Families scramble to find child care after staffing shortage cancels YMCA day camp

LAKE WYLIE, S.C. — Families looking forward to the last week of day camp at the YMCA’s Camp Thunderbird received bad news Sunday night, that due to a staffing shortage caused by a positive COVID-19 test, the camp was canceled.

Representatives said the overnight camp programming at Camp Thunderbird would not be impacted and would continue as scheduled, since it is run by a different staff group that was unaffected.

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More than 100 children were registered for the day camp, however. The YMCA said it would provide a full refund to all families who were scheduled to attend this week, but the cancelation left some scrambling to find child care for the week.

Janet Singerman is president and CEO of Child Care Resources, Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps families in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Union, Rowan and Stanly counties find and pay for child care.

“There is absolutely a work force shortage and it is more acute than I have ever seen it,” Singerman said. “Just today my staff spoke with a child care program that had to close the classroom for the day because it did not have sufficient staffing. The good news is that most of them are open, so child care is available in Mecklenburg County.”

Singerman said that out of more than 460 licensed programs, child care enrollment in Mecklenburg County is currently at 51% of what it was before the pandemic.

“The programs are required to be in compliance with licensing requirements for staffing at all times so the classroom cannot be open if, in fact, there isn’t sufficient staffing for that classroom,” she said. “It is preventing classrooms from reopening rather than causing programs to close at this point, and so, while we have 51% of enrollment from pre-COVID, we’re in the midst of documenting how many classrooms are not able to open because of the workforce shortage.”

Childcare Resources Inc. helps local families locate affordable childcare: