MADISON, Wis. — Ally Lord is a lead teacher at the “Playing Field.”
"Hey Matty, what do you have, who is in this picture?” said Lord while working with a child.
The “Playing Field” is a day care service dedicated to breaking barriers faced by low-income families.
“Access to early childhood education is so important, and it is important that it is high-quality care,” said Lord.
Lord is one of four workers currently going through an apprenticeship program at the “Playing Field.”
“I knew I had always wanted to go back to school, I just never had a team of support around me,” said Lord. “When this idea was brought to me, I knew that’s what I needed.”
Cities throughout the U.S. are going through an early child care educator shortage.
According to the National Association for Education of Young Children, in 2024, thousands of early childhood educators reported staffing shortages due to low wages and the closing of child care programs.
Abbi Kruse is the executive director of the “Playing Field,” which is currently in the process of expanding to a new 15,000-foot facility on Madison’s eastside.
She said she knew this expansion would require more qualified early childhood educators and instead of searching for new ones, she decided to train her own.
“The goal is to add more overall child care spaces to Madison, so for us to just take staff away from other sites does not actually add to the overall child care available. We knew we were going to have to come up with another plan,” said Kruse.
Kruse said the new building is set to open in September and will allow her team to serve up to 100 children per shift.
“When we open this new facility, we will have eight lead teachers that are ready to train and mentor a new teacher, so we feel pretty good about being able to staff the space,” said Kruse.
