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.

New Interactive Tool Shows How COVID-19 Has Exacerbated Child Care Deserts

The Center for American Progress (CAP) Early Childhood Policy team released an update to their expansive child care deserts interactive tool, designed to showcase and assess with greater clarity the communities where there may be the greatest immediate need for child care investment when considering stabilizing and re-opening the wider economy.

An accompanying issue brief summarizing trends and findings demonstrates that the child care crisis has important implications for income and educational inequality, racial equity, geographic equity, and predicts a potentially significant decline in the number of mothers in the labor force.

In the wake of the pandemic, child care closures will be concentrated in low-income and middle-income neighborhoods, according to the report. Additionally, based on conditions that previously existed, Black and Hispanic communities are likely to experience worsening child care deserts during the pandemic. The pandemic also exacerbated child care shortages in rural areas. Without a significant investment in child care, parental employment in rural areas could decline more than in metro areas. Read more from the Center for American Progress.

Chamber Leaders from Across the Country Call for Federal Child Care Relief

In a letter sent to Congress this week, 41 state and local Chambers of Commerce urged lawmakers to provide targeted assistance to child care providers in the next COVID-19 recovery package. Citing the importance of child care as a part of our national economy and the recent reports that thousands of child care providers have been forced to close their doors permanently, the business leaders raised concerns about the effects the closures would have on their communities and families.

The signers of the letter point the economic impact of child care on their state’s economy and the role it plays in plans to reopen their state. Allowing the child care industry to collapse will have long-term costs for businesses and families, and the coronavirus crisis has made the threat of collapse all the more realistic.

“For millions of Americans, returning to work is not just contingent on the lifting of stay-at-home orders and their employer reopening, but on securing care for their children,” the group wrote in the June 10 letter to Congress. “To ensure that more Americans can quickly return to work and to support our nation’s overall economic recovery, Congress should provide timely, targeted, and temporary emergency assistance to childcare centers and homes.”

The letter also references the Paycheck Protection Program loans in the CARES Act. These funds were intended to provide relief to small and very small businesses, but according to a recent survey from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) only one-quarter of child care providers received a loan through this program.

This letter, signed by business leaders in states and communities across the country, comes as national child advocacy organizations have increased pressure on lawmakers to provide significant, dedicated relief to struggling child care providers through a child care stabilization fund, a policy proposal that has received bipartisan support in recent weeks.

Read the full letter from the 41 state and local Chambers of Congress here.

The full list of signers includes:

Alaska Chamber
Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/AIA
California Chamber of Commerce
Connecticut Business & Industry Association
Delaware State Chamber of Commerce
DC Chamber of Commerce
Florida Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii
Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry
Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Indiana Chamber of Commerce
Iowa Association of Business and Industry
Kansas Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
Louisiana Association of Business and Industry
Maine State Chamber of Commerce
Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Associated Industries of Massachusetts
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce
Mississippi Economic Council
Missouri Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Montana Chamber of Commerce
Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce
New Jersey Chamber of Commerce
New Mexico Association of Commerce & Industry
The Business Council of New York State
North Carolina Chamber
Ohio Chamber of Commerce
State Chamber of Oklahoma
Oregon Business and Industry
Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry
Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce
South Carolina Chamber of Commerce
South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Vermont Chamber of Commerce
Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Association of Washington Business
West Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce

Congressional Leaders Introduce Bill to Establish Child Care Stabilization Fund

This week, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced the Child Care is Essential Act – a bill to create a Child Care Stabilization Fund to provide much-needed relief to the child care sector, which is on the brink of collapse as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. With a proposed $50 billion in funding, the Child Care Stabilization Fund would provide grant funding to child care providers to stabilize the child care sector and support providers to safely reopen and operate. Earlier this month, FFYF and many of our partners in the Child Care Relief Campaign wrote a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate, which included a recommendation to create just such a stabilization fund, with the understanding that meeting the unique and dire needs of the child care industry would require significant, dedicated assistance specifically for child care providers.

Senate cosponsors of the Child Care is Essential Act include: Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Tina Smith (D-MN). House cosponsors include: Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Katherine Clark (D-MA), Abby Finkenauer (D-IA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Deb Haaland (D-NM), Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), and Haley Stevens (D-MI).

Extended closures have forced thousands of child care providers across the country to close their doors during this crisis, often permanently. Now as states continue the process of opening up parts of the economy, these widespread closures – paired with important, but costly new health and safety measures – will further exacerbate the challenges providers face in covering operating expenses, and will almost certainly lead to catastrophic declines in America’s child care supply.

