NC’s childcare crisis disproportionately affects disabled kids. A lawmaker says it’s time for change

by Claire Michal, NC Newsline
July 10, 2026

Zack Hawkins is the father of two children with autism. Like many parents of kids with special needs in North Carolina, he has struggled to find childcare options that accommodate his children.

His sons received their diagnosis in 2018. When they were younger, the family found an inclusive summer program and an at-home caregiver, Hawkins says.

But now his sons, ten and eleven years old, are always either with him or his wife when they’re not in school, because they haven’t been able to find childcare that meets their needs. The only options they’ve found have come with long waitlists, exorbitant costs and untrained staff.

“A lot of people are told it’s not the right fit, or they can’t safely take care of them.” Hawkins said, “At some point, families just sort of tap out of trying and spending money to send their kids to go to camps with people who overpromise and underdeliver.”

Not having regular or emergency childcare creates a strain on the family. The lack of childcare forces many parents, often the mother, to reduce their hours and sometimes leave the workforce entirely, according to Hawkins.

“The lack of childcare for these families – it’s crushing people,” Hawkins said.”The lack of all of these services layered together makes the world sometimes feel impossible.”

Hawkins is also a state lawmaker. He was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives just months after his sons first received their diagnosis.

As  a proud advocate for people with disabilities in the legislature, Hawkins co-chairs the General Assembly’s Intellectual and Developmental Disability caucus, a bipartisan group of legislators focusing on policies that support individuals and families with disabilities like autism, down syndrome, and cerebral palsy.

Last week, the legislature passed a long-awaited state budget that included two key goals of the I/DD caucus. It spends $21.3 million per year for higher pay for direct-support professionals who provide in-home services and health care to people with disabilities. It also allocates $70.8 million to increase Medicaid funding for programs that offer community and in-home resources for disabled people who might otherwise be institutionalized.

Hawkins said that in the next legislative session, he hopes to tackle the challenges families with I/DD kids face in finding and maintaining affordable childcare.

“We’re just now at a place where we can really start to think about what this childcare situation looks like,” Hawkins said.

“Fundamentally unfair”

It is against the law for childcare providers to discriminate against a child solely because of their disability, but as private organizations, childcare facilities are not required to accommodate them. If childcare owners think they don’t have the resources or that it will otherwise burden them to have a child with a disability in their program, they are allowed to turn that child away.

Christy Moore, a parent educator at the Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center, helps families navigate resources for kids with disabilities. Moore said she has worked with many families who’ve found that, after they disclose their child’s disability, childcare centers tell them they can’t accommodate their child.

“Finding quality childcare that’s within an affordable price range that has staff who is appropriately trained to provide care and teach children with disabilities is going to be very, very, very rare,”Moore said. “And if there is a center like that, I’m sure the waiting list would just be so long that potentially the child would already be in kindergarten before a spot came open.”

For many families, the long waitlists and lack of accommodations lead them to look toward other resources, like in-home care and forms of therapy.

However, accessing these programs can present its own challenges, particularly when it comes to obtaining a diagnosis. Receiving a diagnosis can be especially complicated for kids with autism spectrum, because there are many different types of tests for determining if a person is on the spectrum.

Some federal, state and private programs require specific tests to qualify for certain programs. Some families unaware of this wait months and spend thousands of dollars to receive their diagnosis using a different test, only to discover they still don’t qualify for help.

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Hawkins is hoping the legislature can help clarify the rules on the different types of tests, particularly for people in rural areas who often have limited choices in where to go to receive a diagnosis.

“I think [we need] to be even more clear about who has diagnosing power and how far that diagnosing power goes, because it does really confuse families,” Hawkins said, “We’ve created a system that, again, depending on where you live, is depending on what you have access to, and that’s just fundamentally unfair.”

“Comes down to money”

Jacqueline Simmons, Project Director for the North Carolina Child Care Health and Safety Resource Center, said the main issue in childcare for kids with special needs is the lack of investment in hiring and training staff, and “that comes down to money.”

Simmons emphasized the importance of specialized training and competitive pay for early educators working in childcare. She said they need to hire more people with healthcare experience to work in childcare because they are better equipped to care for children with diverse needs. She argued more funding  is needed  to ensure that special-needs kids are safe at childcare.

“As a parent, all you’re trying to do is work to make sure that you can keep a roof over your head and food on the table,” Simmons said. “If you’re dropping your child off at a place where you aren’t sure if they can be safe, it’s not okay.”

Hawkins agreed that they need to invest more in the childcare workforce. One solution he suggested is providing financial incentives to childcare facilities that train staff to work with kids with I/DD.

He also suggested working with community colleges to provide grants for students majoring in early childhood education with a  focus on kids with I/DD, and using non-profit organizations focused on I/DD to coach teachers to build more inclusive practices.

“What are we doing instead of letting families just struggle?” Hawkins asked. “It’s unfair, and so I’m just glad to be in a position to be able to raise my voice about it.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Laura Leslie for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.