Glaiza Giron has provided round-the-clock childcare in her Northern Nevada home for more than twenty years.
A few months in the past, a mom who labored nights at a warehouse close to USA Parkway turned to Giron for in a single day care. Giron took her on, though she said the long commute between the warehouse and her home in Golden Valley made the timing tough. Other warehouse employees who have called her have not been as fortunate. Due to state capability guidelines, she can’t always take them.
Giron said childcare that suits nontraditional shifts is “really hard for parents to find” from licensed suppliers.
“We’re capped for overnight care,” she said. “I wish we could have more kids overnight.”
She is one of the only suppliers in her space still licensed for in a single day hours, and one of just 35 amenities statewide that offer round-the-clock care. For those warehouse employees, the search in all probability won’t go any higher elsewhere. Nevada has one of the highest shares of any state of dad and mom working nights, early mornings and weekends — and the quantity of childcare suppliers licensed and prepared to cowl those hours retains shrinking.
That leaves dad and mom who work odd hours with few formal childcare choices. They fall back on household, mates or casual preparations that researchers have linked to strains on youngsters, marriages and dad and mom’ jobs.
On the evening shift
The quantity of Nevada amenities offering 24-hour care has fallen by about half since 2018, from 71 to 35, according to state licensing reports and present figures from Molly Moser, public data officer for Nevada’s Child Care & Development Program and Child Care Licensing.
Of the 35 amenities still offering for round-the-clock care, 26 are in Southern Nevada and 9 are in the north. That leaves rural areas, including mining communities such as Elko, with few or no formal in a single day choices.
Meanwhile, the need for childcare outside common hours runs high. About 44 % of Nevada youngsters youthful than 6 in working households have dad and mom who work nontraditional hours, that means before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m. on weekdays or any time on weekends, according to a 2021 Urban Institute evaluation. That is the second-highest share of any state, behind Mississippi, and effectively above the national average of 36 %.
The share is even increased for households with fewer assets. Half of low-income youngsters and 70 % of youngsters of working single dad and mom have dad and mom who work those hours.
Night shifts are common in the state. Among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, the Las Vegas metro had the highest share of night-shift employees, about 10.3 %, or roughly 112,000 people, according to a 2022 evaluation of census information by the home providers company Porch. Statewide the share was 9.5 %, in contrast with about 6 % nationally.
Chelsea Sliter, household useful resource director at the Children’s Cabinet, a Reno-based nonprofit that helps households discover childcare, said dad and mom have struggled with that mismatch for a long time.
“It’s something that’s really always been a challenge for parents, especially living in a state that’s 24 hours,” she said. “A lot of parents kind of express frustration with that.”
She said requests for in a single day care have ticked up over the last two or three years, as more people transfer to the space and many take on more than one job.
And Nevada’s 24-hour financial system exhibits no indicators of slowing down — in truth, it’s growing.
Some of the industries driving Nevada’s job growth are among the most possible to run through the evening. Warehousing and storage employment in Nevada more than doubled between 2017 and 2025, from about 18,400 jobs to 42,100, and transportation and warehousing as a complete grew 45 %. Nationally, more than 30 % of transportation and warehousing employees reported working between 1-5 a.m. in the previous month, more than double the fee for all employees, according to a 2025 federal research.
Leisure and hospitality, the sector that contains casinos, accounted for about 360,700 jobs in 2025, or practically 23 % of all jobs in the state, roughly double its share nationally, according to federal labor information. About 18.2 % of lodging and food service employees, a key half of Nevada’s tourism sector, reported working between 1-5 a.m.
Newer industries are including jobs in Nevada, too. Battery manufacturing grew more than fourfold over the same period, from about 3,100 jobs to 14,200. Employment in information processing and internet hosting, the class that contains information facilities, grew from about 1,900 jobs to 3,200, up 65 %, as new initiatives keep arriving in the state. Data facilities run around the clock, though usually with small in a single day crews.
Disrupted sleep, behavioral issues
What occurs to the households who can’t discover in a single day childcare? They make do, largely turning to family members, mates or neighbors, or arranging alternating shifts between two working dad and mom.
