Georgia remains one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Attracted by a business-friendly environment and an appealing quality of life, the population grew more than 10% between 2010 and 2020. There is currently an annual 75,000 net population gain, with new families adding to the demand for access to affordable early care and education (ECE).
As a 2024 LIIF report highlighted, cities in Georgia knew that child care was an issue they wanted to address but didn’t know how or what their role should be. So the Georgia Child Care Accelerator was formed by the cities of Albany, Augusta, Columbus and Savannah, with the cohort dedicated to building the supply of child care in their communities. Convened by Georgia Municipal Association, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and led by LIIF, the group worked over the course of one year to understand their roles and develop plans to increase access to ECE.
Each city’s mayor committed to the effort, bringing together a team to learn from each other and from the LIIF ECE team. All agreed to four strategic activities:
- Engage in a training module on basic concepts that define the child care sector and the role of cities in responding to challenges;
- Learn more about child care supply and need in their own city;
- Discuss innovative strategies for supporting child care supply with peer Georgia cities and technical consultants; and
- Produce a cross-agency action plan for responding to identified local needs.
Throughout the course of the year, cities brought teams to discuss what they knew about child care in their communities; how their policies were affecting ECE; how they could connect child care to housing, community and economic development plans; and what activities they would undertake to build supply of ECE.
Each city’s plan reflected their unique situation. For example, Columbus built on its strong planning department to map transit stops and their proximity to child care. The city also took a page from Albany’s book and is creating a guide to city processes for ECE providers, like the one Albany created during its participation in the cohort. Savannah has examined LIIF’s policy review and is proposing multiple regulatory changes to make it easier for child care providers to open and operate in that city.
Based on learnings from the cohort — and bringing in community voice from providers — LIIF took on the role of developing guides for both. We recognized that while cities want to support child care they don’t always understand the impacts of their regulations and fees on available supply. So LIIF published the “City Playbook for Child Care” to help cities in Georgia consider how they can support child care in their communities. Additionally, LIIF wanted to ensure that child care providers are supported in understanding how to work with cities, so we created “Navigating Cities: A Guide for Family Child Care Providers.” This resource offers the general steps for making a business dream a reality in a community. Information is tailored to meet the unique needs of providers in “The Peach State,” so these small businesses have a better understanding of how cities work and how they can best approach opening and operating a child care business.
Thank you to Georgia Municipal Association, our valued partner, a reviewer of the guides and the host for the cities publication. Thank you also to Quality Care for Children, which reviewed the family child care report and is hosting this resource on its website. Finally, our gratitude goes out to Whitney Shephard for her policy expertise and guidance, and to all four cities for their engagement.
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More LIIF resources for child care providers can be found here.
Each city’s mayor committed to the effort, bringing together a team to learn from each other and from the LIIF ECE team.