POLL: Voters Overwhelmingly See Child Care Relief as Indispensable to America’s Economic Recovery

The results of a new bipartisan poll commissioned by the First Five Years Fund (FFYF) and Center for American Progress (CAP) show overwhelming demand among voters across the country for Congress to prioritize emergency relief funding for child care providers in the upcoming COVID-19 recovery package. The new survey data also shows this demand cuts across party lines and among key constituencies, including those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 (74%), voters 65 and older (83%), suburban women (86%), and Black (97%) and Latinx (93%) voters.

The compelling results of this new poll, conducted by a bipartisan team from Hart Research Associates and New Bridge Strategy, showcase the unmistakable understanding among voters of every political persuasion that child care is central to America’s economic recovery, and that the industry must receive emergency funding in the upcoming Congressional package.

Key findings from the poll include:

More than 8 in 10 voters favor a federal child care stabilization fund in the upcoming COVID-19 recovery package, with overwhelming support across partisan lines, generations, and genders.
Even attaching a price tag as high as $50 billion for the child care stabilization fund has virtually no bearing on voter support.
Nearly 9 in 10 voters want child care providers at the front of the line for Congressional relief, prioritizing the industry above hotels, cruise lines, and real estate developers, and virtually tied with K-12 public schools.
Roughly 2 out of 3 voters say it is essential or very important for Congress to include support for child care in the next financial relief legislation.

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The results of this survey highlight the broad, bipartisan support among voters for federal relief for child care providers to ensure they can remain open and able to serve their communities so American families can go back to work. As the backbone of our economy, our recovery will be incomplete if we allow this industry to collapse.

Meanwhile, new data from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) indicates that approximately 40% of the nation’s child care providers say they will close permanently without financial assistance. Of those child care facilities that are currently open, 86% are serving fewer children now than they were prior to the pandemic. On average, enrollment is down by a whopping 67%.

Most child care providers typically operate with less than a 1 percent profit margin, and income is predominantly tied directly to the number of children enrolled. In fact, most child care centers only earn a profit if they are operating at close to 90% of enrollment.

At the same time, enrollment is guaranteed to remain low for the foreseeable future, while states’ reopening plans have been stalled or reversed and many parents grapple with the difficult choice between re-enrolling children in care or staying home to eliminate risk of contracting the coronavirus.

What’s more, in addition to mounting fixed costs like rent and payroll, paired with declining income, providers prioritizing efforts to ensure their staff and the children they support are safe and healthy which results in higher operational expenses due to cleaning and sanitation, personal protective equipment, training or retraining of teachers, recruiting new teachers as many have left the profession as a result of the pandemic, and many other new or increased costs associated with running a business in a post-COVID-19 world. On average, operating expenses are about 30% to 35% higher than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Without federal support, those costs will fall on parents who already struggled to afford high-quality care?

Simply put, many child care providers will be operating in the red for months to come. Others won’t be able to afford to remain open and widespread closures will have a disastrous impact on the economy. Congress must include a child care stabilization fund in this recovery package to keep the industry afloat. Without it, 4.5 million child care slots – half of the nation’s child care supply – will vanish.

Click here to see the full results of the poll and here for an analysis memo.

New Data Shows Less than 6% of Child Care Market Received PPP Funds

A new analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) found that less than than 6% of the overall child care market, comprised of 670,000 businesses that employ 1.5 million workers, received a PPP loan.

The child care industry received similar PPP amounts as sectors such as public administration, management, and utilities companies. However, the size of the child care industry is disproportionately large compared to these sectors, suggesting inequitable access to PPP funds for child care programs. Meanwhile, PPP reportedly still has roughly $130 billion in its coffers, which suggests that inadequate funding has little to do with child care providers’ inability to access loans.

While data on the number of child care programs that applied for the PPP is unavailable, it’s clear that only a small fraction of the potential applicants received funding— which is concerning for an industry that is so vital to our economic recovery. The vast majority of loans to child care providers were under $150,000, with only 11% of loans above this threshold.

Overall, the program helped to retain 31% of the child care workforce. Across the U.S., the SBA estimates that between 72% to 96% of small business payroll was covered by the loan program.

Click here learn more and view a state-by-state breakdown of PPP funding that went to the child care industry.

New Survey of Child Care Providers Paints Grim Picture Amid COVID-19 Crisis

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The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has released the findings of a new survey of over 5,000 child care providers across the country. The COVID-19 crisis has all but decimated the nation’s child care industry. And as this survey reveals, most providers say they won’t be able to stay in business without financial relief.

From NAEYC’s analysis:

Our nation’s children, families, early childhood educators, and businesses long have been denied the level of public investment necessary to ensure a thriving, high-quality child care system. Now, the lack of sufficient public investment in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced families, educators, and child care programs into a series of impossible choices between health, safety, quality, and financial solvency.