But those casual preparations carry their own prices. Sliter said households who rely on a rotating solid of family members, mates or unlicensed sitters can finish up with care that’s inconsistent and nerve-racking.
“There could be transportation challenges, sleep disruptions for children, employment instability if you can’t rely on somebody or you don’t know who you’re using from day to day,” she said.
Research backs that up. A 2023 research that adopted practically 5,000 youngsters in 20 U.S. cities discovered that moms’ nonstandard work schedules were linked to more conduct issues in their youngsters, with evening shifts displaying the strongest results among moms without a high faculty diploma. That echoes a 2014 review that discovered 21 of 23 earlier research linked dad and mom’ nonstandard schedules to at least one unfavourable consequence for youngsters.
Art provides, actions, seasons and climate crowd a wall at Glaiza Giron’s home in Reno on Oct. 16, 2026. (Nick Stewart/The Nevada Independent)
How childcare is patched collectively issues, too. A 2024 analysis review from the University of Chicago and the Erikson Institute pointed to analysis displaying that youngsters in nonstandard-hour care have a tendency to fare worse, particularly in casual preparations, and that steadier care may help. A 2014 research discovered that younger youngsters who bounced between caregivers, or juggled several at once, confirmed more emotional and behavioral struggles.
Night shifts can pressure dad and mom’ relationships as effectively. Sociologist Harriet Presser discovered that fathers with younger youngsters who labored fixed evening shifts in the first 5 years of marriage were about six instances as possible to separate or divorce as those who labored days. For moms married more than 5 years, evening shifts roughly tripled the odds. More latest analysis on unpredictable schedules factors the same means: A Harvard Shift Project research of practically 7,000 hourly retail and food service employees discovered that 94 % of married employees with secure schedules were still married 9 months later, in contrast with 82 % of those with the most unpredictable ones.
Employers also really feel the results. Forty-seven % of 433 Nevada companies surveyed by the state in 2023 said childcare access was an obstacle, and the state’s Office of Workforce Innovation, citing a 2025 CNBC evaluation, places the ensuing productiveness losses at about $1 billion a 12 months.
Sliter said closing the hole would take more funding, presumably including increased subsidy reimbursement charges for suppliers, along with workforce development support and technical help to help suppliers navigate licensing. Any of those adjustments, she said, would possible have to come through the Legislature.
Little help from employers
Few of the employers who make use of off-shift employees offer concrete help with childcare. Only 5.5 % of Nevada companies surveyed by the state in 2023 provided on-site childcare, with most citing price and legal responsibility as obstacles, according to a report from the Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation.
That contains Amazon, which runs day, evening and early-morning warehouse shifts in Nevada but affords no childcare subsidy, on-site care or referral service of its own. Spokesperson Matthew Gardea instead pointed to the company’s healthcare, paid depart and versatile scheduling choices.
Casino resorts, which have run around the clock for a long time, range in what they offer. Bally’s Corp. said it gives staff reductions through Upwards, a childcare referral service, but no direct subsidy.
The Nevada Resort Association said those choices are left to particular person firms. “Nevada’s resort industry recognizes the importance of reliable child care for employees and their families,” said Virginia Valentine, the affiliation’s president and CEO said in an emailed assertion.
A few resorts have run on-site facilities, though not often through the evening. The MGM Grand operated a 24-hour childcare middle until 2017, when it cut the in a single day hours, citing low demand. The Venetian seems to still run an on-site middle, which was working as of a 2024 information story. A 2000 Las Vegas Sun article reported it was open from 6 a.m. to midnight.
In Northern Nevada, Patagonia has expanded on-site care at its Reno distribution middle, though only during the day. The program, which began with one toddler classroom in 2016, now serves about 85 youngsters from infancy until they’re previous enough for kindergarten from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. The company covers the share of the price that tuition would not, said Sheryl Shushan, Patagonia’s senior director of household providers.
“We’ve long viewed on-site childcare as both a family benefit and a business investment,” Shushan said.
Other massive round-the-clock employers said little. The Nevada Independent contacted Tesla, Panasonic, Switch, Google, Station Casinos, MGM Grand, The Venetian, Grand Sierra Resort, Atlantis and Peppermill about childcare advantages for in a single day employees. Station Casinos declined to remark, and the others did not reply.
