GOOD NEWS IN ONE SENTENCE Bright Horizons operates revolutionary 24-hour daycare centers at Toyota manufacturing plants in Indiana and Kentucky, where children stay awake through the night playing and learning while their parents work essential night shifts.

WHY THIS MATTERS Manufacturing runs around the clock, but childcare typically doesn’t. For single parents or families where both adults work night shift, finding quality care is nearly impossible. These 24-hour centers recognize a simple truth: if we expect people to work nights, we need to support their families too. The model proves that unconventional solutions to childcare can strengthen both families and the workforce, creating stability for parents who might otherwise be forced to choose between work and their children.

THE STORY

When the Night Shift Needs Daycare

Amanda Yochum checks in on a group of preschoolers playing dodgeball. Outside the windows, it’s pitch dark. Inside, the kids are wide awake and energetic. The clock reads 3 a.m.

This is what 24-hour childcare looks like at Bright Horizons’ centers serving Toyota’s manufacturing plants in Princeton, Indiana and Georgetown, Kentucky. The business of making cars runs 24/7, and so do their daycare centers.

Matching Schedules, Supporting Families

When parents work night shift and need to sleep during the day, their children need to be on that schedule too. The night program runs from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Kids who arrive half-asleep on their parents’ shoulders soon perk up for a full night of activities identical to daytime programming.

Yochum, the regional manager overseeing both centers, emphasizes the equity principle behind the approach. They don’t want children or families feeling they’re missing out because of their shift. Night kids do everything day kids do: arts and crafts, movement activities, outdoor play under stadium lights, even story time.

In Princeton, 164 children attend during the day and 44 at night. Georgetown serves 159 by day and 32 overnight. Saturday programs run for both shifts as well.

Building on Decades of Success

Toyota recognized the need back in the 1980s and 1990s when these plants were established. Few quality childcare centers existed in the area, especially none offering overnight care. Georgetown opened its 24-hour center in 1993, Princeton in 2003.

Many children start at 7 weeks old and stay through kindergarten. Yochum notes that night shift families often have the easiest time with infant sleep schedules. Babies raised on a night schedule from the beginning adapt naturally.

The centers offer specialized support including healthcare professional visits, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and emotional support services. School-age programs in Kentucky allow older children to sleep by 9:30 p.m. while parents finish their shifts.

BY THE NUMBERS

• 2 Toyota plants with 24-hour care
• 164 day / 44 night enrolled (Princeton)
• 159 day / 32 night enrolled (Georgetown)
• 1993 Georgetown center opened
• 2003 Princeton center opened
• 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. night shift hours
• 4 new Toyota childcare centers opening by 2027

WHAT’S NEXT

Toyota announced plans to add four new childcare centers at manufacturing locations in North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and West Virginia, all opening by 2027. The Princeton center just completed an expansion to accommodate up to 366 children across two shifts. As more manufacturers recognize that supporting families strengthens the workforce, the 24-hour childcare model may expand beyond Toyota.

THE HEART OF IT: There’s something beautifully practical about children playing tag under floodlights at midnight, splashing in water tables while the stars shine overhead, building block towers as most of the world sleeps. These kids aren’t being asked to sacrifice for their parents’ work schedules. They’re being given a full childhood, just on a different clock. The parents dropping them off at 6 p.m. aren’t choosing between career and family. They’re able to do both because someone recognized that unconventional work requires unconventional support. This is what it looks like when businesses decide that caring for employees means caring for their whole families. The dodgeball at 3 a.m. isn’t strange. It’s revolutionary.

SOURCE https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/12/new-15-minute-hepatitis-c-test-paves-the-way-for-same-day-treatment

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