In telling their stories, child care providers have made it clear that they are doing everything they can to hold their programs together: scrimping, spending down savings, and sacrificing their own income. But the financial cliff is looming, and if help doesn’t come—and soon—in order to save child care, there will be little left of child care to save. The US economy will suffer the consequences as families returning to work can’t find quality, reliable care for their children.

Key findings from the survey results:

Approximately two out of five respondents—and half of those who are minority-owned businesses—are certain that they will close permanently without additional public assistance.
Nationally, 18% of child care centers and 9% of family child care homes remain closed.
Of those who are open, 86% of respondents are serving fewer children now than they were prior to the pandemic. On average, enrollment is down by 67%.
At the same time, upwards of 70% of child care centers are incurring substantial, additional costs for staff (72%), cleaning supplies (92%), and personal protective equipment (81%).
One in four early childhood educators reported that they have applied for or received unemployment benefits, while a full 73% of programs indicated that they have or will engage in layoffs, furloughs, and/or pay cuts. For minority-owned businesses, the situation is worse; only 12% have not resorted to these measures in order to survive.

Click here to read the full report from NAEYC.

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Sens. Ernst, Alexander Unveil Bill to Support Child Care Providers, Working Families Amid COVID-19 Crisis

This week, Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), unveiled the Back to Work Child Care Grants Act of 2020, which would provide dedicated economic assistance to stabilize the child care industry and resources to child care providers amid the COVID-19 crisis. For many providers, the pandemic has spurred widespread closures and sharp drops in enrollment across the country, pushing the industry to the brink of collapse, and the cost to reopen while meeting critical health and safety needs is prohibitive for many small child care businesses. Underscoring the central role child care will play in our nation’s economic recovery, the legislation announced today would provide targeted relief to stabilize the industry through the coming months of uncertainty, continued declining enrollment, and critical but health and safety measures.

“Without question, the survival of the child care industry will be central to the success of America’s overall economic recovery from this crisis,” said First Five Years Fund (FFYF) Executive Director Sarah Rittling. “The pandemic has exacerbated an already difficult situation for families and providers, and surfaced the truly essential role that child care plays in this country. Dedicated efforts by Congress are necessary to ensuring child care providers of all sizes are not forced to close their doors, but instead have the means necessary to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for their staff and the children in their care. We are grateful to Senator Ernst and Chairman Alexander for their leadership in unveiling this legislation and in recognizing the needs of families and providers. We are hopeful that Congressional leaders will include a child care stabilization fund in the upcoming COVID-19 relief package, as any meaningful efforts to aid America’s economic recovery will be immediately undermined if the child care industry is allowed to collapse.”

To address the dire needs of child care providers who are struggling to keep their doors open to serve their communities, the Back to Work Child Care Grants Act:

Provides nine months of financial assistance for child care providers working to reopen and serve their communities;
Enables states to create a state-specific plan to support the child care industry in their state;
Provides resources and funding to states working to support child care providers who are reopening and trying to stay open;
Requires providers receiving assistance to follow all health and safety guidelines, ensuring a safe environment for children returning to care.

A survey conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children(NAEYC) found approximately 40 percent of child care providers are certain they will close without additional assistance. The survey also found that 70 percent of providers are incurring substantial, additional costs for staff, cleaning supplies, and personal protective equipment, and 86 percent say they are serving fewer children than prior to the pandemic. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, 60 percent of child care providers have closed their doors, and as many as one-third of the child care workforce lost their jobs at the height of the pandemic.

Senator Joni Ernst has led previous efforts in the Senate to ensure child care receives the necessary relief to survive the pandemic. With Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Sen. Ernst introduced a resolution in support of $25 billion in emergency relief funding for child care to support the industry in a future economic stimulus package, and she co-led a bipartisan letter with Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and nearly two-dozen Senators calling for much-needed relief for the child care industry.

Meanwhile, House Appropriations and Ways and Means Committee Democrats introduced the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act, which provides funding and tax subsidies to states in order to increase access to safe, affordable child care, and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have introduced the Child Care Is Essential Act, which would provide $50 billion in funding for a child care stabilization fund. The Child Care is Essential Act was sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA).

Writing to lawmakers in June, national child and child care advocacy organizations in the Child Care Relief campaign called on Congress to create a child care stabilization fund, requesting substantial, additional relief for the thousands of child care providers and families across the country who are struggling during this pandemic. FFYF is hopeful that the recent bipartisan action in Congress to address this issue will result in substantive relief for this critical industry.

JULY 14: Join us for a Bipartisan Congressional Briefing on the Child Care Crisis

As the COVID-19 health and economic crisis continues to devastate communities across the country, few industries are at such great risk of collapsing as child care. Experts predict the pandemic will result in a permanent loss of nearly 4.5 million child care slots – roughly half of the nation’s child care supply – unless Congress acts soon to stabilize the industry. Dedicated relief through a child care stabilization fund will enable states to provide grants to struggling child care providers to help shore up the market and ensure parents have access to the care that will allow them to return to work.