A childcare desert, day and evening
Nevada’s childcare scarcity begins long before the solar goes down. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that 66.1 % of Nevada youngsters stay in a childcare desert. Nevada households who pay for childcare spend more than 32 % of their income on it, the most of any state, according to a LendingTree evaluation.
Overnight care is more durable still to discover, even though suppliers say dad and mom are trying for it.
“You’ll see them a lot on social media. Parents are asking for overnight care,” Giron said.
Glaiza Giron in the playroom at her home in Reno on Oct. 16, 2026. (Nick Stewart/The Nevada Independent)
But those requests do not always flip into regular enrollment at licensed suppliers. Sliter said many suppliers are licensed for 24-hour care but do not truly offer those hours, citing price, staffing and demand that is too inconsistent to make staying open value it. Moser said low enrollment is the prime cause amenities cut back their hours.
The truth that in a single day childcare amenities are cutting hours despite obvious demand seems paradoxical, but one rationalization comes from what households need. Sliter said dad and mom favor a home setting over a middle when their youngsters need in a single day care, and those home-based choices are disappearing.
Nevada had 471 licensed household childcare houses in 2009, according to the Children’s Cabinet. By the finish of 2024, it had 101, according to state licensing information. The state is now down to 76, according to Sliter. “That’s concerning,” she said.
Giron factors to licensing as one cause other suppliers have dropped in a single day care. When Washoe County’s childcare licensing program folded into the state’s in 2024, she said, suppliers who provided 24-hour care had to rewrite their insurance policies, additional work she believes pushed some of them to stop.
“Our job is very demanding,” she said. “I think it’s the licensing, in all honesty.”
In rural areas, that hurdle can keep caregivers from getting licensed at all. Lacey Osterberg, who runs a home childcare program in Spring Creek close to Elko, said she is not conscious of any in a single day suppliers in her space, and that many caregivers there skip the licensing course of completely.
“There’s a lot of people around here that don’t get licensed and that just do it as babysitting,” she said, including that the licensing course of took her more than a 12 months of paperwork. “It’s a lot of money. It’s not a cheap process at all.”
State guidelines also cap how many in a single day slots a supplier can have. Under Nevada’s regulations, a licensed household home can care for no more than six youngsters and a group home no more than 12. Centers that keep open between 9 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. must keep one caregiver for every six youngsters youthful than 3 and one for every 10 youngsters older than 3, and any employees member on obligation at evening has to keep awake for the complete shift.
Providers who need to offer in a single day care say the work wears them down. Giron said she can keep awake with youngsters only two nights in a row before her husband, who is also licensed, takes over. If a household wants 5 straight nights, she tells them to discover someone else to fill the hole.
“I can stay up for two days. That’s the maximum,” she said. “I can’t exhaust myself.”
Nancy Konopacki, a Reno-area supplier, stopped offering in a single day and night care about a 12 months in the past after bounced checks and chronically late pickups and drop-offs, including one at 4 a.m. that left her unable to get back to sleep before her day started. She now runs a 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. schedule.
Low pay compounds the downside. Nevada childcare employees earned a median wage of $11.92 an hour in 2022, according to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Providers say they attempt to keep their charges down so care stays within attain for households.
Giron fees $65 a day. For households on subsidies, the Children’s Cabinet covers $40 of that, and dad and mom pay the relaxation. “As much as I want to make so much money, I just can’t do that just because it’s not fair,” she said.
Osterberg fees $5 to $7 an hour per little one, relying on whether she supplies meals and snacks, and plans to raise those charges by $1 in January. She said she tries to keep “on the lower end, but still have to be able to pay our employees and ourselves.”
That steadiness is also holding back her in a single day plans. Osterberg got licensed for 24-hour care this June, but so far operates only from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. because of staffing.
“Right now we’re just trying to … do the 6:30 to 6:30 until we make enough money to be able to hire more staff to do night shifts,” she said. She expects evening employees to be onerous to discover, though she’s prepared to work nights herself. She plans to begin offering in a single day care in about a 12 months.
“I just see a huge need for [overnight care] in the community,” she said, “and that’s why I chose to do what I did.”