COVID-19 causing child care to dry up
Many care centers close as demand drops
There are fewer childcare providers now that more parents are staying at home with their kids.
The city of Eureka was expecting to expand the capacity of its Little Saplings Preschool Program at the start of the shelterin-place order on March 20, but since then, demand has dried up, said Eureka Community Services Director Miles Slattery. As a result, daycares and preschools like Little Saplings are closing.
“We had dwindling numbers at our daycare so we ended up stopping the program,” Slattery said.
The city is offering one-on-one child care for its essential employees, but only one person is using that to date, he said. The shelter-in-place order appears to be allowing a lot of people or their significant others to cover child care, Slattery said.
The preschool is doing an online storytime and other things on social media, Slattery said.
Jennifer Levi-Luster, owner of Bright Beginnings Family Daycare, has also had to shut down her daycare. She said she’s fortunate that she has a handful of parents who are continuing to pay her, but the longer the shelter-in-place order lasts, the more difficult it will be.
“It’s going to be scary if this goes on into the next month,” Levi-Luster said. “I don’t want to be open, but then again I don’t want to lose my house.”
Levi-Luster shut the daycare down the day the shelter-in-place order went into effect in order to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 infectious disease.
Research has shown children are more resilient than other age groups in fending off the virus, but can still spread it to others who may be more vulnerable, such as pregnant women, people over 65 and people with compromised immune systems.
However, Levi-Luster said some of her parents who are working from home are having a tough time getting work done because they have infants and toddlers they’re trying to care for.
Preschools and daycares that have remained open, such as Powell Family Child Care, have stepped up their precautionary measures in order to ensure children aren’t spreading the virus to each other.
Children’s belongings are no longer allowed inside the building, parents have to drop them off outside and shoes are collected in a bucket before the children can enter, said Linda Powell, owner of Powell Family Child Care, said.
Lunch boxes are also thoroughly disinfected and left outside for a few hours, she said.
Powell said she’s actually seen more parents calling to see if they can start bringing their kids to her, but she’s not taking any new kids in at this time.
“We’re just keeping it to these kids,” Powell said. “It’s hard, especially those that are working in (the) medical field are really needing care, but I just, I feel like I owe it to the parents I have here. They’re being really good about making sure their kids are healthy before dropping them off.”
Levi-Luster said she might reopen in order to avoid taking out loans, which would create a big balloon payment she’d have to pay once the shelter-in-place order is lifted, and applying for government assistance online seems like a cumbersome and long process.
“I haven’t applied for anything yet,” Levi-Luster said. “I’m pretty bad at computer stuff. I’m good with kids.”