Join us for a bipartisan web briefing on the nation’s child care crisis and hear from parents, providers, and those in the business community about why the child care industry is on the verge of collapse, why additional federal relief is needed to ensure the survival of the industry, and the critical role the child care industry plays in our nation’s economic recovery.

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New Analysis: Parents of Color Struggle Most During COVID-19 Crisis to Access, Afford Child Care

This week, the Center for American Progress released sobering new analysis of the child care industry that found decades of occupational and residential segregation have left communities of color at a disadvantage in the changing work environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic. With less access to telework and flexibility that have afforded millions of parents to care for their young children during this health crisis, workers of color, many of whom are on the frontline of this pandemic, have been forced to make difficult decisions about returning to work or providing care for their children. Without a child care stabilization fund to prevent the entire industry from collapsing, the sharp decline in available child care further undermines the ability for families to recover financially from the pandemic, which has had a particularly devastating impact on communities of color.

The negative effects of a lack of child care in communities of color are not new. Before the pandemic, parents of color were more likely than their non-Hispanic white counterparts to experience child care-related job disruptions that affect their families’ finances. Child care has long been in short supply and prohibitively expensive for Black, Latinx, and indigenous families, with millions of families living in child care deserts.

Inadequate supply paired with high costs left parents with few options: spend outside their budgets; find cheaper, sometimes lower-quality care; or reduce their labor force participation. Previous CAP research found that in the years leading up to the pandemic, more than 2 million parents each year resorted to the latter option. Now, new analysis of data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) reveals that before the pandemic, Black and multiracial parents experienced child care-related job disruptions—such as quitting a job, not taking a job, or greatly changing their job—due to problems with child care at nearly twice the rate of white parents.

In the aftermath of the pandemic we will likely see even greater disparities in the availability and affordability of child care between communities of color and predominantly white communities, according to the analysis. While parents struggle to afford care, providers are seeing their funds dry up. Before the pandemic, child care businesses offering high-quality care operated on razor-thin margins, barely able to cover operating expenses and save for an emergency like this pandemic. Nearly half of the nation’s child care supply is expected to disappear as a result of mass closures due to COVID-19, and recent data shows more than 336,000 child care providers — many of whom are immigrants, African American, or Hispanic — have lost their jobs between March and April alone.

We cannot allow the child care industry to collapse during this pandemic. Without child care, our economic recovery will be slow, and it may never completely recover. Not only does Congress need to immediately address this growing crisis by establishing a stabilization fund that prevents any further closures and supports providers who are struggling to remain open, we must look to the future and build a child care system that actually works for families.

Read more of this analysis from the Center for American Progress here.

Business Leaders Highlight Home-Based Child Care’s Role In Supporting The Workforce

High-quality child care comes in many forms—but one of the most popular is home-based care. ReadyNation shed light on the important role home-based care plays in the child care sector and the overall economy in its new report, “Home-Based Child Care: A Surprising Key to Keeping the American Workforce Strong.”

The report found that 65% of children aged birth through five are in home-based child care. This type of care is especially important for children from families with low incomes and those living in rural areas. Aside from supporting the American workforce, home-based child care is a powerful economic driver on its own—generating $9 billion in revenue nationwide, as well as spillover economic activity in other sectors. However, home-based care faces many challenges, and the number of family child care providers has declined by 20% in recent years.

Business leaders recognize the importance of home-based child care to the economy and to their workforces. That’s why prominent members of ReadyNation, a group of over 2,600 business executives, joined an event on June 24 to discuss the release of the report.

Jessica Sager, Co-Founder and CEO of All Our Kin was joined by Maxine Clark, CEO of the Clark-Fox Family Foundation and Founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Bob Rivers, Chair and CEO of Eastern Bank, and Hugh Welsh, President and General Counsel of DSM North America for a timely discussion of the report.

Jessica Sager opened the discussion explaining the current landscape for home-based care. “In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our reliance on the small group size and trusting relationships that are the hallmark of family child care has never been more clear. At the same time, family child care businesses have never been more at risk,” Sager said.

All of the business leaders agreed that child care is a top issue for their workers, and emphasized that business leaders and policymakers should work toward solutions to strengthen the industry.

Hugh Welsh said that child care is closely tied to gender equality efforts at his company. “We’re trying to find ways to promote gender equality,” Welsh said. “When we look at the challenges to that, one is that women are still the primary caregiver—it’s always been an obstacle to finding ways to provide opportunities for everyone to achieve their full potential.”

“Child care is a big issue. In a family oriented business, we try to provide for our associates to bring their children to work, but most of the time they would be frustrated with what was available in their communities,” Maxine Clark said. “We need to be aware of this and ask the questions of our employees to make sure they know what’s available near their homes.”

