Toni Dickerson is the administrator of Sussex Preschools and the chair of the Child Care Association of Sussex County.
Delaware’s leaders have repeatedly affirmed their commitment to supporting young children and expanding access to early care and education. As a longtime child care administrator in western Sussex County, I appreciate that commitment. But, in response to the recent Office of Management and Budget hearing for the Delaware Department of Education, I am sounding this alarm as clearly as I can: A universal pre-K model that focuses only on 4-year-olds will devastate the already fragile child care system in Sussex County — particularly in the western part of the county, where families face some of the worst access gaps in the state.
Let me be direct: Western Sussex is a child care desert, and it has been for a very long time. Entire ZIP codes have almost no access to licensed infant and toddler care. In 19973, there is only one licensed infant care center, meaning families across the entire district compete for just eight infant seats. In 19956, Seaford has only two licensed infant center-based programs — and Sussex Preschools is the only center-based provider. In Laurel, Sussex Preschools is one of only three licensed infant/toddler programs, and the other is Acelero Learning’s Early Head Start — accessible to only a limited set of families. I must not forget nor dismiss the incredible network of family child care homes within these ZIP codes, which offer one, maybe two, infant seats a year. The numbers are still abysmal with those additions.
This is the landscape in which the state is now proposing to remove 4-year-olds from community-based programs. That would be catastrophic.
Why? Because the economics of child care cannot function without 3- and 4-year-olds.
Infant and toddler care is extremely expensive to provide. Without slightly older children in the mix, community programs cannot afford to operate classrooms for babies and toddlers at all. When you pull 4-year-olds out of community programs and place them only in school district settings, you instantly collapse the financial structure that holds birth-to-3 care together.
And, in western Sussex — where supply is already dangerously thin — this wouldn’t just create stress. It would cause programs to close. Not “might.” Not “eventually.” It will.
When infant care already consists of eight seats for an entire district, you do not have the margin to absorb a hit like this.
The consequences will be swift and severe:
This is not speculation. It is basic math, and it is borne out in the real numbers we live with every day.
Child care deserts cannot survive a limited, 4-year-old-only universal pre-K model.
The term “child care desert” is not just symbolic — it means the infrastructure is so thin that one policy misstep can wipe out what little exists. Western Sussex is already operating at the edge of collapse. A 4-year-old-only expansion would push us over that edge.
This is why states that have implemented universal pre-K successfully — Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri, Washington — all require mixed delivery. That means that family child care homes, community-based early learning centers and school districts must all have equitable access to seats, funding and partnership opportunities.
Delaware must do the same.
A birth-to-5 system is the only sustainable path forward.
For years, Delaware has discussed early childhood strategy through the Delaware Early Childhood Council, the Interagency Resource Management Committee (now under Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay) and dozens of statewide public meetings. Those discussions have always pointed toward a comprehensive birth-to-5 system, not a narrow approach that serves only one age group.
A true birth-to-5 strategy would:
The work has been done. The research is clear. The risks are real.
A 4-year-old-only UPK plan will leave western Sussex families behind.
If the state moves forward without mixed-delivery requirements, infant/toddler stabilization and a full birth-to-5 commitment, we will see:
We simply cannot afford that.
As the administrator of Sussex Preschools and the chair of the Child Care Association of Sussex County, I urge state leaders, legislators and community partners to protect the child care infrastructure we have — and to finally invest in the one we desperately need.
Western Sussex families deserve more than a patchwork solution that leaves their youngest children behind. They deserve a real birth-to-5 system.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
