New daycare to open in Reston next year

A new day care is preparing to open in Reston.

A franchise for Celebree School, which features digital reports for each child daily and helps prepare kids for kindergarten, is slated to open at a low-rise office building at 11109 Sunset Hills Road, Unit 150 near Wiehle Avenue.

“We researched different schools and it was a no-brainer that Celebree was the right choice for us,” franchisee Josephine Kibe-Johnson said in an email.

The schools’ curriculum strives to incorporate not just academic needs but emotional, physical and social factors, too. It’ll serve infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children.

“We were amazed with the creative curriculum that is followed at Celebree that offers tailored lessons to meet the unique needs of children; curriculum that is comprehensive, based on research and [provides] developmentally appropriate content for children with different skills and [backgrounds],” Kibe-Johnson also wrote.

The business is currently looking to hire a director and an assistant director and teachers for the school’s different age groups.

It comes as childcare challenges during the pandemic caused centers to close and left many looking to fill positions and retain workers.

According to a survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which surveyed providers in the industry in part of June and July, more than one in every three respondents said they were considering “leaving or shutting down their child care programs this year, and over half of minority-owned programs are reckoning with the possibility of permanent closure.”

In Virginia, many day cares reported having staffing shortages, serving fewer children, having a longer waitlist than usual and having reduced their operating hours, the association’s survey found.

Federal COVID-19 relief money has gone to governments, parents and child care centers, and Fairfax County aid has sought to use its portion of that money to keep day cares open. County staff noted in July that child care programs could close at a time when more parents are returning to work.

For Kibe-Johnson, she said her business could be part of helping address a shortage in childcare services.

“We believe that we are part of the solution of helping parents, especially women, go back to work, by providing quality childcare services for their children,” she wrote.

A groundbreaking event at the proposed location is slated for 11 a.m. this Tuesday (Nov. 9), where community members are able to attend for refreshments, activities and more.

The day care is projected to open in the first quarter of 2022.

Photo via Google Maps