This piece originally appeared in the NH Journal on March 9, 2026
Communities often go to great lengths to accommodate animals — creating spaces, changing rules, and adjusting zoning when necessary.
Yet when it comes to supporting families raising children, the response is often far less accommodating.
Later this week, the New Hampshire House will vote on HB 1195, legislation that addresses local zoning barriers that can prevent child care providers from opening or expanding in our communities.
The issue may sound technical, but the consequences for families are very real.
Across New Hampshire, parents are struggling to find reliable child care. Waiting lists are long, costs are high, and in many communities options are limited. For young families trying to build their lives here, access to safe and trustworthy care can determine whether they remain in the state at all.
At Cornerstone, we regularly hear from individuals who want to open or expand child care programs to serve families in their communities. Many hope to operate small home-based or privately run child care programs that provide safe and reliable care close to where parents live.
These programs provide safe and nurturing environments for children while helping parents balance work and family responsibilities. Yet too often these efforts run into local zoning restrictions that make it difficult or impossible to operate even when providers meet New Hampshire’s licensing and safety standards.
HB 1195 would help remove some of these barriers.
Before going further, it is worth acknowledging something that often gets lost in policy debates about child care. Ideally, many parents would prefer that one parent — most often the mother — be able to stay home with young children during their earliest years. For generations, that arrangement has been an important part of family life.
But for many families today, that option is simply not financially possible.
When both parents must work, families should at least have access to child care options they can feel good about — places where children are safe, cared for, and treated with dignity. Home-based and privately operated child care providers play an important role in meeting this need in communities across New Hampshire.
But these providers sometimes encounter zoning barriers that treat child care as if it were an unwelcome intrusion rather than a community benefit.
HB 1195 helps ensure that providers who meet New Hampshire’s existing child care licensing standards are not unnecessarily blocked by conflicting local rules.
This matters not only for parents today but also for the long-term future of our state.
New Hampshire is already one of the oldest states in the country. According to U.S. Census data, more than one in five Granite Staters is now over the age of 65, and researchers at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy report that the state has a median age of about 43 — the second oldest in the nation.
At the same time, according to the New Hampshire Municipal Association, the number of children living in New Hampshire has declined since 2000 even as the population over age 65 has grown significantly.
The demographic trends are already visible across the state. Researchers at the Carsey School report that deaths now exceed births in nine of New Hampshire’s ten counties, meaning population growth increasingly depends on people moving here rather than families raising children.
As I’ve written in the past, these trends have serious implications for our workforce, our communities, and the long-term vitality of our state. A society that becomes steadily older without welcoming and supporting young families will eventually struggle to sustain the institutions and economy that make it a desirable place to live.
Policies that make it easier for families to raise children — including improving access to child care — are part of addressing that challenge.
In a previous column titled “Have Children Gone the Way of the Horse?”, I reflected on the strange contrast in how modern society sometimes treats children. The phrase itself comes from economist and demographer Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, author of Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, who has observed that in earlier generations horses were essential to daily life but are now largely recreational.
In some policy debates, it can feel as though children have undergone a similar shift — no longer viewed as central to the flourishing of our communities, but instead as an inconvenience that must be managed.
That perspective is deeply misguided.
Children are not obstacles to economic life. They are the future of our communities.
HB 1195 will not solve New Hampshire’s child care shortage overnight. But it removes unnecessary barriers that prevent willing providers from helping meet a real need.
If we want New Hampshire to remain a place where families can build their lives and where communities continue to thrive, we should welcome responsible providers who are ready to serve parents and children alike.
If we are willing to adjust our rules to accommodate animals, surely we can remove barriers that help families raise the next generation.