Decatur childcare provider discusses need for 24-hour daycare

DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — On Monday, the Decatur City Council approved more than $700 million and contractor bids to bring the old Wee Folks daycare back to life. A childcare provider spoke about what she envisions for the space.

Richelle Dunbar, Decatur’s Assistant Director of Economic and Community Development, said it’ll hopefully fulfill a crucial need.

“We have a non-existing shortage. By that I mean, we don’t have second and third shift daycare available within our city.”

The plan is to turn the operation into a 24-hour daycare center that will supply a hundred jobs and hold space for hundreds of kids.

“We’re taking this building, remodeling this building, and making it available so that the owner and operator can eventually expand our project to not just be daytime child care, but also second shift and third shift,” Dunbar said.

Love Learning and Laughter Daycare is set to run the facility.

“The childcare crisis has been an issue in our community for some time, but after COVID, it really showed its head of our need for childcare with everybody in the workforce trying to get back to work,” Owner Cherri Johnson said.

Officials said that in Macon County, there are more than 9,000 children between the ages of birth to five years old. But there are only 3,900 childcare spots available.

“Two out of every three children in our community do not get any source of early childhood education or interaction in a daycare field until they’re at the age of five and going to kindergarten,” Johnson said.

Making more spots means more career opportunities in the area.

“My mission is to help our workforce get back up to par while giving adequate, high quality childcare for the children in our area. They deserve it,” Johnson said.

Officials said that once contractor documents are signed, they’ll start the work of adding new floors, an HVAC system, and more. They hope to begin construction next week.

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