Coronavirus exposes ongoing child care crisis
COVID-19 has not created our child-care crisis.
It simply exposes the fact that American child care is a chaotic collection of private ventures, nonprofit community endeavors, and inadequately funded federal and state programs.
The best options are available only to parents who can pay. A lot. And now, as parents return to work despite closed preschools and summer programs, viable and safe childcare options are scarce.
Those who care for and teach our children have been hit hard by this crisis. Families depend on a whole village of care to make it possible for both parents to work and children to thrive. That village is buckling under the strain and the repercussions will be felt everywhere.
Work-at-home mothers do a disproportionate amount of child care, home schooling, and household chores while ads extol the pleasures of “extra time with the kids.” In fact, 64% of mothers with children under the age of 6 are in the workforce, 44% full time.
Fully 70% of black and Latina mothers work full time. Meanwhile, licensed center or home-based child-care facilities can exceed 30% of take-home pay for just one child. Although subsidies are available for the lowest wage full-time workers, wait lists are long and reimbursement rates are low. Higher-quality early-learning centers are not an option for these families.
As businesses reopen, demand for safe and reliable childcare correspondingly increases. Yet significant infrastructure challenges loom with at least 20% of preschools likely closed through the summer and the rest operating at reduced capacity. Orange County will see an estimated shortage of about 30,000 spaces. Many programs that parents rely on, like summer camps, may not open.
Who will safely care for our children? We risk a community of closed doors with millions of children sequestered at home in unsupervised or makeshift care arrangements. We risk returning to a world where children are isolated, locked in cars, or cared for by their 13-year-old cousins. And for every parent juggling work and home-schooling, there are legions without that option who are in a panic.
To complicate matters, many parents are understandably reluctant to return their children to centers that lack the financial resources to maintain uncrowded classrooms and clean supplies.
We have lessons to learn from history.
World War II had powerful effects on child care. Back then, the 150 Kaiser Permanente Centers cared for the children of “Rosie the Riveter” with 24-hour support, trained staff, and a cooked dinner at the end of a factory shift.
Fortunately, we are not at war with another country, but a functioning workforce in this crisis similarly requires highquality, dependable childcare and a supportive community. Recently, a 10-year study of the impact on children in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina found that getting childcare, preschools, and schools up and running as soon as possible after a disaster is imperative. We must act swiftly.
We must designate child care as an essential function. Expand the use of federal funds through the Child Care Development Fund to providers serving children of essential workers. Allow child care to operate one phase ahead of opening guidelines.
We must immediately mobilize for summer care by coordinating public schools, YMCAs, and other community groups for safe camp options.
We need to make it easier to be a working parent. Give flexible hours, family leave time, stipends for child care, help for children with disabilities, summer camp, or home care for essential employees, on a temporary basis.
We need to make re-opening centers affordable with provider access to affordable PPE, paper products, cleaning supplies, teacher educational forgiveness loans, and business loans to facilitate family home childcare.
We must access funds for behavioral and mental health support for caregivers and families who have experienced the traumas of COVID-19.
We must encourage social entrepreneurs to develop virtual child-care networks to facilitate child placement and teacher employment. Families should have access to technology that can quickly connect them to qualified caregivers, thereby increasing awareness of childcare options.
Let’s take good care of our children and keep them safe so parents can return to work.