I SUPPORT HB208, 281, 634, and 644. Gas-powered leaf blowers are an environmental scourge and I'm thankful that a bill has been written to allow localities to restrict them. I wish the Commonwealth of Virginia could just ban them outright. I wholeheartedly support repurposing office buildings to serve as childcare centers.

As a city council member in Newport News, I see firsthand the need for workers to find affordable childcare providers, especially near their place of employment. Today, childcare is more than a daycare, it’s a space for our young people to learn and be prepared to enter into kindergarten. To hire quality childcare workers able to teach our young people their wages will be higher than a traditional daycare worker increasing the cost of childcare providers. This bill will remove an expense to help lower the cost for parents. Additionally, we need to incentivize childcare providers to start a new business or expand an existing business if we want to expand the labor workforce. The civilian labor force rate in Newport News is 61%, 2 percent lower than the Virginia labor workforce rate. Increasing childcare capacity can help cities like Newport News expand their workforce.

Comments Document

In VA Peninsula city centers and across the state there is insufficient capacity for working parents to access child care. This is especially true for babies and toddler where there is only 1 slot for every 6 little children in our area. In this day and age, not having child care affects parents ability to work and forces them to make compromises for the care and education of their young children. Hours and location are among the top challenges for families trying to access child care, so having them where they work or in housing developments would increase the supply. This bill would be a good way to facilitate public-private partnerships between businesses and child care provider businesses to support increased access to early care and education. Removing zoning permit barriers would pave the way to quickly meet the need for more accessible child care for working families with children birth to age 5.