Our History

Rainbow Child Development Center - A Celebration of 30 Years

As with many small businesses, there is always a back story on how it all came to be. Rainbow Child Development Center started in 1984 with owners Timothy and Eileen Hanley. This is their story…

Their vision was to not only open a child care center, but an educational program for pre-school and school age children. There was a definite need for working families to place their children in day care, but the Hanley’s had a vision that the children should be learning something instead of the then traditional daycare/babysitting service.

From the beginning, it has only been a family run business. The Hanley’s three daughters: Maureen, Doreen, and Christine worked part time after high school to assist their parents who working full time. They attended educational programs, classes in college, and workshops to learn all they could to make the family run business a success.

The first center/school was opened on the corner of what is now the Fairfax County Parkway and Route 50 in Fairfax. It was in the former location of the King of Kings Lutheran Church. They had about 20 children. The second location, with about 40 students, opened in Reston, Virginia.
 
Many working families had been moving west, and the Haney’s saw the need to open a location in Centreville. That school (the building that looks like a house) opened in 1991. In January of 1995, the Infant/Toddler building was built. This location was purchased by the Hanley’s including the 5 wooded acres of location. This took so much time and many years for approval from Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Unfortunately, during the approval process, Mr. Hanley died suddenly and never saw the new building completion in 2005. He would have been very proud of the new school.

Rainbow Child Development Center is still a hands-on family run business with employees who been with the center a long time. Doreen Hanley Bicoy is the center’s director with assistant director, Laurie Dorgan who has been with Rainbow since 1991. Mrs. Eileen Hanley is still very much involved, passing on her keen knowledge for business, great care and the importance of education. She enjoys many calls and visits from former students, some of whom are now married! They recall fond memories of their time at Rainbow.  Mrs. Hanley LOVES the fact that her own two grandchildren, Alana and Kiera, are students of Rainbow Child Development Center; it makes her visits to the school extra special.

The Hanley’s have had an incredible 30 year journey! Here’s to another 30 years…with perhaps Alana and Kiera carrying on the vision and dream that Mr. and Mrs. Hanley started so many years ago!