Federal aid saved child care providers. help is closing now
Enrollment at Good Shepherd Christian Academy, a child care center in Fort Worth, Texas, fell from about 84 children to just 10 as the pandemic hit.
It’s one thing after another, said Ontara Nickerson, the center’s director. Less number of kids means shorter workdays: many of the center Hourly workers could not work with less pay and left Looking for a better salary.
Yet Nickerson and his team have managed to put an end to it, thanks largely to federal relief dollars that began flowing into child care centers last year. Good Shepherd Christian Academy was one of more than 200,000 providers nationwide that were assisted through the American Rescue Plan information Money shared by the White House exclusively with USA TODAY Helped save the vast majority of recipients from closure despite being relentless Economic and public health pressures.
“The stabilization grant came right at a time when our program was uncertain about how long we would be able to keep our doors open,” Nickerson said. It “allowed us to face the worst of the pandemic.”
ARP signed into law last March by President Joe Biden included $24 billion a child care stabilization program, It provided state-distributed emergency relief to child care providers, which could then be used to cover basic costs such as wages, rent and materials to keep the centers running. Never before has a federal economic rescue package made child care reform – seen as the key to getting parents back to work – the central tenet of its recovery plan.
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The money eventually reached 9.5 million children and 1 million child care workers. The data shows that more than half of the providers of aid they receive are owned and operated by people of color, and more than half are located in the country’s most racially diverse communities.
But that cash was a temporary fix. The Biden Administration’s Efforts to Continue to Support Such failand the Extended Child Tax Credit — which provides monthly payments that one in four families use to pay for care — expired, The federal child care grant program is already in place to cover the pandemic only. one of seven eligible children,
“As I look to the horizon, I am worried and worried that once these funds are depleted, how will I maintain financial stability?” Nickerson said. The cost of basic goods continues to rise, making it even more difficult to retain and recruit qualified staff, even when enrollment is back to 65 students and there is a waiting list for infant classes,
“I fear that without recourse to financial (support), the child care industry will have to wrestle with trying to pursue a paycheck rather than pursuing its passion for working with children and supportive families”, she said. .
So what does the child care landscape look like now? Many child care providers still struggle to stay open and retain staff, and many parents still struggle to find care.
More:Finding day care was already a ‘confused and frustrating maze’. The coronavirus made it worse.
How many child care centers have closed?
The White House estimates that the stabilization fund helped eight out of every 10 licensed centers, covering every state and territory and, in most states, nearly all counties with persistent poverty.
A study by the Left-Leaning Century Foundation published in March found that by then federal aid had already helped nearly 75,000 providers. avoid permanent shutdownSalvaging over 3 million child care spots.
Some states have even reported Increase in the number of licensed child care slots than just before the pandemic. 47,819 moved to Maine from caring for young children For example, 48,940 slots in June 2022 in February 2020.
but The number of child care providers was declining even before the pandemic – and some 16,000 According to Child Care Aware of America, a research and advocacy organization, it closed permanently between December 2019 and March 2021.
There are likely to be thousands more on the verge of going down As federal aid evaporates.
“Those dollars were really important, and their absence will be felt,” said Mia Pritz, vice president of strategic partnerships. WonderschoolA company that works to increase child care access by helping to connect providers with parents.
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How much does child care cost nowadays?
The federal government spends billions on Early Head Start and Head Start, early childhood education and development programs that are free to eligible low-income families.
For other families, early childhood education is rarely free.
According to Child Care Aware, until last year, the rise in child care costs continued to outpace inflation. The average cost of child care in 2021 was roughly $10,600 nationally,
This means that parents are spending a major part of their income on care. In fact, in 34 states, the annual cost of placing an infant in center care is more expensive than in-state tuition at a public university. For families with two children, in most states, the cost of care exceeds the annual housing payment.
After factoring in public child care subsidies, Charles Gascon, a senior economist at the St. Louis Fed, found that child care in two-income families took up about 10% of a parent’s income. In single-income families, care is of great importance 32% of take-home pay, Gascon analyzed the real cost of child care in each state, finding it the least affordable in Vermont and Maine, with Utah and Georgia at the other end of the spectrum.
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Why is it so difficult to take good care of children?
“Addressing the child care crisis is not another task,” said Prits of Wonderschool, which is working with 43 states in various capacities. “This is a very complex, long-standing problem.”
Child care industry pays very little: Average worker Earns less than $26,000 annuallyAccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. federal data show there are 100,000 fewer child care workers compared to pre-pandemic in the US.
including states Michigan Used the money to provide bonuses to thousands of child care professionals. But the ARP did not give a permanent solution to the salary issue. As a result, the industry is competing with all kinds of other employers.
Parents need child careBut day care workers are struggling to keep up
Many child care workers are being lured into jobs that may not be as gratifying but offer benefits, unlike many early education centres.
According to Pritz, another reason for the mismatch between supply and demand: limited, inconsistent data, paired with providers who have little resources to market themselves effectively.
Sumaiya Jahan has been running daycare out of her homes for over a decade, including the last nine or so in the North Virginia townhouse she shares with her husband and two children. Jahan provides the food and employs two helpers, charging the families on a sliding scale based on their income. Some of her students receive child care subsidies.
Jahan loves children; She loves that running a home-based daycare allows for a mix of different ages, with kids learning from toddlers and vice versa.
But rarely has it been easy, and sometimes she wonders how long she can live. While Jahan received and used ARP funds to help make up for lost income due to shrunken enrollment and is now at full capacity, new leads rarely come through and costs keep rising.
Jahan recently tied up with Wonderschool, and already the platform has streamlined her paperwork and helped her with marketing. Now, she can spend more time on the educational parts of her job: She’s adopted a new curriculum with a focus on subjects ranging from science to the arts, which she’s now using with her students aged 1 to 4. has been
Yet she lives paycheck to paycheck. “Who isn’t now?” he said.
The number of licensed home-based child care centers such as Jahans, which are more affordable than other forms of care, has steadily decreased in recent years. Child Care Awareness of America in 40 states for which data is available 10% decline was found in such houses between 2019 and 2021.
What is being done to fix the child care system?
Gene Sperling, a senior adviser to Biden who helped coordinate the legislation, told USA TODAY, “ARP was unique in the extent to which it recognized the need to stabilize the child care industry, and to fix child care capacity. preserved as important for
That’s exactly what the ARP Child Care Stabilization Fund’s goal was, Sperling said — to stabilize the industry. To bring parents back into the labor market.
Some states are trying to lift it, from where the relief money is left.
new Mexico is working on wage increases for child care professionals, with a recent grant allowing a $3 per hour increase across the board. Provision will also be made on this year’s ballot Making Universal Prekindergarten a Constitutional Right in the state. NevadaMeanwhile, the child care subsidies expanded earlier this year.
Labor Participation in Connecticut It has grown partly thanks to its investments in child care, which include wage supplementation for providers and the addition of more than 1,000 infant and infant seats. “I want young families to know that we are the most family-friendly state in the country,” Gov. Ned Lamont told USA Today.
Yet, even there, workers say they need more.
Patty Murray, a former preschool teacher who led various legislative efforts to expand access to early education, said, “The fight I fought for investing in child care wasn’t just a big deal — it changed the child care industry. saved from collapse.” “It shows what’s possible when we make historic federal investments in child care: greater stability for child care programs, more child care slots available, more parents back to work, and an economy that Works well for everyone.
“But we can’t stop here.”
Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or [email protected] Follow him on Twitter at @aliaemily.
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