Child care sites are working to reopen
There is expected to be a shortage of providers
Child care facilities are beginning to reopen as the state enters Stage 2 of reopening the economy, but even if all of the ones that shuttered reopen, there won’t be enough providers to go around. Local organizations are trying to fix that.
Of the roughly 300 licensed child care providers in the area, about half shut their doors for one reason or another in response to the shelter-in-place order, said Kerry Venegas, executive director of childcare referral and resource agency Changing Tides Family Services. About 60% to 65% of childcare providers are now open as the county moves into Stage 2, she said.
“And they’re continuing to reopen and put all the safety precautions in place,” Venegas said.
Those safety precautions include limiting the number of children a child care provider can care for, ensuring proper cleaning and disinfecting is taking place, and rearranging their spaces to encourage social distancing, which is a difficult feat to accomplish with a classroom full of 3- and 4-year-olds, Venegas said.
Changing Tides and other agencies, such as Humboldt County Public Health and First Five Humboldt, are helping provide technical assistance and training to child care providers to help them navigate the transition, along with other issues.
The resource and referral agency also has free supplies, such as disinfecting wipes and thermometers, for child care providers and can help providers get subsidies for reopening early, “even if parents don’t bring the kids back right away,” Venegas said.
That ensures daycares and preschools will be open when parents do start bringing kids back to providers, but Venegas said they still “won’t be able to serve the same number of kids they did prior to COVID-19 even if all of them reopen.”
Even in those cases, Changing Tides helps parents and guardians figure out other options, such as identifying a family member or neighbor who can care for the child, she said.
That isn’t a problem right now because some parents will continue to work from home during Stage 2, she said.
“As we get to Stage 3 and beyond, that’s when more people will start returning to work,” Venegas said. “One big question we have in the community is what does our future look like in terms of workplace. Are agencies, organizations and businesses going to allow employees to work from home even when things are lifted?”
Essential workers, such as health care workers and grocery store employees, are currently being prioritized to receive child care, Humboldt County Health Officer Teresa Frankovich said at a news conference last week.
The county has been speaking with groups that provide outdoor child care during the summer to determine what that could look like, she said.
With so many variables still up in the air, Changing Tides and other agencies and organizations have been working together to figure out how to map out the future of childcare, Venegas said.
In the meantime, Venegas said now is a good time for anyone interested in getting into the child care field to contact Changing Tides to find out how to do it.
For more information on child care, call Changing Tides at 707-444-8293, visit its website at changingtidesfs.org or the agency’s Facebook page.