In northeast Nebraska, the lack of affordable, accessible child care is keeping parents out of the workforce and making it harder for businesses to recruit and retain employees. A new initiative in Norfolk aims to change that.

The Norfolk Area Childcare Collaborative, a coalition of local employers, educators and community leaders, is launching a business-backed model to expand child care capacity, train new providers and offer employers a concrete solution to the workforce and child care shortage.

When the center opens, it will offer 65 to 71 child care slots for children ages 6 weeks to kindergarten, a significant step toward addressing Norfolk’s 299-child care slot gap. Half the new seats will be reserved for sponsoring business employees, including Daycos, Elkhorn Valley Bank, Flood Communications and Northeast Community College. The rest will be open to the public.

“There are 299 children out there who should be in child care, whose parents want them in child care, but there aren’t enough child care slots for them,” said Beth Shashikant, NACC’s project manager. 

A crisis that became too big to ignore

The problem isn’t new, and it isn’t unique to Norfolk. Across Nebraska, families face long waiting lists, especially for infant and toddler care. Wages for providers are low, turnover is high and some licensed centers are forced to operate below capacity because they can’t find staff.

It’s a workforce, child care and economy problem.

A report from First Five Nebraska and the Nebraska Public Power District highlighted the steep economic cost of child care shortages in Madison County. The study found that gaps in access cost working parents more than $6.3 million in lost income each year and employers over $3.6 million due to absenteeism, turnover and reduced productivity. Local businesses also miss an estimated $2.3 million in taxable retail sales annually.

According to Claire Wiebe, a representative of the statewide campaign Nebraska Cares for Kids, Nebraska added about 2,000 licensed child care spots from 2020 to 2025, but the state still faces a gap of 17,500. Ten counties have no licensed providers at all.

Wiebe said many day cares have empty classrooms and full waiting lists. “It’s a very high-intensity job. You’re in the classroom, you’re teaching little ones, you’re caring for all of their needs all day long. And it’s a very underpaid field,” she said.

“People are leaving their jobs or turning down promotions because they can’t find care,”  said Merisa Nathan, director of the Norfolk Family Coalition and steering committee member. “We have 1,369 licensed full-day care spots in Norfolk, and that’s not enough. Our gap number is 299, and it’s always changing.” 

According to the NACC website, 433 children under the age of 6 are not enrolled in a private licensed or public preschool program in Norfolk. 

Wiebe said early childhood education is essential for several reasons, including healthy brain development, strong educational outcomes and broader economic benefits. The brain develops rapidly from birth to age eight, making early learning environments critical for long-term cognitive and emotional growth. 

Wiebe said children who attend quality early education programs are more likely to read by fourth grade, graduate from high school and continue their education. On the workforce side, child care enables parents to remain employed, a key factor in Nebraska, where 76 percent of children under age 5 have all available parents in the workforce. Reliable child care helps businesses maintain staffing, reduces turnover and allows parents to accept promotions or new jobs, which supports the local labor market.

A business-led solution takes shape

The idea for the Norfolk Area Childcare Collaborative started in a business owner’s frustration. Tammy Day, chief purpose officer at Daycos, couldn’t find care for her employees’ children. So she started asking what it would take to fix the system.

She gathered a steering committee of local employers, nonprofit leaders and education professionals. Together, they met for nearly two years to develop a model where businesses would fund and guarantee child care slots for their employees to help families and strengthen the local economy.

“It’s a workforce issue, so businesses and philanthropists need to be involved. It needs to be that we are all doing this together for a community effort, because we need to get people to work,” said Angie Stenger, who is on the steering committee and executive director of Growing Together Northeast Nebraska.

Instead of building from scratch, the team found a more affordable solution: an unused education building at First Presbyterian Church. Renovating it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars less than constructing a new center, which had previously been estimated at $2.1 to $3.7 million.

The collaborative formed a nonprofit, raised startup funds and began recruiting business partners. Each contributes $7,500 annually to cover operation costs and guarantees weekly child care fees for a number of reserved slots, whether those slots are filled or not.

How the model works

The center will serve infants through kindergartners, with half of its roughly 70 slots reserved for children of employees at partner companies. Flood Communications is one of the businesses sponsoring spots for employees.

