Groundwork Ohio Roadshow 2026: Tuscarawas County
On September 10, 2026, Groundwork Ohio’s Roadshow continued in Tuscarawas County, bringing together early childhood professionals, child care providers, employers, community leaders, and policymakers to talk about what young children and families need—and the creative partnerships already taking shape to address some of the county’s biggest challenges.
State Rep. Jodi Salvo, State Sen. Al Landis, staff from U.S. Sen. Jon Husted’s office, and Tuscarawas County Commissioner Mitch Pace joined the conversation, providing an opportunity for local leaders to share their experiences directly with policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels.
Throughout the morning, one theme rose to the top: Tuscarawas County needs more child care, but solving that challenge will require more than simply helping families pay for it. Communities also need places to provide care, a workforce to staff them, transportation that works for families, and partnerships willing to try new approaches.
Families Have Help Paying for Care—But Nowhere to Go
Local data helped put the challenge in perspective.
Families are applying for and being approved for publicly funded child care, but participants said there simply are not enough places for them to use that assistance. Some families travel to surrounding counties for care. Others cannot find care at all—which can mean they cannot go to work.
The shortage is particularly acute for families with infants and toddlers. Lara Schwartz, Program Manager at Corporation for Appalachian Development, explained that Tuscarawas County has only three child care centers offering publicly funded child care services to children from infant through preschool aged children, despite a county population of over 92,000 and a young child population of over 7,000 according to the most recently available U.S. Census Data. Opening infant and toddler classrooms presents additional challenges because of facility requirements unique to our youngest learners.
That reality led to an important discussion with policymakers in the room: expanding financial assistance can only go so far if communities do not also have the physical child care capacity to serve families. Rep. Salvo emphasized that increasing access to publicly funded child care will not fully address the problem if families still cannot find an available provider.
Thinking Outside the Box
While the challenges are significant, Tuscarawas County also offered examples of the kind of creativity that can help communities build more child care capacity.
Michaela Thomas shared how her own difficulty finding child care that accommodated a changing work schedule inspired her to create Flourish Early Learning Center. Without the resources to construct a new facility, Flourish found an unconventional solution: opening a licensed center inside New Towne Mall. The center began with capacity for 14 children and has since expanded, including two additional classrooms supported through a public-private partnership grant.
Her philosophy for working with other providers is equally straightforward:
“Collaboration over competition.”
Rather than viewing other providers as competitors, participants described referring families to one another when their own programs are full. In a county where demand exceeds available care, collaboration can help more families find an option that works.
Employers Can Be Part of the Solution
The conversation also showed what can happen when employers recognize child care as a workforce issue.
As shared by Kait Gallagher-Wilsterman, Marketing and Community Relations Manager at Tusco Manufacturing, this major local employer has been experimenting with family-friendly workforce practices for years, including offering manufacturing jobs with schedules that align better with school hours. More recently, the company partnered with Flourish to help employees pay for care.
Tusco now provides eligible employees with $150 per month toward child care and certain other caregiving expenses, while its partnership with Flourish helps connect employees with available care.
The reason is practical: employers need workers, and parents need care before they can work.
As one participant explained, “People want to [work]. They can’t find employers who pay a wage that makes it possible for them to work because of child care needs.”
That challenge is particularly relevant in a county with more than 250 manufacturing companies, many of them smaller employers that may not have the resources to provide child care on their own. Participants emphasized the potential for employers, providers, schools, government, and community organizations to work together rather than expecting any one organization to solve the problem.
Transportation Is Part of the Child Care Equation
Even when a child care spot exists, families still need a way to get there.
Participants described transportation as another significant barrier, particularly in a rural county without the fixed public transportation routes found in larger cities. One local program reported having physical space to serve additional children but being unable to enroll them because it did not have enough transportation capacity to get children from school to the program.
That led to discussion about potential partnerships with schools, child care programs, and community organizations. Could unused space in schools become child care? Could providers and schools coordinate transportation differently? Could employers help support solutions?
The answers may look different from community to community, but participants agreed that child care cannot be considered in isolation from the other systems families rely on.
Supporting the Whole Family
The conversation extended beyond child care to the health and well-being of children and families.
Head Start representatives described supporting families from pregnancy through early childhood, helping connect them with health screenings, doctors, developmental services, and other resources. Participants also discussed challenges accessing pediatric dental care and the importance of building trust with families who may face cultural or language barriers when navigating child care and health services.
The discussion also highlighted the connection between child care and child welfare. One provider described reserving emergency enrollment opportunities so that when a child enters foster care, the family can quickly have access to child care rather than adding another barrier during an already difficult transition.
What We’ll Carry Forward
Tuscarawas County demonstrated both the complexity of Ohio’s child care challenge and the power of local problem-solving.
There is no single solution. Families need affordable care, but they also need available care. Providers need sustainable business models and facilities where they can operate. Employers need workers. Schools and community organizations have resources that may be part of the solution. And rural communities need approaches designed around their particular geography, workforce, and transportation realities.
The encouraging part is that people in Tuscarawas County are already sitting around the same table and asking, “What can we do together?”
As Groundwork Ohio continues our Roadshow across the state, we’ll carry these experiences forward and use what we hear to help inform the next administration and General Assembly about what Ohio’s young children, families, communities, and early childhood professionals need.
Learn More
Explore Groundwork Ohio's county fact sheets to learn more about the data behind this Roadshow stop.
