Introduction

Introduction

Nashville’s continued growth has resulted in the need for child care far exceeding the available child care capacity in the city, particularly the capacity of seats in high quality child care centers. Limited access to affordable, quality child care has far-reaching implications for families and the Nashville community as a whole. One strategy to increase the accessibility of high quality, affordable child care to more families in Nashville is to expand the number of seats available at existing high quality child care centers, either through re-imaging existing spaces or opening microsite or satellite sites in additional locations. This strategy alone is insufficient to address the need, and is one among many being pursued in the child care landscape in Nashville. Raising Readers Nashville has partnered with various child care center Directors and professionals to understand their experiences with the expansion process, to document the process for expanding seats in Davidson County, and to capture recommendations for policy makers interested in creating sustainable solutions for centers. This guide represents the culmination of conversations among leaders in the child care landscape and will exist as a living document in collaboration with Raising Readers Nashville and the United Way of Greater Nashville, who will continue to update it as necessary.

How to Use this Guide

This document is intended as a guidance for existing centers considering expansion in Davidson County. Our recommendation is that you read the document in its entirety before embarking on the expansion process, as there are many elements that should be considered from the beginning but do not take place until late in the process. 

We learned from our interviews that the process for expanding seats is very nuanced, with many players involved who will have uneven information at different times, operating in a context where guidelines may change or remain ambiguous. Therefore, this guide does not lay out clear steps in a linear pathway that will apply to every center. Instead, this document is a synthesis of the steps other centers have taken to expand their child care centers and/or open satellites or microsites in Davidson County. Once you begin the process, you may be given information that differs from what is presented here. If this is the case, please reach out to Raising Readers Nashville to offer your experience so that the document might be updated to reflect the current practices. 

Disclaimer

The intended purpose of this tool is to enable prospective child care providers to have a better understanding of opening or expanding their child care business. This version is intended for use by providers licensing a prospective center through the TN Department of Human Services (TDHS). United Way of Greater Nashville recognizes that further work remains to provide detailed resources for centers choosing to license facilities through the TN Department of Education and home-based providers. This guide is not an official part of the licensure process and completing the guide does not credit the prospective provider towards their requirements with TDHS or the Tennessee Child Care Resource & Referral.

How this Resource was Created

United Way of Greater Nashville launched the project to map the process of child care expansion in December of 2022, after nearly a year of conversations happening with various leaders in the child care landscape from many different organizations. Elevate Consulting and United Way of Greater Nashville conducted working sessions with child care professionals between December 2022 and March 2023. In addition, Elevate Consulting conducted one on one interviews with child care Directors and individuals at regulatory organizations between February 2023 and May 2023. These sessions and interviews focused on clarifying the steps in the process to expand seats as well as the lived experiences of those who had already expanded their child care sites or opened satellite or microsites.