“The child care gap affects our ability, and that of many local employers, to attract and retain qualified team members. When employees struggle to find reliable, affordable care, it limits their availability, focus and long-term career growth,” said Jessica Walker, senior vice president at Flood Communications. “Solving this issue is essential not just for our business, but for the economic health and growth of the entire region.”

Other partners, including Northeast Community College, are reserving slots as well. Leah Barrett, the college’s president, said the institution sees the partnership as a critical support for students and staff.

“People have left the workforce because they’re unable to find child care,” Barrett said. “We have to treat child care as infrastructure. It’s not optional if we want people to stay in our region and succeed.”

Supporting the providers — not just parents

A key part of the collaborative’s approach is creating better conditions for early childhood workers, a profession long marked by low pay, minimal benefits and high burnout. The collaborative’s model pays the provider’s salary, benefits and coaching directly rather than relying on tuition or enrollment levels.

“Most child care centers run at a deficit, we’re talking like $100,000 to $200,000 a year,” Shashikant said. “We’re trying to flip that model. We want to elevate the early childhood profession by providing a living wage and benefits.”

The provider in the new center will also have access to coaching, mentoring and continuing education. Long term, the collaborative hopes to build a pipeline from local high schools to Northeast Community College’s early childhood education program, creating more pathways into the field.

“If we want to raise the next generation into a competitive, well-educated workforce, we have to make sure the people doing that work are treated like professionals,” Stenger said. “Not like part-time babysitters.”

Barrett said another reason they are partnering with NACC is to support their early childhood development program. They want to address the industry’s low wages and help ensure early childhood professionals can earn a living wage with benefits.

“We want to elevate the progression of early childhood workers by providing them a living wage and benefits,” Shashikant said. “If we can add and pay child care workers a living wage, then maybe other centers will raise child care wages.”

Shashikant said they want to be a good community partner and are not looking to steal workers from other child care centers. NACC intends to train and help every child care provider in Norfolk overall. Northeast Community College’s involvement creates a path where everyone can benefit.

Affordability and access

While business partners will receive guaranteed access, about half the slots in the new center will be open to the public. The collaborative is working to make those spaces affordable.

The center will accept state child care subsidies and fundraise to provide additional tuition assistance. It will also cover the gap between state rates and the actual cost of quality care. This gap has historically made it hard for low-income families to access reliable providers.

“The goal is to create something that works for working parents at every income level,” Stenger said. “And that’s going to take layers of support — state subsidies, fundraising, employer participation and community buy-in.”

A blueprint for Nebraska

Behind the Norfolk Area Childcare Collaborative, the project is not just a local fix; it’s a model they hope to spread. “This is a pilot,” Barrett said. “But if it works, I think it’s going to bring other businesses into this discussion.” 

Stenger said the collaborative is already drawing interest from other Nebraska communities. “We are building something sustainable, something we hope can scale across the state,” she said. 

“Projects like what’s happening in Norfolk are really essential,” Wiebe said. “We need models that businesses and communities can adapt and fast.”

It wouldn’t be the first time a Nebraska business led the way on child care. A different model from the NACC in Lincoln, Hudl partnered with Primrose Schools to open an on-site child care center at its headquarters in 2023, offering employees a convenient, high-quality option just a few floors away.

“This partnership continues to be a vital resource for our evolving workforce of parents and caregivers and has led to more in-office work,” said Hudl VP of Operations and Chief of Staff Mark Ketcham. “You can definitely see and feel the impact of the center when you’re around HQ.”

However, in Norfolk, where the collaborative is employer-led but not employer-run, the aim is even broader: to build a child care system that works for one company and the whole region.

“We want Norfolk to be seen as a model community for addressing child care access through public-private collaboration,” Walker said. “Because Norfolk is not unique in our child care struggle.”

A shared commitment to a shared future

For everyone involved, the NACC is about more than filling a gap. It’s about proving communities can tackle complex problems and build something better together.

“We’re creating a model that’s financially sustainable, supportive of providers and responsive to families,” Shashikant said. “A rising tide lifts all ships.”

Stenger agrees: “We’re not waiting for someone else to fix it.”

NACC is set to open during the fall 2025 school year, and organizers hope to continue to grow it and adapt every year.