The number of child care providers in Calvert County fell 17.81% between Jan. 1, 2020, and Jan. 1, 2024. That’s the tenth largest decrease in the state.
Meanwhile, the number of child care slots in Calvert County decreased from 3,217 on Jan. 1, 2020, to 2,845 on Jan. 1, 2024. That’s an 11.56% decrease — the ninth largest in the state.
The number of top-rated child care facilities -- those with a rating of 5 on the state's EXCELS rating system -- in Calvert County fell from eight in 2020 to six in 2024.
Here’s what Brenda Tyrrell, owner and director of Prime Time Children’s & Youth Activity Center in Owings, had to say about the child care situation in Calvert County and the relationship between child care providers and state regulators:
“There's not a lot of communication. They come up with a lot of rules, every day there's a new something we have to do, some hoop we have to jump through. And unfortunately, it's people that aren't really in the field of child care that are making the rules up.”
– Evon Salmeron