ArchCare sweetens the deal for workers with Honeybee childcare center
Amid what one New York official has called a “childcare desert,” a skilled nursing provider is opening up its own childcare center to help rectify a problem pulling caregivers away from the industry.
ArchCare, the Continuing Care Community of the Archdiocese, hopes to welcome 41 children into its the company’s first daycare center at its Ferncliff Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. It’s a direct response to some of the provider’s employees living in an area that has insufficient childcare options to support their work schedules.
“We are very excited to provide this unique opportunity for our staff who have young children,” Ferncliff Administrator Dorice Tokarz recently said. “They will be able to work with less stress knowing their little ones are well cared for and very close in case they’re needed. It opens wonderful childcare opportunities for our local community members as well.”
ArchCare is the nation’s sixth largest nonprofit provider of nursing care beds, according to the 2024 LeadingAge Ziegler 200 report, and has about 4,500 employees.
While childcare was once embraced as a benefit of the future, some senior care providers have turned away from the concept, citing high costs and operational and regulatory challenges outside their wheelhouse.
It took about 24 months to get the Honeybee Child Care Center up and running at the 328-bed, Rhinebeck, NY, location, ArchCare President and CEO Scott LaRue told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Thursday. Much of that time was spent securing proper permits and approvals and a portion was spent choosing the right partner to run the daycare center.

Once ArchCare found the perfect third-party operator, a local, reputable childcare provider, it was one step closer to providing necessary services to nurses and nursing assistants with infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children.
“[The] local daycare provider already knows the demands of the community and what we’re not able to fill with our own employees, they’ll be filling from the local community,” LaRue said. “Other than the capital cost to build the center – which was insignificant – it’s pretty low risk for us in order to provide this service to the staff.”
It’s low-risk and high-reward – the reward being an added feature to help retain an essential workforce, avert possible closure, and maintain its Great Place to Work certification, which ArchCare has had for three consecutive years now.
Decreasing the numbers
Approximately 76% of employees at the Ferncliff facility are women and in need of childcare services, LaRue said. Across the Hudson Valley region of the state, other members of the community have faced significant challenges with finding viable childcare.
A February report from the state Comptroller found that a lack of childcare services in the mid-Hudson region has left more than 60% of families in a childcare desert. New York also has the second-highest cost for childcare in the country, with an annual fee of nearly $15,000.
Another study showed that more than 20% of healthcare professionals have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic.
ArchCare is looking to decrease those numbers with the Honeybee Child Care Center’s May 5 opening. Employees will receive a 25% discount off of tuition, LaRue confirmed.
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