House Majority Whip Donna Oberlander and Clarion County District Attorney Drew Welsh Tour Keystone Smiles Child Learning Center
Child Care Providers Struggle to Remain Open as Clarion County Workforce Returns to Work
KNOX, PA: (October 6, 2020) – Start Strong PA and Pre-K for PA Campaign partner the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children hosted a virtual classroom tour at Keystone Smiles Child Learning Center in Knox, PA today describing the challenges COVID-19 has caused the child care industry. House Majority Whip Donna Oberlander and Clarion County District Attorney, Drew Welsh both participated in the tour and discussion.
“Keystone Smiles has been in operation since 1994. Four years ago, we reached a STAR 4, the highest level of quality, and now our community is at risk of losing those services. We are in an alarming situation because we are operating at 50% enrollment and uncertain how long we will be able to sustain, based on our current revenue stream,” said Joyce Fosdick, Executive Director, Keystone Smiles Community Learning Center.
“In order to meet CDC guidelines, we are not only operating with less revenue, but we have increased expenses. New protocols such as increased cleaning and social distancing have exponentially increased our costs. There is no doubt that we need more funding to help us get through this,” said Monica Weeter, Keystone Smiles Child Care Director.
Fosdick and Weeter offered a glimpse into the early learning center describing both visually and verbally how providers support our children, families, businesses, and are a critical component to our economic recovery. The child care industry in Clarion County and across Pennsylvania immediately needs substantially more funding so that as the state reopens, they can stay open and our workforce can return to work.
In a study on COVID-19’s impact on Pennsylvania’s child care sector, Penn State’s Director of Institute of State and Regional Affairs reports an estimated $325 million in new costs and lost revenues for PA providers since the economic shutdown.
“The crisis is real,” said Kimberly Early, Public Policy and Advocacy Director, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, who hosted the tour. “And this crisis not only impacts the child care industry but the families that need child care to return to work and the businesses that need the workforce in order to reopen fully. Without child care, there is no economic recovery.”
In the wake of COVID-related closures, the Pre-K for PA and Start Strong PA campaigns — representing tens of thousands of Pennsylvania families — have illustrated the urgent need for relief, as Pennsylvania’s child care providers have incurred devastating losses over the past 6+ months. Stabilizing the Commonwealth’s child care and early learning system is a necessary strategy supporting our overall economic recovery.
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House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody Tours
Riverview Children’s Center
Child Care Providers Struggle to Remain Open as the Workforce in Southwest PA Returns to Work
VERONA, PA: (October 6, 2020) – Start Strong PA and Pre-K for PA Campaign partner Trying Together hosted a virtual classroom tour at Riverview Children’s Center in Verona, PA today describing the challenges COVID-19 has caused the child care industry. House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody participated in the tour and discussion.
“Our future situation is very tenuous. The center’s enrollment prior to the pandemic was 150 children. After closing in March, we reopened June 15th with only 50 children and have now enrolled around 100. In addition to loss in revenue and increased expenses, we are experiencing significant staffing challenges,” said Betty Lisowski, Executive Director, Riverview Children’s Center. “Being open during COVID and following strict CDC guidance to keep all as safe as possible is expensive, exhausting, and uncertain. We have been flexible to the point of breaking.”
Lisowski offered a glimpse into the early learning center describing both visually and verbally how providers support our children, families, businesses, and are a critical component to our economic recovery. The child care industry in southwest PA and across Pennsylvania immediately needs substantially more funding so that as the state reopens, they can stay open and our workforce can return to work.
In a study on COVID-19’s impact on Pennsylvania’s child care sector, Penn State’s Director of Institute of State and Regional Affairs reports an estimated $325 million in new costs and lost revenues for PA providers since the economic shutdown.
“Without child care, economic recovery is impossible” said Cara Ciminillo, Executive Director, Trying Together, who hosted the tour. “Prior to the pandemic, 70% of PA children under the age of six had all adults in their household in the workforce. Those adults need child care to return to work.”
