Child care options start to rebound as Minnesotans return to the office

Minnesota’s child care centers have long struggled with staffing and funding shortages that worsened in the COVID-19 pandemic. Five years later, though, operators see reasons to be optimistic as big companies call back workers, creating more need for child care. 

On Monday, Twin Cities providers and state officials marked a milestone with the reopening of New Horizon Academy in Crystal after closing there 20 years earlier.

“I’m really hopeful that we're starting to see a turnaround,” Chad Dunkley, CEO of New Horizon and president of the Minnesota Child Care Association, said of the current environment. “We’re starting to see some stability. We’re starting to see provider confidence grow. And I hope this is not the first new child care program that we're going to hear about here in Crystal.”

New Horizon left Crystal in 2005 due to budget cuts that affected reimbursement rates. Now, new state funding over the last two years has helped it to reopen, Dunkley said. “I think the provider community is ready to grow where families need us and again, this new funding also makes that possible.”

In 2023, Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn and other lawmakers helped secure more funding for child care assistance along with increased early learning scholarships and compensation support for teachers.

“Looking back at the circumstances that bring us here today reminds us just how much of an impact frivolous cuts can have on our communities, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” said Kotyza-Witthuhn, DFL-Eden Prairie. 

The additional funding hasn’t completely solved the problem. About 4,500 families remain on the waitlist for early learning scholarships, and many child care centers across the state do not have enough availability. 

Big Minnesota employers like Xcel Energy, U.S. Bank and General Mills want their workers back in person and that means child care demands will only rise.

Dunkley said he hopes the return of New Horizon to Crystal helps to turn the corner.

“Really, we’re the workforce behind the workforce for families with little kids,” he said. “If there aren’t teachers to help care for those kids, while families go to work, they can't go to work.”

Correction (Feb. 4, 2025): An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of New Horizon Academy.

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