Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Child care
Scott.
And those that have stayed open, have struggled.
With so many businesses shut down, many parents have been out of work and thus pulled their children from child care.
Pre-COVID, Warwick’s enrollment was between 90 and 95 percent of its capacity, said Rinehart. Enrollment is now at 37 percent.
Between just March 13 and May 26, the largest childcare provider in Delaware County lost $860,000 in income, said Erinn Rinn, who works for Today’s Child Learning Centers.
“We were always able to provide services by maintaining high enrollment, but now to keep kids safe, we have to limit the number of children in a room,” said Rinn.
In March, the centers had 1,999 children enrolled. They currently have 445 and many of them are not fivedays a week.
“We need an increase in revenue if we’re going to be able to pay for the increased cleaning costs, cleaning equipment and PPE,” said Rinn.
If any child, or teacher, tests positive for COVID-19, the room in which they were stationed must be closed for a week, she explained.
“We’ll never make up the losses in revenue. If we don’t receive the resources to remain open, it will be disastrous,” Rinn said.
“We’re not going to be able to sustain ourselves with just enrollment,” said Veronica Crisp, who works for Step by Step Learning Centers that operate five child-care locations in Delaware County.
Another problem posed by the policy change is that funding for both the centers, and the parents, revolves around attendance, not enrollment. So if a child is absent for five straight days, the funding stops.
This creates problems when you consider that anyone who has had contact with or been infected by the coronavirus is required to self-quarantine for 14 days.
And while enrollments may be down, the amount of time the students that arrive do arrive are in the center will go up under most of the plans now favored by school districts.
Valerie Hamilton, who works at Children of God Educational Services in Bristol, Bucks County, said unlike when school is in session, and many centers get children for a few hours before or after school, the “hybrid”
return many school districts are eyeing means many children will be at the center for eight to 12 hours.
“That means paying teachers more with fewer students,” said Hamilton.
Christina Lynch, with the non-profit Salford Mennonite Child Care Centers in Harleysville, “laid off half my staff” when the shutdown order came in March.
“And these were quality teachers we had, some with more than 20 years experience, she said. To remain open, “we need a public investment, so parents have a place to send their children that is predictable and stable.”
That’s important considering that many of the students in the child care center will actually be learning remotely under the school re-opening plans that have them doing virtual lessons when not in school physically.
That means childcare workers, who are paid far less than public school teachers, have multiple virtual learning platforms to master if they want to help children do their lessons, said Hamilton.
As any parent who had to master just one platform during this spring’s school shut-down can tell you, that is a daunting task.
“We’re not just helping children with homework anymore, we’re actually teaching the children while they’re with us,” Crisp said.
“We’re not here to complain,” said Rinehart. “We matter. We’re a local business and help the tax base and the local economy.”
All of which adds up to problems both for children’s education, and economic recovery, if the policy is not reversed and childcare providers provided with some additional support, said Cooper.
The state and federal government has sent aid to “critical infrastructure” during the pandemic, like hospitals, airlines and $50 billion to industry,” to keep health care viable and the economy moving, Cooper said.
“For people to go back to work, child care has to be there,” she said. “It’s critical infrastructure. It’s not a budget-buster, but an economy must.”
But that budget is not bottomless, said Delaware County state Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26th Dist., who was also on the call.
Kearney, who supports reversing the policy on both economic and moral grounds, said the state is facing a tough fiscal challenge.
“This is all likely the result of the size of the budget hole we’re staring into right now,” said Kearney, who serves on the Senate’s local government, labor and industry, and housing and urban affairs committees.
“We passed a partial budget in June” that only covers part of the year. “In November, after the election, we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for all of this.”