In the wake of COVID-related closures, the Pre-K for PA and Start Strong PA campaigns — representing tens of thousands of Pennsylvania families — have illustrated the urgent need for relief, as Pennsylvania’s child care providers have incurred devastating losses over the past 6+ months. Stabilizing the Commonwealth’s child care and early learning system is a necessary strategy supporting our overall economic recovery.
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Hershey school proposes a PA network of six free early learning childhood centers with $350 million
By Bob Fernandez October 1, 2020
The Milton S. Hershey School for poor children, which has faced criticism over how few students it helps despite its riches, has proposed to spend $350 million on six centers throughout Pennsylvania to offer free infant and early childhood services to 900 kids.
The Early Childhood Resource Centers — if approved by a Dauphin County court — would be the first time the privately funded charitable school, with assets around $15 billion and 2,100 students, has offered to help impoverished children outside of its residential campus in rural Hershey.
The Hershey School controls the highly profitable Hershey Co. candy giant, which finances it with a torrent of stock dividends.
The plan requires the approval of Dauphin County Orphans’ Court to determine whether the project should be financed and is consistent with the Hershey School’s mission, which is guided by Milton and Catherine Hershey’s 1909 deed creating an orphanage and trade school.
In court papers on Wednesday, the charity’s attorneys said “circumstances demonstrate the impracticability” of using all of its cash for the residential campus, which has more than 170 group homes as well as schools for grades K-12.
“This is a major step forward,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Wednesday. “It demonstrates a new approach and a new direction for Hershey.”
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“Nine-hundred kids a year is a lot of kids for one entity to step forward and fund,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, a child advocacy group. But given the scale of the unmet needs in Pennsylvania, she said, “my real question is: Can they do more?”
Experts say early childhood programs are the most effective at building children’s social skills, improving educational outcomes, and breaking the cycle of poverty. In Pennsylvania, limited state funding means that most kids who need early childhood education don’t get it. In 2019, 64% of 4-year-old children in the state were not enrolled in publicly funded pre-K or Head Start programs, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.
“I just have to believe that given the enormity of the Hershey corporate entity, there’s the opportunity to do much more, and there’s certainly much more need,” Cooper said.
Read the full article here.
Pocono Record: LTE: Pennsylvania Needs to Invest in Pre-K Programs
June 5, 2020
As Executive Director of Pocono Services for Families and Children, I want to add my support to the Pre-K for PA and Start Strong PA campaigns to ensure high-quality preschool education and care for all Monroe County children. In our community alone, there are nearly 3,000 children ages 3-4 that are income eligible for Pre-K classrooms, but only 584 children are served. We need a much stronger commitment to ensure every child has the opportunity to be ready for success entering kindergarten and throughout their educational journey!
The State Department of Economic Development has long recognized the direct link between high quality childcare and education and the economic advantages that come to communities who invest in developing greater access to these opportunities. These are also the communities, who are recognized by businesses, as ones with potentially more qualified, committed employees and an overall higher quality of life. This is why we need to advocate for the State to increase its investment in this high-yield return for our community.
Providing the opportunity for success to our youngest citizens will ensure a strong future.
Tim Lee, Executive Director, Pocono Services for Families and Children
Read the full Letter to the Editor here.
Lehigh Valley Live: LTE: Child care providers getting some financial help in PA
June 3, 2020
The stimulus bill passed on May 28 by the Pennsylvania Legislature showed that our elected officials can work together. I am so thankful that the bill includes $116 million for child care and also money for pre-k and Head Start.
My high quality, STAR 4 child care program has been closed since March 17. During that time I have been trying to prepare my facility, find and purchase necessary personal protective equipment, pay my bills and support my staff — but the money is running out.
These funds will be critical in ensuring that when my families go back to work I will be able to care for and educate their kids. Without these funds, I am not sure I would be able to reopen and that would mean more than 100 families would not have the security and support they need to go back to work.
If we can’t support our families, how will our economy ever recover? Child care matters to everyone — children, families, staff, businesses small and large, and the economy! The importance of child care is now essential, more than ever before.
Michele McEllroy
Owner-director, Cuddle Zone Learning Center
Allentown
See the Letter to the Editor here.
