Day care chain adds CT sites in Avon, Southington and Vernon
A Florida-based company that develops franchise day care centers around the country has announced it will be expanding its presence in Connecticut.
The Learning Experience will add three new Connecticut day care centers between now and the third quarter of 2025. The first new center to open will be in Southington some time during the fourth quarter of this year, followed by a facility in Vernon during the first quarter of next year and a location in Avon that will begin operating in the third quarter of next year.
The chain already has 13 Connecticut locations, according to Brad Wahl, the company’s chief brand officer.
Each new location will have a 10,000-square-foot building and a 5,000-square-foot playground. Between the three new locations, operators of the new Learning Experience locations will be hiring 100 additional workers, Wahl said.
Each new day care center costs between $3.2 million and $3.5 million to develop, he said.
And each new center will have spots for 180 children, from ages 6-weeks to 6-years-old, and provide daycare, enrichment programs, and early childhood education.
Wahl did not provide a specific pricing structure for parents whose children are enrolled in Learning Experience facilities, but added that the company charges are “in line with other national brands, and the new centers will be in line with others in the area.”
“One of our key points of differentiation is that all of our proprietary curriculum and additional programs, such as enrichment activities, are always included with tuition to create the greatest value for children and families,” he said. “We would never exclude or prevent any child from the opportunity of a complete educational experience.”
Affordable child care and finding enough space in facilities to meet the demand remains a nagging problem, according to experts. A 2023 study released by the United Way found that families with two adults and two young children with limited assets and income constraints spent an average of $2,188 per month on child care costs in 2021.
“Some people are being asked to pay as much as 30 percent or more of what they make just to cover their mortgage and child care,” said Laura Mutrie, a clinical assistant professor of social work at Quinnipiac University.” And if you have a second kid (in day care) it costs even more. We want to bring people to Connecticut to fill the jobs we have and we want them to stay, but if they can’t afford to pay the rent and pay for child care, they are not going to stay.”
State Rep. Liz Linehan, DCheshire, is chairwoman of the General Assembly’s Committee on Children. Linehan said creating more child care availability “is essential to our workforce.”
“It’s a priority of the committee to do what we can to open up as many (day care) spots as possible and to fill the pipeline with new employees to work at these centers,” she said. “It’s not always easy to find a spot, even if you can afford it; even two-income households in the suburbs can have trouble affording it. There’s a whole systemic problem associated with child care and early childhood education, and it isn’t just limited to Connecticut.”
Linehan said she’s hoping to introduce some proposals during the upcoming 2024 legislative session that starts next week to address child care issues.
“We need to make it easier to open up home day care centers while still maintaining the appropriate oversight,” she said. “But this is not a problem that is going to be solved in one legislative session or by one state alone. We need something that is comprehensive and doesn’t just nibble away at the problem.”
Mutrie said the families who are feeling the child care squeeze the most acutely are those that have an income above the limit to qualify for Head Start, the federal program that promotes school readiness of children from birth to age five living in lowincome families.
“The families that are getting squeezed are those in the middle,” she said. “It’s great that more slots are being added, but it doesn’t do much good if you can’t afford them.”