As lawmakers returned to Charleston Sunday, they had a lot on their plates. Supplemental appropriations were needed for restoring funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, a new agriculture lab for West Virginia State University, an emergency food fund, paving projects, the Hope Scholarship program, contract nursing for West Virginia Veterans Home and veterans nursing facilities … and let’s not forget $2.8 million for a historical mural project in the upper rotunda of the State Capitol Building, were all included on the list.

Childcare was not.

“When people and businesses are looking to move to West Virginia, they first ask about the roads and schools,” Gov. Jim Justice said. “We must continue providing additional funds for highway maintenance and school choice through the successful Hope Scholarship.”

He neglected to mention they also ask about childcare, though surely he and lawmakers know the state does not do well on that front when compared with other states.

“In the last three weeks, we have lost 265 childcare slots because centers have closed,” said House Minority Leader Pro Tempore Kayla Young, D-Kanawha. “And if we don’t do something to address the immediate funding needs by Sept. 1, 2,000 more families will lose their childcare spots. So, it’s a crisis that we are not taking care of.”

West Virginia Women’s Alliance reports an estimated 604 childcare centers are projected to close unless the state provides enrollment-based reimbursements to childcare centers in the state. Without the reimbursements, there will be an estimated $23 million funding gap in the next fiscal year.

Perhaps then childcare was not on the list because it is such a big problem to tackle in this state where lawmakers hang their hats on how much they care about the wellbeing of children and families.

“The items that will be on the call are items that there is a critical need for between now and the end of the fiscal year (the new budget takes effect July 1), that needs to be addressed,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood. “These items are addressing those, so that for the beginning of the new fiscal year, these items will be in place.”

There is hope, then, that another special session will take up this crucial matter for Mountain State kids and their families. Lawmakers must not fail to do so.