Light poured into the entrance hall of Resurrection Lutheran Church’s new child development center.
Melanie Mesick, the director of the childcare center and school, said the building is everything she expected it would be — but it won’t fully come to life until its classrooms are full and the hallways are noisy.
“It's beautiful and clean and spotless today, and it's going to stay like that for one day,” she said at the ribbon cutting event Aug. 28.
The $7 million center will increase the program’s enrollment capacity to 250 infants and pre-k toddlers, more than double the church’s current cap. And it will offer before- and after-school programming for elementary school students. The new center, which is fully licensed and staffed, will open after Labor Day to currently enrolled students and is expected to operate at full capacity by November.
The purpose of the new space is to meet a persistent and growing need in the community: affordable childcare.
All of the region’s licensed childcare programs combined, including centers, preschools and family childcare homes, still leaves nearly 33,000 children under 6 with working parents without a seat, according to Child Care Aware of Virginia, an advocacy group that refers people to childcare resources.
And that’s the best-case scenario, said Jane Elyse Glasgow, who serves as executive director of Minus 9 to 5 at Old Dominion University, an initiative that connects families with resources. The actual deficit across Hampton Roads is likely much larger than 33,000 slots because childcare centers have to be fully staffed to operate at full capacity.
“We know that there are classrooms in many of our centers that are not open because they just can't get the workforce in there,” she said.
When families can’t find reliable childcare, a parent may stop working or may reduce their hours. The result is a lack of financial stability, lost wages and stunted career advancement for families, as well as staffing challenges for local businesses. The shortage could also prove a barrier to economic growth in Hampton Roads.
“It is definitely a factor when looking at business attraction or expansion, because without childcare, (you) can't get the workforce in there, and so we know that there are fewer people in the workforce than would like to be because of childcare,” Glasgow said.
Increasing access
Resurrection Lutheran Church’s new school is the largest licensed childcare center in Southeastern Virginia. And Mesick said it was designed with the community’s needs in mind.
Infant care, for example, is one of the biggest needs in Hampton Roads, Glasgow said.
It’s also one of the most expensive services for childcare providers to offer.
“It costs me more to provide childcare for infants than toddlers, because I have to have more staff to take care of them than I do for, say, a three-year-old,” Glasgow said, adding the state requires specific teacher-student ratios for different age groups. “The business model for childcare is very slim.”
Affordability is another priority for the expanded church school, Mesick said, noting some families pay completely out of pocket, while others are fully or partially subsidized.
“We don't ever want price to be something that stops a family from coming,” Mesick said. “It should be accessible to everyone. We don't interview our families. We accept all children and give them a try because all kids deserve that.”
That approach isn’t the norm in Hampton Roads.
Lillian Palmbach, a Hampton Roads resident working in the aerospace industry, said she didn’t understand how few options there are in the region until she had her son about a year ago. And when she did find options, the cost was staggering.
“People are spending more money on daycare than mortgages,” she said.
Child Care Aware of Virginia estimates the average cost of full-time care for infants up to 16 weeks old is a little more than $1,055 a month in the seven cities of Hampton Roads. For those earning the median personal income in Hampton Roads — $48,271 — that amounts to more than a quarter of their monthly paycheck.
On top of rising costs for housing, groceries and other needs, families may decide it makes more financial sense for one parent, usually the mother, to stay home, Palmbach said, noting single parents don’t have that luxury.
“I haven't spoken to one mother, and I'm not exaggerating, where childcare is not a huge issue for them, or the number one reason they leave the workforce, or the number one thing they stress about,” she said.
A 2020 U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study showed more than half of parents who left the workforce did so because they couldn’t find childcare.
‘A triple bottom line’
The childcare shortage affects families, businesses and the region’s economy as a whole, said Glasgow, the leader of the Minus 9 to 5 initiative.
“It's about ensuring that children are learning and developing in a way that they're going to be ready for school and for life,” she said. “It's about ensuring that families have the care that they need, so that they can go to work and do their jobs. And it's about ensuring that our community has the workforce that they need, so that we can have an economically prosperous region.”
Licensed childcare programs in the region each enroll an average of 52 students. At that rate, more than 630 new programs would need to open around the region to cover the current gap, according to data reported by Child Care Aware of Virginia and analyzed by WHRO.
That would mean increasing the existing pool of childcare programs by roughly 85%.
And that’s assuming they could all be fully staffed, which is another perennial challenge.
Ginger Blount-Moore, Newport News’ deputy manager for community wellbeing, said other churches have expressed interest in doing a project similar to Resurrection Lutheran, adding or expanding childcare offerings to ease the burden on working parents.
But the 18-month project wasn’t easy or cheap.
The church worked with engineers, contractors, lawyers and city planners to get the design right, work through permit and inspection requirements and address the site’s drainage issues, said Brad Mason, the congregation president.
Construction delays were inevitable, though some of the causes for delays were unexpected, Mason said.
“We had to protect the Southeastern Virginia tree bat habitat before we could clear the trees, and that ended up delaying us about six months,” he said.
And the project required capital: $7 million in church funds and a loan through the Lutheran Church Extension Fund.
Sharon Howell, the eastern regional manager of Child Care Aware of Virginia, said adding more funding options could help providers open or expand childcare centers, offering publicly-funded grants could help families afford childcare and simplifying licensing requirements could reduce roadblocks.
“While still protecting the safety, make it a little bit easier for providers to get licensed and open up more spots,” Howell said.
Employers could also step in by offering on-site childcare or helping employees pay for childcare to retain talent, Howell said.
A 2025 report showed the business impact of an inadequate childcare supply. Nearly a third of Virginian employers reported workers leaving the job, 65% reported workers having to reduce hours and 88% reported workers being late or missing work because of childcare.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed legislation in May to create the Employee Child Care Assistance Program, which offers to use state funds to match employers’ contributions to childcare costs.
Even educational institutions have begun offering options for students with children, like Tidewater Community College’s full-day on-campus childcare.
Palmbach said childcare should be considered an essential good — up there with clean water, electricity and roads.
“If we want more people in the workforce, if we want to grow the economy, we need to see it as essential to economic development and growth, not just as a family support service,” she said.
