Finding licensed childcare has gotten harder for parents across rural southeastern North Carolina, a new report shows.
The largest gaps in childcare in Bladen, Columbus, Robeson, and Scotland counties are in unincorporated areas outside of towns and cities, according to a map that accompanies the report.
The report, which focuses on so-called childcare deserts, was published in April by the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. Childcare deserts are most common in rural areas and regions of high poverty, according to the report.
“The real underlying issue is a broken childcare market,” Hailey Gibbs, an associate director at the Center for American Progress and a co-author of the report, told the Border Belt Independent in an interview. “Despite high demand for care, there aren’t enough early educators and consequently not enough slots or programs to meet that demand.”
While the report does not have specific data for the Border Belt, 2026 data from the North Carolina Child Care Resource and Referral Council shows 14 of the region’s 52 Census tracts are defined as childcare deserts: two in Bladen, one in Columbus, seven in Robeson, and four in Scotland.
The region is home to 179 childcare centers: 23 in Bladen, 33 in Columbus, 95 in Robeson, and 25 in Scotland.
All four counties have more than three childcare centers for every 1,000 children, which is above the statewide average of 2.3. But Gibbs said the number of facilities in the region could fall amid increases in operating costs and cuts to federal funding.
Southeastern Community Action Partnership temporarily closed three Head Start sites in Robeson County due to delays in federal funding during a government shutdown last year. They reopened when funding resumed.
Childcare costs have gotten more expensive. The average cost of childcare for children 5 and younger is $12,370 a year, according to a study by the First Five Years Fund, an early childcare policy organization.
Less than half of all North Carolina families with young children (43.8%), and less than a third of families of color can afford basic necessities, a new report from Brookings Institute shows. In the Border Belt, a majority of children live in poverty, according to the North Carolina Child Care Resource and Referral Council.
Families without access to licensed childcare centers often have to rely on family, friends, or neighbors, according to Gibbs. When that network fails, parents—often mothers—are pushed out of the workforce, she said.
Seventy percent of young children in rural areas nationwide live in a childcare desert, despite an increase in the number of childcare providers nationwide.
“I think it’s really important for people to appreciate that it’s not an abstract problem,” Gibbs said. “A family sitting on a waitlist might have to forgo a job or a promotion or additional hours because they don’t have reliable care for their child.”