CHILD CARE CRISIS
Increased costs, reduced funding putting the crunch on crucial industry Students at Warwick Child Care may not even realize they’re learning when they’re at the center. Studies show that students who receive quality early education exposure before age 5,
With school reopenings grabbing all the headlines, there is an aspect of sending folks back to work which is getting less attention — and soon, less money.
Childcare will be a vital piece of the reopening puzzle with many school districts avoiding a full five-day, in-person return to school.
The “hybrid” programs now gaining traction with local school boards leave a critical question for parents — where do the kids go on days they are not in school?
The traditional answer is the local childcare providers, but these are not traditional times, economically or otherwise.
If parents are to return to
work in a struggling economy, they need to know their children are safe and learning; thus providing aid to childcare is as crucial to economic recovery as supporting the airline industry or rescuing banks during the great recession, said Donna Cooper.
Cooper is the executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, which Thursday joined with another advocacy group, Philadelphiabased First Up, to give voice to the dangers now facing the continued survival of the region’s childcare providers.
“Many school districts are looking at ‘hybrid’ reopening and on the days those students are not in school, childcare providers are going to be tasked with taking in those children,” said Tyronne Scott, director of government and external affairs for First Up.
But the coronavirus pandemic has not been gentle to the bottom line of the region’s childcare providers.
Many have closed their doors permanently and those that have managed to stay open have done so largely with help from the state and federal governments.
Now, a reversal of reimbursement policies set to begin Sept. 1 may endanger them at a time when costs for sanitation will rise to maintain social distancing and health protocols, and enrollments will fall.
“Even in the most financially stable times, it’s not easy, and now we’re struggling to figure out how we do this,” said Tana Rinehart, with Warwick Child Care, which operates nine childcare locations in Chester County.
The business is 33 years old and Rinehart has been there for 28 of them. “It’s really unclear what the future holds. In 28 years, I’ve never seen it this bad,” she said during the press conference, held on Zoom.
Specifically, the business owners and their advocates are responding to a July 18 announcement from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services that coronavirus aid payments will end Aug. 31.
Since March 13, a program called Child Care Works has provided $370 million to providers by making payments based on their enrollments as of March 13, and not on the number of children actually showing up.
Additionally, DHS distributed $51.3 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding in June and $53 million in July. An additional $116 million of CARES Act funding will be distributed to providers during August and September.
And it has helped, even though it has not been enough for many.
Statewide, 170 child care centers have closed permanently since March 13, said 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 five-days 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