STAYING OPEN, KEEPING HOPE, DURING A PANDEMIC
In March, while coronavirus cases were climbing in Connecticut, Georgia Goldburn, director of Hope for New Haven, which runs Hope Child Development Center, a Christian-based center on New Haven’s Olive Street, looked at the 75 children in her charge.
Schools were shutting down, employees were being sent home, and the state published strict guidelines for childcare providers. The New Haven mayor had issued an order that closed larger childcare centers, except for centers that cared for the children of healthcare workers.
At Hope, more than half of their families were health care, front-line, and essential workers, Goldburn said. Without Hope, where would their children go and how would these essential workers do their jobs?
Even before the pandemic critically wounded the state’s childcare industry, industry watchers were saying Connecticut’s childcare system was limping. Now, as businesses are cautiously revving up, Connecticut families may face projected a significant shortfall of day care slots.
Any discussions about an economic recovery must include childcare, particularly in Connecticut, which has some of the country’s most expensive care. Socalled childcare deserts exist in urban and rural areas around the state, Goldburn said.
The pandemic has been particularly challenging because the industry operates on a razor-thin margin. The bulk of their income comes from tuition paid by families. When families struggle, as they have in the pandemic, the childcare industry is among the first to feel it, and that’s especially true in communities of color.
“When you have a community that is economically fragile in good times, most of them are going to lose their work,” said Goldburn. “Most of those folks are going to have reduced hours and income.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro has introduced a bill that would create a $50 billion fund to help providers operate as they struggle with their reduced capacity. Beth Bye, commissioner of the state Office of Early Childhood, has said that Connecticut will need as much $100 million over the next six months to keep going.
Collaboration among center-based and family childcare organizations has helped some. Hope is part of Cercle, a consortium of New Haven early childcare and educational programs that work together to improve opportunities for their charges, young children of color in the New Haven area. By pooling resources, providers have purchased items that they otherwise couldn’t afford, such as an electrostatic disinfectant sprayer.
But creative financing and collaboration may not be enough. A recent study from the National Association for the Education of Young Children said just 18% of childcare programs now open expect to close within the year. In Connecticut, that will leave tens of thousands of children without a place to go as their parents try to work.
Meanwhile, back at Hope, Goldburn held a staff meeting to talk about options.
The 9,000-square foot center could close, but that would leave their families without childcare, and options for them were already shrinking as centers were closing.
Or the Hope staff could take precautions to quell the spread of the virus, and remain open. The decision came quickly: They would serve their families, and stay open.
“That, to me, was just so inspiring,” said Goldburn.
Childcare centers had long been practicing safety measures the rest of us have only been observing for the past few months. Hope added a special thermal temperature scanner to cut down on the time spent checking everyone coming in. Classes – shrunk to less than half their previous size -- no longer co-mingled, and the center began closing at 4:30 to minimize the staggered coming and going of staff and family.
Some things stayed the same. The staff, the members of which have stayed healthy, Goldburn said, committed to having parents come indoors to drop off their children, and they continued dispensing hugs to their charges. A toddler can’t wait. Brains, bones and psyches form, pandemic or no.
“We really wanted to create as much normalcy for the children,” said Goldburn. “A lot of what is being asked people to do is completely inappropriate for children. They need that loving, nurturing touching and hugging. We don’t try to deny children that, especially because we don’t now how long this pandemic is going to occur.”
And while it’s good news that Connecticut has been able to quell the spread of the virus, in the coming weeks, openings at childcare centers will be at a premium and centers – already on precarious ground -- will be forced accept the families most likely to pay.
Parents with job security and the ability to pay their tuition will be chosen over, say, the Walmart cashier whose job security may be more precarious. Goldburn says it will be like the dystopian novel, “The Hunger Games.” Surely, we can do better than that.