EARLHAM, Iowa — Frustrations are high in Earlham after a local child care center announced it would be closing its doors, giving little notice or explanation to parents and employees.
Little Leaps Learning Academy in Earlham will officially close on November 1st. Employees and parents at the child care center in Earlham told Local 5 they were notified of this closure on Tuesday, Oct. 29th.
In a letter to parents and employees, the owners of Little Leaps say the rising costs of operations and a decline in enrollment were beyond their expectations. Adding it has become clear that changes are not sufficient to sustain operations.
Mackenzie Rittler-Cheney has one child enrolled full time at Little Leaps and two kids in the after-school program. She says this announcement came as a complete shock.
"I never thought that we would have spent the last 36 hours in the state of crisis mode that we have been in based off of just daycare," Rittler-Cheney said.
Employees at Little Leaps told Local 5 they were also caught off guard.
Those who work at the child care center were visibly frustrated and said they found out about the closure by an email from the owner at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
This closure leaves the employees unemployed come Friday, and say they got no clear explanation as to why it has to close.
Multiple parents with kids at Little Leaps told Local 5 this is leaving a major impact on their lives, and finding child care they trust on such short notice is difficult.
"It's deeply troubling," Rittler-Cheney said. "We've had conversations that are everything from we can get through this to all the way to the other end of the spectrum of, oh my gosh. Do we need to work? You know, find job where we can work the weekend."
Local 5 reached out to Little Leaps' headquarters for comment, we have still not heard back.