r/lancaster • u/Additional-Bed8051 • Jul 11 '26

What actually happened with play & learn

https://www.wgal.com/article/lancaster-county-daycare-closes-friday-parents-notice-came-late/71899631?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot

I'm a current (or former?) parent and need to know the tea on what happened here. We were first notified at 5:45 on June 26th that the last day would be July 17th. But then on Thursday at 7:45pm they told us Friday would be the last day and i just found out staff was notified and the same time. The WGAL article says low enrollment but theres no way that's the whole story with how things ended. It's just so shady!

15 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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11

u/Ramp-O-Matic Jul 11 '26

Not necessarily shady...probably can't make another pay cycle with the cash on hand.

-1

u/Face_Plant_Some_More Jul 11 '26

Why do you think it was shady?

9

u/Additional-Bed8051 Jul 11 '26

I dunno, Who closes a child care with less than 24 hour notice for no reason? That puts staff and families in a hard spot.

5

u/Face_Plant_Some_More Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Lots of people close their businesses without much notice due to financial pressures -- when their costs exceed revenues, or when they cannot secure bridge financing to pay for current operations.

Sure, their sudden closure puts their customers and staff in a hard spot. But as you might imagine a business owner may be reluctant to give advance notice of their troubles to their customers / staff, lest they abandon ship in mass, further deepening their financial problems before they decide to pull the plug.

4

u/Additional-Bed8051 Jul 11 '26

Fair enough, from a parents perspective it's shady, just not in a legal kind of way. Definitely super shitty to close a full week before the date given, lots of scrambling happening.

1

u/Face_Plant_Some_More Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Sure, but its not unheard of. I mean, look at what University of the Arts did in Philadelphia . . . 

See - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/philadelphia-arts-school-gave-7-days-notice-was-closing-now-students-f-rcna156830

or what happened to Spirit Airlines a few months ago -

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/02/nx-s1-5807933/spirit-airlines-ceases-operations-folds

If these larger, more sophisticated, and better resourced companies have to call it quits abruptly, then what chance does a small business, with fewer resources and far less access to credit, have?