After her 3-year-old son struggled to acclimate to two different daycare centers, Daeja Wilson thought she’d finally found a good fit for him at Kids’ Station KinderCare in Fredericksburg.
“This is the only one where he doesn’t scream at drop-off,” Wilson said. “He loves his teachers so much. This is the only school that actually teaches them and not just babysits.”
Now Wilson and other parents with children attending Kids’ Station — many of whom are employed by adjacent Mary Washington Healthcare — have just over three months to scramble for alternative childcare arrangements.
Earlier this week, families received a letter from KinderCare’s senior district leader, Stacy Butler, informing them that the childcare facility is closing. The letter stated that the center’s last day of operation will be May 24.
“As you may know, our client and landlord, Mary Washington, has long had plans to repurpose our building,” Butler wrote in the letter. “We’ve known about this for some time. We hoped we would be able to find a new spot in Fredericksburg where we could move our center to. Unfortunately, even after more than a year of searching, we haven’t found a suitable place.”
Since Tuesday, more than 1,080 people have signed a Change.org petition to keep the Kids’ Station KinderCare open.
“I don’t think parents should have to sacrifice the quality of care they are getting,” Austin Leedy wrote in a Facebook message to the Free Press. “We are having difficulty finding any openings, particularly with reputable childcare.”
There are approximately 50 Kids’ Station parents who are also employees of Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC), which owns the building. Not long after Tuesday’s announcement, parents quickly took to social media to organize letter-writing campaigns, start the petition and even share spreadsheets to assist in the hunt for a new daycare.
“We know childcare is vital, and it’s important to us that our associates are supported as they seek out new arrangements for their children,” Emily Thurston, MWHC’s director of communications and marketing, wrote in an email to the Free Press.
“We are actively working to support these associates by contacting and creating a list of local childcare providers with availability to accept additional children. Our associates also have access to employee assistance programs that offer resources and referrals for a variety of services, including childcare.”
Wilson says that while KinderCare gave families a list of area daycares to consider as alternatives, most either have no availability until the fall or are too far away to be feasible for her.
“I toured every one on that list but two, and I hated all of them,” she said.
Echoed Leedy: “We have two children, a one-and-a-half and a 4-year-old. We were planning on sending our oldest kid to private school… in fall of 2025. But now that this is happening, we are scrambling to try to get approval for admission [this] fall.”
An email from KinderCare’s corporate communications office stated that “closing a center is never an easy decision to make and it’s not a decision any of us at KinderCare takes lightly.”
The email also stated that KinderCare’s real estate team explored a “variety of options” for relocating Kids’ Station. “Unfortunately, a suitable location that met zoning requirements, could accommodate all of our current families, and would allow us to keep tuition at a reasonable rate was not available.”
According to KinderCare officials, the May date was chosen to allow teachers time to find new jobs before the fall and families could “search for summer programs while spots may still be available.”
MWHC agreed to transfer the management and operation of Kids’ Station to KinderCare in 2021 and agreed on subsidized rent in that location until September 2024.
“This means KinderCare has had nearly three years to find a new location and continue serving families in our community,” Thurston wrote. “During this time, we have worked closely with KinderCare to support their search for a suitable location.”
Thurston emphasized that both the decision to close and the timing of said closure “was KinderCare’s to make.”
“Knowing that families rely on this service and need more time to find alternative care for their children, we asked KinderCare to reconsider the current closure date … and remain open until the fall to give Kids’ Station families more time to find an alternative childcare provider,” Thurston wrote. “KinderCare has affirmed they will keep the May 24 closure date.”
