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Fairhope childcare provider urges city action on infant care shortage
Summary
A local daycare director told the council the city faces an infant-care shortage and urged officials to treat infant care as critical infrastructure, suggesting adaptive reuse, employer tax credits and grant use to expand capacity.
At the council meeting’s public participation period a Fairhope early‑learning provider described what she called an infant‑care shortage in the city and urged local leaders to consider policy steps to increase licensed infant capacity.
"There are only 13 licensed infant spots for the more than 1,400 babies born at Thomas Hospital in Fairhope each year," said Autumn Zellner, owner of STARS Early Learning Academy Fairhope, summarizing the problem as she asked the city to treat infant care "like essential infrastructure."
Zellner told councilors that infant classrooms are costly to operate because state…
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