Thankfully, there is bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill around the need to prevent the child care industry from collapsing. Understanding the devastating impact of this pandemic on child care providers and the communities they serve, last week Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) introduced a resolution last week calling for an additional $25 billion in dedicated federal relief for the child care industry. Days earlier, the House passed the HEROES Act, which included $7 billion in dedicated funding for child care. What’s more, Senator Ernst and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) lead a bipartisan letter with nearly two dozen colleagues in calling for significant relief for the nation’s child care providers.

According to a survey of over 5,000 child care providers across the country conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), more than half of child care facilities across the country have been forced to close, and analysis by the Center for American Progress estimates that the closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic will result in 4.5 million child care spaces disappearing, making it difficult for parents returning to work to find child care in their communities.

NAEYC Survey: The Ongoing Effect of the Pandemic on Child Care

The following is from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The original resource is available on their website here.

An initial survey from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), conducted March 12–16, found that nearly half of child care programs anticipated that they would not survive a closure of more than two weeks without support. Now, one month later, following the passage of the CARES Act, significant state action, and a growing understanding of the scope and scale of the crisis, NAEYC is releasing new survey data that begins to explore the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the solutions that have been put forth so far.

From April 2–10, more than 5,000 providers responded to the survey, from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 54% of respondents work in center-based child care, and another 31% work in family child care homes; together, these survey respondents alone serve upwards of 215,000 children.

Nearly half of respondents report that their center is completely closed
17% are closed to everyone except children of essential personnel
Of the remaining programs, only 3% are operating without modified rule

There are geographical differences: where 51% of programs in cities and suburbs report that they are completely closed, 40% of programs in small towns or rural areas say the same.

There are also meaningful differences across settings: 50% of child care centers report they are completely closed, compared to 27% of family child care homes.

These data points, along with information from states on the implications of state-mandated closures, translate into more than 100,000 provider closures across the country, plus many more that are operating with significantly reduced enrollment.

Of programs that remained open in some way, 85% of respondents reported that they were operating at less than 50% of their enrollment capacity, and the majority of those—65%—were operating at less than 25% of capacity. Further, most programs, whether open or closed, are unable to recoup their normal revenue from families who pay for child care without assistance. 52% of child care centers and 43% of family child care homes are not currently charging parents; another 22% of both groups are offering reduced tuition rates. Regardless of what actions programs are taking, however, the majority of respondents have found that fewer than 25% of families are continuing to pay tuition. This translates into sustained and substantial losses for providers and places educators and families into an untenable situation. This updated data reinforces that the financial solution in the midst of a pandemic cannot be based on supply and demand, nor be dependent on having more children come back to child care before it is safe to do so.

Financial Fears

Even before the pandemic, child care programs were operating on razor-thin margins, and early childhood educators were earning such low wages that nearly half of them were eligible for public assistance.

Now, 37% of survey respondents reported that they either have had to lay off or furlough workers, or that they themselves have been laid off or furloughed.
As a percentage of the total early childhood education workforce of approximately 2 million paid individuals working with children birth through age 5, this represents 740,000 early childhood educators.
Further, they indicated things are likely to get worse: an additional 41% said they anticipate furloughs and/or lay offs in the next 1-4 weeks.

Financial fears loom large for individuals in all roles: 59% of individuals working in child care centers and 43% of those working in family child care homes cited paying staff or themselves as sole providers as the thing they are most worried about (another third of those in family child care homes cited the ability to make mortgage payments as their top concern). At the same time, their options to address these worries are limited. When asked how they or their staff are being financially supported, nearly a quarter said they are encouraging staff to file for unemployment benefits, while one in five of those surveyed reported no financial support at all (i.e., paid leave, salaries, health benefits, etc.)

Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is one of the programs offered by the federal government, through lenders, which will provide some of the financial support that is needed; of survey respondents, 53% of child care centers and 25% of family child care homes have applied for the PPP loan.

As the field awaits additional data about the extent to which these applications have been successful, child care programs have raised significant concerns about the program and process. The survey captured more than 4,000 comments, which reflect significant variation of 4,000 comments, which reflect significant variation of experiences. Many child care directors and owners of family child care programs are deeply concerned about the risks related to loans, wary about taking on debt, and skeptical about the potential for forgiveness.

The survey illustrates that 69% of respondents either do not want loans or are worried about having to pay loans back.

Additional qualitative data drawn from the survey and other mechanisms includes reports of challenges such as banks that are not accepting new clients or have closed their processes already. Of those who responded to a question about challenges they have encountered in the context of these loans, 23% identified logistical challenges related to paperwork and banks.

NAEYC looks forward to sharing additional results from the survey in English and Spanish as more providers respond in the coming weeks.