The executives also discussed the need for targeted support for the child care and home-based child care sectors because of their vital role in enabling employees to return to work.

Bob Rivers noted that all child care, including home-based care, should be considered critical infrastructure and treated as such. “The lack of available care is the deciding factor on returning to work,” Rivers said. “The child care system is far too fragile, far too underfunded, here in Massachusetts and across the country.”

You can watch highlights from the event here or watch the full discussion here.

Florida families are feeling the effects of COVID-19 on child care

Working parents across the country are scrambling to figure out how they will keep working and return to work as the child care industry struggles to stay afloat amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also true in Florida, where the Children’s Movement of Florida recently released results of their statewide parent survey on childcare in COVID-19.

With a vast majority of Florida parents relying on child care and preschool centers, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a strain on working families with 59% of parents saying that their child care programs were closed in May. Many of these child care slots at risk of disappearing permanently, according to recent surveys of child care providers in the state.

Some parents explained that they are unable to return to work since they do not have access to child care, and one mother said she “relied on daycare to survive.” Not only does a lack of child care impact a parent’s ability to return to work, it also affects early childhood development. Nearly one in three parents said that without child care or preschool, they are concerned that their children are missing out on critical learning opportunities in their early years.

A lack of accessible, affordable child care options impacts low-income Florida families in particular. Compared to families making $50,000 per year or more, families making less than $50,000 a year are more likely to have issues finding appropriate child care and therefore are less likely to send their children back to child care due to high costs or lob losses.

Roughly one in three families were concerned about sending their children back to their previous child care arrangements because of health and safety concerns. However, 43% of parents said that they are more comfortable sending their children back to child care if they know programs are following CDC measures.

To learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on Florida’s child care system, click here to view Florida’s state fact sheet.

Child Care is the Key to Economic Recovery

America needs child care relief to keep the industry afloat during the nation’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The disastrous economic crisis has hit the child care industry especially hard, causing widespread layoffs and closures as a result of catastrophic drops in enrollment.

The devastating impact of these financial realities cannot be sustained without direct federal investments through a child care stabilization fund that ensures providers can keep their doors open to meet the needs of children and families.The situation varies from state to state, and even from community to community. Here’s a look at recent news coverage and analysis of the nation’s child care crisis.

THE LATEST: COVID-19’s worsening devastation of the child care industry is having a major impact on the recovery — just as the economy begins to reopen, keeping parents (particularly women) from being able to return to work. According to recent reporting from Politico on the rapidly growing unemployment rate in America, women have been more likely to have been laid off, left the labor market, or consider quitting their jobs to manage essential family responsibilities like caring for children.

WHY CHILD CARE NEEDS RELIEF: More from Politico: “Continued shutdowns and the need to implement costly safety and social distancing measures are threatening to run so many child care providers out of business that the country could permanently lose an estimated half of its capacity… Left unaddressed, the issue will affect tens of millions of Americans. More than 325,000 child care workers have already lost their jobs since February. And more than 33 million American families have children under the age of 18.”

SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN CONGRESS: Two House Subcommittees held bipartisan hearings this week on America’s child care challenges. “Child care is exactly the type of smart investment we should be prioritizing as we safely reopen and rebuild America’s economy,” said Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN). “There can be no return to normal for our families if children cannot return to child care,” added Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

THE STATES: A recent study shows nearly one-quarter of Iowans live in a child care desert, according to WGEM, and the coronavirus has presented providers who have remained open with new challenges. In order to survive the next five months, the Massachusetts child care system needs an estimated $690 million to cover lost tuition due to mandatory closures and pay for the increased cost of new health regulations, according to two recent reports. Texas school districts are reporting that Pre-K enrollment has fallen drastically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns that young children will not receive the social, emotional, and cognitive education that lays the groundwork for success in school, college, and the workforce.

STORIES TO READ: Georgia Goldburn, executive director of Hope for New Haven writes about her struggle to continue serving her community as the loans she received from the Paycheck Protection Program and state emergency funds run out. Even in Connecticut, where state leaders took steps to stabilize the child care industry and provide frontline workers access to child care, providers are beginning to close, leaving few options for parents returning to work. Read more here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: ‘What it’s like living in child care deserts’: More than half of U.S. communities don’t have licensed child care options – and that was before the pandemic. Watch this recent moment on MSNBC that highlights the challenges millions of families are facing across the nation and how coronavirus has made it worse.

WHAT WE ARE READING: “It feels like child care is being regarded as a footnote of reopening plans rather than a headline.”: This week, Axios profiled the growing challenge facing communities across the country. With coronavirus cases spiking and no end in sight, schools and day care centers may not fully reopen in the fall, triggering a massive child care crisis for millions of American workers.