As child care in West Virginia gets more expensive and less accessible, Lewis County families share their struggles

On an early Friday morning in September, Kayla Cruz, Noah Cruz and their two-year-old daughter Raya strolled about 60 feet from their Weston house to the coffee shop across the street.

The parents savor the fleeting time they get to spend with Raya and their seven-year-old son Ryder. Kayla works at a nearby DMV office and moonlights at a restaurant, and Noah works in the restaurant industry and helps run an online business.

“We have to work two different jobs apiece just to make it nowadays,” Noah said. “Just five years ago, it wasn’t nearly that bad.”

One of the biggest expenses for the couple is child care, a necessity for the Lewis County family. Raya just started attending a program, and her parents say she loves it.

“She’s very social,” Kayla said as Raya wandered around the shop, blanket in hand.

But the price has grown for West Virginia families , costing between $9,000 to $10,000 annually per kid. At the same time, Lewis County has only one child care center and hundreds of kids who need but can’t get into programs, something that providers have widely attributed to state lawmakers not properly funding the public service .

Noah said he knows his family was fortunate to find a slot for Raya — and that plenty of other families in Central West Virginia aren’t as lucky. He said more support for both families and child care providers will be his number one priority as he casts a ballot this November.

“That’s something that I would have no problem paying my tax money for to help other people, and even myself,” he said. “Because I would get that money back.”

As part of its ongoing coverage of the 2024 election, Mountain State Spotlight is traveling to West Virginia’s 55 counties, speaking to residents about the issues in their lives and asking candidates how they will address the problems. In Lewis County, families said it’s difficult to afford raising children, especially finding and paying for child care.

Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis , and Sen. Patrick Martin, R-Lewis , are both unopposed in this year’s general election. Neither returned multiple calls, voicemails and emails asking what they will do to make life more affordable for families in their districts.

The Cruzes believe West Virginia should be doing more to help parents and kids — starting with child care access and affordability.

“If the government can help invest in the family, then the family can invest in themselves,” Noah said. “But if you don’t have people to actually help watch your children, what are we doing here?”

A morning in the market

Later that morning at Lewis County Park in Weston, parents led young children past tables stacked with freshly grown squashes and melons. The county’s Family Resource Network was holding a Kids Pop-Up Farmers Market , where youngsters could learn about nutrition and purchase fresh fruits and vegetables with play money.

Amanda Taylor drove over a dozen miles from her Walkersville home to have her young son shop at the market.

“He likes fruits and veggies,” she said. “He’s a very healthy-eating kid.”

Taylor and her husband couldn’t get child care for their son, so she’s the adult taking care of their kid this year. She wants to get back to work as soon as she can and plans to look for jobs when he starts school next year.

Although she doesn’t plan on voting this year, Taylor said it would be good for her family if Lewis County lawmakers focused more on improving access to child care.

“There’s not really a whole lot of help,” she said.

Kelsey Bevins, an Upshur County nurse and a single mom of three, spent her day off also with her kids at the Lewis County pop-up market. Luckily, she was able to get her two children who need child care into programs.

But it can be difficult to afford. Bevins said she pays around $200 a week to send her kids three days a week.

Even as West Virginia child care providers barely make enough money to stay open , families like Bevin’s are strained by the expensive payments.

“I’ve got to find a way to do it all,” she said. “We have our struggles.”

Deanna Palmer, the Family Resource Network’s executive director, said that child care access is one of the biggest but not the only issue facing families in her area. Because the overdose epidemic has affected more and more families, thousands of West Virginia kids aren’t being raised by their biological parents .

Palmer said many services that could help Lewis County families — such as support for grandparents raising their grandchildren or parents who need mental health medical treatment to care for their kids — have moved away from Weston. And there are few public transportation options in the area.

“It has created a trickle down effect that’s been really negative,” Palmer said.

She hopes that state candidates who make it to Charleston empathize with families in this position, many of whom she tries to serve through her nonprofit. It’s clear to Palmer that their struggles are not because of a lack of trying.

“For me, that’s the biggest — that’s the number one misconception,” she said. “And I think, oftentimes, that point of view comes from a real place of privilege.”

The challenges and expenses of raising a child in Lewis County weren’t lost on Jane Lew resident Frank Hall that morning as he let his young granddaughter guide him around the market. Hall works four days a week, and he cares for her on Fridays while her parents are at their jobs. His neighbor is a child care provider who has given their family a relatively cheap rate for the rest of the week.

Without those two factors, Hall said he knows life for his family would have been difficult.

“We got lucky,” he said.

As child care in West Virginia gets more expensive and less accessible, Lewis County families share their struggles appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.