Hamilton County Schools

The Spark

Twenty-four years ago, Hamilton County Schools was losing nearly half of its teachers within the first three years. As Katie Harbison, President and CEO of the Chambliss Center for Children, remembers: young, energetic educators would marry, start families, and then face a child care market where seats are slim and rates are high. They were not leaving because they did not want to teach. They were leaving because they could not afford to be both a teacher and a parent. When then-superintendent Jesse Register approached Chambliss Center for Children, the request was simple: one of our principals just had a baby and wants to keep her child in the building. Chambliss Center for Children added a rider to its insurance for about $100 and opened a single classroom at Normal Park Museum Magnet. Within months, other schools were asking for the same thing.

The Solution

Today, Chambliss Center for Children operates micro-center classrooms inside 12 Hamilton County schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools. Each site is licensed through Tennessee DHS under the group child care license and serves up to 12 children, ages 6 weeks through 5 years, in a single mixed-age room. Infants and toddlers are separated for safety, but everyone eats together, plays together, and goes outside together. Siblings can be in the same room.

The model is remarkable for its simplicity and cost effectiveness. No money changes hands between Hamilton County Schools and Chambliss Center for Children. Chambliss Center for Children provides the insurance, licensing, staffing, enrollment, and all operational management, avoiding any burden on the school principal for operational responsibilities. The school provides a room and outdoor play space, helping keep Chambliss Center for Children’s costs down.

Costs are divided equally among enrolled families every two weeks, covering only actual staff wages for hours worked. Rates run approximately $200 per week, well below market rate. Parents pay only during the school calendar: when teachers are not reporting to work, the program is not running and families are not being charged. Because sites are DHS-licensed, eligible families can also apply for state child care payment assistance.

Enrollment is limited to Hamilton County Schools staff for building security reasons. Staff at the host school receive priority; if seats remain, employees from other schools can enroll. Kim Pringle, Director of Early Learning with Hamilton County Schools, notes that child care comes up regularly in teacher interviews. Principals with a micro-center in their building have a recruiting advantage that principals without it do not.

The Results

Every site is enrolled to its staffed capacity. At Normal Park, 10 of 12 seats belong to building staff, with the remaining two serving Hamilton County employees from nearby schools. Dr. Jamelie Johns, principal at Normal Park, describes the response as overwhelmingly positive. One teacher who had been on staff four years without children recently had his first baby and called the on-site child care “a game changer.” As Dr. Johns puts it: “The staff feel supported, and they have an option. They know their kids are taken care of, and they can take care of other people’s kids because of that.”

The child care staffing side of the model is equally impressive. Dr. Johns reports that staff are retained at the school site at remarkably high rates, with teachers returning year after year. In Tennessee, where a recent study found that child care workforce turnover runs at 61%, that stability stands out. Katie credits the pay-what-parents-choose structure: at Normal Park, parents opted to pay their child care teachers above the Chambliss Center for Children standard rate, and the result is staff who stay.

Kim frames the business case simply: “Anytime we build up child care stability, we build up workforce stability.” The retention math that launched the partnership 24 years ago, losing nearly half of young teachers to unaffordable child care, has been directly addressed at 12 schools and counting. Chambliss Center for Children is exploring expanding the model to business partners outside the school system who have available space and may wish to host child care onsite. A new Tennessee law, effective July 2026, limits employer liability when partnering with a licensed child care provider, removing one of the biggest obstacles businesses have cited for not acting.