FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — Last week, Alexis Simon said everything was normal up until Thursday afternoon.
Then she got a call from a teacher at her 5-year-old son’s daycare, in tears as she said the building would close the next day.
“It seemed like everything hit the fan,” Simon said, “it was definitely a shock for [his teacher]. It was not something that she knew about ahead of time.”
For the last year and a half, Simon tells Action News Jax her son has been attending Kid City USA in Fernandina Beach. She said the daycare gave her no notice or reason that it would abruptly shut down, and she spent the next several days scrambling to find other options for her son’s care.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
“I was having to call daycares. I was having to call the school, find places where my son could do after-school care,” said Simon, “it was a blur because it was so stressful.”
Action News Jax called and emailed Kid City USA in Fernandina Beach to ask why it closed, but we are still waiting for a response. But Kid City USA is a larger company with locations across the U.S., and multiple reports have been published this week regarding two separate North Carolina locations also shutting down without a warning.
Kid City USA has 15 locations across our viewing area in northeast Florida, not including the Fernandina Beach location. Action News Jax called all of the other daycares and learned the location in Oakleaf has already closed. The owner of the Aberdeen location told us over the phone that his location would likely close within the next few days.
Action News Jax obtained a copy of the letter the owner of the Kid City USA daycare in Aberdeen sent out to families ahead of the closure. Part of it reads that “the center has faced significant financial strain,” and that “simply put, there is not enough revenue coming in.”
We have made calls and emails to Kid City USA’s corporate office in Daytona Beach to ask why multiple of its locations across the southeast, including Fernandina Beach, have closed, but we are waiting to receive a response.
Simon considers herself lucky to have already found another daycare option for her son, but she worries about the other parents still searching for other options and the teachers now left without a job.
“It’s heartbreaking knowing that all these kids are going out of care and these parents have to stress about it,” said Simon.
Simon has started a fundraiser to help out the teachers who have been put out of a job because of the Fernandina Beach daycare closure. If you would like to donate, you can do so by clicking the link here.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
