MACON, Ga. — After getting approval from the Bibb County Planning and Zoning, one Macon home is now a daycare center. Darnisha Goolsby is the founder of Little Disciples Daycare LLC and, in the world of daycare, she says there is a tremendous amount of demand.
"Since 2019, I have had a waiting list and that waiting list has grown and it continues to grow, so that tells me we need to expand if I am holding a waiting list for that long," Goolsby said.
Tomeika Sherman has her daughter enrolled and explained that there’s a shortage of daycare and the demand is high for a reason.
"The demand is really high for quality daycares that actually teach children and prepare them for the next level," Sherman said.
Sherman said one of the biggest problems in daycare is ratio.
"The teacher-to-student ratio is very important," Sherman said. "When you have more teachers than students, you have smaller class and your child gets more attention.”
Pam Stevens from the Georgia Department of Early Care offered their tips on finding quality daycare.
"If they go to qualityrated.org they can search for child care it’s very family friendly. They can search along their route to work, they can search in their neighborhood, they can search by their zip code and there’s a lot of information on qualityrated.org on how to choose childcare," Stevens explained.
Stevens said their department is also launching a new academy for daycare business owners.
"Thriving Childcare Business Academy that is starting DECAL is starting to help provide support in their business practices because we know that those strong childcare businesses lead to more access, more high-quality childcare for families. We’re trying to support programs and their business practices as well in their childcare and childcare practices," Stevens said.
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning also has a call center where you can speak to someone about finding childcare in your area. You can speak to someone about what you're looking for at 1-877-255-4254.
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