HATTERAS ISLAND, N.C. — For months, Outer Banks families have told News 3 it's not just housing challenges they're facing — it's access to child care, too. That's even more present now on Hatteras Island, with the closing of its only facility at the end of 2025. Families are now faced with a harsh reality.
"I think the hardest part for us is just knowing the uncertainty of how our children are going to thrive without a structured childcare facility to go to because it is such a foundation," said Erin Trant, a Hatteras Island mother of three.
Trant and her husband have three small children, own a small business and both work full time. Now in the new year without access to a child care facility on Hatteras Island, the Trant's and fellow families are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"We don't have the extended family to help. We don't have the unlimited funds to hire someone at $30 an hour for three children, that's just not feasible for us in our in our lifestyle now," said Trant.
Trant, alongside Hatteras Island mothers Whitney Dempsey and Kelly Aiken, have been working with Dare County leaders on this issue to bring a child care facility back to the island.
"We were told that we basically needed to create a new business and find a location for a childcare center, and they may provide us with some seed funds to get started. But that all takes a significant amount of time that we as full time working moms just don't have," said Trant.
A Dare County leader told News 3 it's a complex issue, but helping provide child care access to the entire community is a priority for the county.
Neil Harrington is the director of policy and research at NC Child and shares that child care access and affordability across the state have seemed to get worse over the past several years.
"At the crux of it is that childcare is the labor intensive business, right? You need kind of a fair amount of trained staff to make sure that children in a center's care are safe and that they're receiving that high quality early childhood education experience that is so critical to their development. Oftentimes, the amount that they are charging parents, it really doesn't even cover the cost it actually provides them to provide that care," said Harrington.
Also putting into perspective through a study in previous years, the impact that child care issues have on the North Carolina workforce.
"We did a couple of economic impact analyzes in the past couple of years with the NC and US Chamber foundations and then the Department of Commerce. The study we did with the Chamber foundations found that childcare issues in North Carolina cost our state's economy about $5.65 billion per year because parents cannot find or afford childcare in their communities. And when that happens, many parents have to drop out of the labor force and take care of their children," said Harrington.
For Trant, that could become a reality.
"End of March, beginning of April, when our business does open full tilt for the season, it either comes down to me quitting my job, finding out a hybrid solution here, which I'm hopeful for, or being a stay at home mom," said Trant.
Harrington says county governments and the legislature can be pivotal in helping fund solutions to child care issues, specifically when it comes to subsidies. Trant understands that locally and at the state level, progress is in motion, but feels solutions are years away — and that is time that Hatteras Island families just don't have.
"I do feel like the state is working towards a solution, but it's a long-term plan. We're going to lose a lot of valuable people in our community that you know can't be here if they don't have childcare," said Trant.
