When child care disappears, families have to figure it out.

When a day care center suddenly closed in downtown San Antonio, I spoke to parents scrambling to find child care from one day to the next.

Digging deeper, I found that hundreds of kids had been displaced from day care centers that closed suddenly in the wake of the pandemic. I mapped the issue showing child care deserts in the city using data from an advocacy organization who was tracking the issue statewide and spoke with providers who told me they've been forced to cut capacity because they could no longer pay their own staff.

Military parents told me the shortage hit them especially hard— Significant in a city knwon as Military City USA, home to at least three major military bases. I took questions to officials at Joint Base San Antonio, where I discovered plans to open three child care centers for 600 more kids. Military families living and working on base remained without adequate options.

I continued watching the child care shortage issue as it developed— Covering plans for more child care slots and the state's support for it and a property tax measure aimed at expanding capacity. Child care providers told me even if they have the capacity to take in more kids at their daycare centers, its hard to find reliable employees.