Pandemic woes continue for struggling child care industry

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases among children and staff and the resulting quarantines continue to plague the industry.

Imagination Station Preschool in St. Petersburg has had six coronavirus cases among children so far, said owner Jackie Lang. She counts herself lucky that she’s had to do classroom quarantines only twice in this most recent wave of infections.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster for us,” Lang said. She and other providers described frustration with conflicting or lacking guidance from the health department and other agencies on how to handle quarantines and how to find out when families at their facilities test positive.

Worries about the virus and possible quarantines put workers like Catina Bell on edge.

“We’re at risk every day as well as the kids,” said Bell, who has worked at Imagination Station for three years and been in the business for two decades. Bell said her employer can’t afford to pay her if she has to leave work and be quarantined.

“We don’t know from day to day if we’re going to have a job, if the school will close. The anxiety really kicks in,” Bell said. “We just put our best foot forward and go for it.”

The preschool has instituted a two-week waiting period for prospective families wanting to enroll. It’s a deterrent, Lang said, to keep parents whose kids have been sent home to quarantine from bringing them to her center instead.

She recently had a grandparent drop off a child whose mother and brother had tested positive for the coronavirus. The family was stressed, telling Lang they didn’t know what to do when she called to tell them the child couldn’t stay and had to be quarantined.

Lang understands the desperation parents feel to find child care amid constant coronavirus-related disruptions. But she needs to protect those in her facility, too, even if it means a loss in needed revenue.

“We’re overwhelmed at this point with decisions that have to be made,” Lang said.

Ballinger, of R’Club, said the pandemic has at least raised awareness of the value of child care for families and the economy.

“Child care providers are really essential care workers,” Ballinger said. “They are there to help families and our community get back to work and recover.”