Startup Guides for Early Care and Education Businesses

Early care and education (ECE) businesses are essential to growing West Virginia’s economy. ECE providers support the economy in two main ways: number one, by allowing parents to work or take part in an educational or training program; and number two, by educating the next generation of workers.  

However, West Virginia has a number of areas with an undersupply of ECE businesses. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the finances of providers. As a result, over the past few months, many ECE businesses have permanently closed. Such closures have had a disproportionate impact on working mothers and their employment opportunities. They often feel pressured to leave their jobs to take on more caregiving responsibilities, when their families cannot secure ECE services. For these reasons, there is a pressing need for new ECE businesses in the state. They are key to increasing both the size and the quality of the current and future labor force, and to supporting new, expanding and existing businesses.

WV Women Moving Forward has developed startup guides in collaboration with key groups across the state for those who would like to open a child care center, family child care facility or family child care home in an eight county area covered by Advantage Valley. This effort is part of the FASTER WV Initiative, a three-year POWER grant project led by Advantage Valley and funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Benedum Foundation. The FASTER WV Initiative aims to help entrepreneurs open new businesses or expand existing businesses in key sectors, including early care and education, in Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Clay, Kanawha, Lincoln, Putnam and Wayne.

The startup guides explain how to obtain a license or certificate from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to operate an ECE business. They also include helpful tips, resources, ways to supplement an ECE business budget and the main takeaways from a first-phase research of statewide and national efforts conducted by WV Women Moving Forward. The guides are designed to not only help groups startup a new ECE business and expand their operations but also to reopen after COVID-19 closures.

If you would like to learn more about how to use the startup guides, please watch the FASTER WV Webinar: How to Start a Child Care Business in Advantage Valley.  

Thanks to the groups that contributed to the development of the startup guides, including the Appalachian Regional Commission, early care and education providers, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, KEYS 4 HealthyKids, West Virginia University, The Ross Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.