A Place to Grow operates three child care centers in New Hampshire, and we are eager to open more.
We have an incredible staff trained in early childhood education. We wrote a robust curriculum that exceeds national standards. We have all of the mechanisms in place to open a child care center in any town in New Hampshire.
But we can’t.
New Hampshire’s zoning regulations make finding an adequate property like searching for a unicorn.
The search for our flagship location took two years. We toured more than 100 properties within a 20-mile radius of my home in Exeter before finding our current location on 13 acres in Brentwood.
I had the funding. I had 11 years of experience running A Place to Grow, the play-based early learning program I founded. I had trained staff, and families desperate for spots. What I didn’t have was a property that could satisfy the maze of zoning requirements and site plan review processes that this state imposes on anyone trying to open a small child care center.
Every property triggered the same cascade. Is it commercially zoned? Does it meet parking requirements? Setback requirements? Septic capacity? Traffic flow standards? Property after property, the answer was no — not because the buildings were unsafe, but because the regulatory checklist made it virtually impossible.
Forty-six percent of New Hampshire is a child care desert. In our rural communities — which make up most of the state — the crisis is even worse. Families need small programs serving 10, 20, 30 children. But the economics of opening under the current regulatory framework don’t work.
The impact is devastating and deeply personal. A parent in a child care desert faces an impossible choice: pay for expensive care an hour away, or leave the workforce entirely. For many, it isn’t really a choice. They stay home — not because they want to, but because there is no alternative. We are the workforce behind the workforce. When child care providers can’t open programs, parents can’t work. When parents can’t work, small businesses can’t hire.
This is not a parenting issue. This is economic infrastructure. The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute reports that two early childhood educators caring for a full classroom contribute over $1 million dollars to the New Hampshire economy.
A 2024 Goldman Sachs “10,000 Small Businesses Voices” survey of 1,259 small business owners confirms it: 84% say it’s difficult for working parents to afford quality child care, 38% say the lack of child care has negatively impacted their ability to grow their business, and 62% say offering a child care benefit would help with recruitment and retention.
So what exactly blocks entrepreneurs like me? Current regulations force child care centers into commercial zones — strip malls, office parks, retail plazas. Try raising young children among the trees when your only option is a storefront between a nail salon and a pizza shop.
Then comes the gauntlet: site plan review, engineering studies, approval from volunteer planning boards with no child care experience. I had to hire a structural engineer at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 just to navigate the process. From signing my purchase agreement to opening took another six months of red tape. It is easier to open a coffee shop than a child care center in New Hampshire.
We launched a nationally registered apprenticeship program to create a pipeline from high school to child care center owner, and then graduates of our program couldn’t navigate the regulations and had to find work in another field.
The well-intentioned people across the state who put these zoning laws in place were trying to protect our communities and our most vulnerable residents. But they weren’t aware of the extensive layers of safety already built into the child care licensing process, which includes water and environment quality, health and fire safety, fencing and fall zones, and direct supervision at all times. Nor were they aware of the unintended consequences — a system that blocks qualified, funded, passionate entrepreneurs from providing care that families are begging for.
House Bill 1195 would fix this. The bill passed the House and has crossed over to the Senate, where it will be heard in the coming weeks. It’s straightforward: for centers serving 30 or fewer children in commercially-zoned properties or family child care in residentially-zoned properties, eliminate site plan review and the associated engineering reviews, parking studies and traffic analyses. These small centers already meet those thresholds. Children’s safety isn’t at stake — providers already meet extensive state health and safety standards through the Department of Health and Human Services. This bill removes duplicative municipal red tape that has nothing to do with child safety.
If this bill had existed during my search for a property, two years would have become two months. Six months of red tape to open after it was under contract would have become six weeks.
Over the past decade, I have worked with our elected representatives to co-author common-sense child care legislation that helps reduce the state’s child care desert and get families back to work. We’ve already passed two laws removing barriers. But HB 1195 is the most important and potentially the most transformative. On the other side of this crisis stands a ready group of New Hampshire entrepreneurs — mostly moms like me — trained, business-ready and standing at the ready. These regulations are making it impossible for us to help.
I have the money. I have the time. I have the will. I have the capacity. I want to serve New Hampshire’s families and workforce. And well-intentioned regulations in the state have defeated me.
I have been forced to look beyond New Hampshire to grow my company. This year, we got our educational license in North Carolina, and we will expand nationally. Because of red tape, I’m being forced to leave my home state that desperately needs high-quality child care so I can support families in other states. And that breaks my heart.
Call your senator. Tell them to vote yes on HB 1195. Pass this bill so I can build more affordable child care in the state where I live and the state that I love.
Jennifer Legere, the founder and owner of A Place to Grow, owns three child care centers in Brentwood, Salem and Durham. She is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and was named 2022 New Hampshire Woman-Owned Business of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.