Broward educators need access to vaccine

As COVID-19 caused shutdowns across Broward County, not everyone closed their doors. In order for parents to continue to work and in many cases provide an essential service to our community, child care became even more of a necessity.

Preschools across the county dramatically shifted their procedures to be open and safe. Masks, gloves, temperature checks and dropping kids at the front door became the new normal for our preschools. A pre-COVID morning included dropping a child off directly in the classroom and each child being greeted with hugs, kisses and smiles by teachers and staff. But times have drastically changed. Parents no longer enter the classrooms, let alone the school building. Greetings now have become a temperature check, sometimes even a change of shoes and a conversation on what type of mask is being worn today by the teacher and some children asking, “Are you smiling under that mask?”

Broward’s early childhood community remains committed to providing care as they adhere to CDC guidelines and despite the additional cost they incur to be stocked with the appropriate cleaning supplies, PPE, toilet paper and other provisions they feel are essential during the pandemic. Teachers arrive to work maybe unsettled wondering and worrying if COVID would spread at their school, but despite their fears, many endure each and every day to care, support and teach our youngest community members day in and day out.

Attendance at preschools continues to be lower than pre-COVID numbers. Keeping to smaller classrooms has been beneficial for health and safety reasons. However, keeping classrooms smaller is also a result of the need to find new staff when others have chosen to not work during this time. The field of early childhood is majority staffed by women and largely women of color. In a 2018 American Community Survey data, before COVID-19, nearly half of all working women — 46% or 28 million — worked in jobs paying low wages, with median earnings of only $10.93 per hour. The share of workers earning low wages is higher among Black women (54%) and Hispanic or Latina women (64%) than among white women (40%). Many educators have decided to not return to the classroom because of the health risk due to COVID-19 or have decided that they can work somewhere else with less stress for the same if not more money.

As Governor DeSantis’ executive orders throughout the pandemic included child care centers as essential, it is time we treat the staff who work in these centers that way. Now that vaccinations have started to ramp up, we are advocating for child care educators to be part of the priority to receive the vaccine. According to the child care advocacy group Child Care Aware, 39 states have prioritized child care educators to receive vaccines along with K-12 teachers, however Florida is not one of those states.

Early educators continue to work despite the fear and threat of the spread of COVID-19. The Early Learning Coalition of Broward County works with over 600 preschools and provides funding for over 19,000 low-income children to attend school.

We are looking for a return to a new normal so educators can return to the classroom and continue to care, love and educate our youngest children in a safe environment without fear for their health.

By Renee Jaffe