, childcare workers and the children themselves.

“The old regimen of early childhood education has brokenness, and we unfortunately kind of met that brokenness with COVID because it's almost like there was an exposure of what we have not been doing right as an or as an industry all together,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin said one of those broken areas she’s working to correct is investment in staff.

She said her staff have higher pay, more benefits and education opportunities. It’s not a model that’s made her a lot of money, she said, but it’s one that’s benefited the people around her.

“We don't have a lot of call outs because we do a four day work week with our educators. They get a day to get off and do the things that they normally wouldn't be able to do," Goodwin said.

It’s something, Goodwin said, that the families who come to the center notice. She’s heard their thanks that their children aren’t seeing a new face every day, and that there are people there excited to invest in their children.

Investment in child care centers is something that the federal and state government have worked to address.

The North Carolina legislature invested in child care stabilization grants after the federal funding ran out, which is meant to help with pay.

Neil Harrington, the Research Director at NC Child, said the investment pays off, but that the state funding is set to expire in June.

“Some studies have shown that about for every dollar invested in a quality child care program, the return to the to the state, to any government investing, and it's about $12 per dollar invested,” Harrington said.

Goodwin said it’s taken a lot of intention to change the model, and that’s work she knows will continue.

It’s hard work, however, that she’s willing and ready to take on.

“There's something historically said in early childhood education. That is, if you have your problems, check them at the door and then come in here and take care of your children. That is impossible. It is not right. It's impossible. All of the things. So what we're trying to do is be able to change that model, give more empowerment to our educators, who are the most important people in the building,” Goodwin said.