HAZARD, Ky.-- Although educators urge parents to start their little ones in preschool programs at a young age, there are few places in Kentucky for working parents to put their young children. Not only is the shortage of affordable child care centers a worry when it comes to keeping kids on track in their education, but also for working parents to be able to keep their jobs with confidence their infants and toddlers are being properly looked after during the day. That's why community groups are pushing for more centers like one they've had to subsidize to keep alive in Hazard, the New Beginnings Early Learning Center. 

Kristin Collins considers her family fortunate to have a place for their 2-year-old, at the center in Hazard. It's one of few in the area. 

"My daughter loves going to school every day as much as I love going to work every day," Collins says. 

However, the facility struggles to stay alive. It turns out, that's a common program among facilities like it in Eastern Kentucky. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky helped it stay afloat, as the center entered bankruptcy in 2016. For example, it costs parents $100 per week for their 3,4, or 5-year-old to attend the school full-time, but it costs more than that to operate the place. Some parents also have the option to pay for the service with the help of the Child Care Assitance Program (CCAP), which recently raised the rates it pays providers for low-income families.

“There are a lot of factors that make having children hard, and not being able to find child care- quality child care or affordable child care- adds to the factor of not making enough money or not knowing where your child is going to be and if they’re going to be safe," says Collins. 

She hopes that more working parents like herself can find what she and her daughter have in the rare center in Hazard. According to the Prichard Committee, the number of licensed centers across the state has been declining since 2013. Read their study here.