PA Stimulus Deal Saves Early Learning as Working Families Prepare to Get Back to Work
Advocates applaud legislature for substantial relief package for
child care / pre-k providers
HARRISBURG (May 28, 2020) — The economic stimulus bill that authorizes the spending of most of the
$3.9 billion in federal CARES Act funding includes $125 million in economic relief for the Commonwealth’s early learning sector, which will be critical in supporting Pennsylvania families returning to work.
The principal partners of the Pre-K for PA and Start Strong PA advocacy campaigns issued the following statement regarding the stimulus agreement:
“All Pennsylvania families will benefit from this agreement. Knowing that our economy depends on working families and working families depend on high-quality child care and early learning, the General Assembly and the Wolf Administration moved in a remarkably bi-partisan fashion toward a deal that will allow Pennsylvania to get back to work when the time is right.
“We applaud the prioritization of substantial federal resources in the stimulus authorization deal to help save the Commonwealth’s early learning sector for working families. This outcome, paired with level funding for early learning programs included in the stopgap state budget passed this week for at least the first five months of FY 2020-2021, will greatly aid in preserving child care and pre-k capacity in the coming months.
“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 2+ months. Stabilizing the Commonwealth’s child care and early learning system is a necessary strategy supporting our overall economic recovery.”
Pre-K for PA launched in 2014 with the vision that every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania will have access to high-quality pre-k. Learn more at www.prekforpa.org.
Start Strong PA launched in 2019 to support healthy child development, working families, and the economy by increasing access to and affordability of high-quality child care programs for young children. Learn more atwww.startstrongpa.org. ###
Passage of Stopgap Budget Demands Immediate, Robust Economic Stimulus to Preserve Capacity of Early Learning Sector
HARRISBURG (May 27, 2020)— The anticipated five-month stopgap state budget will preserve Pennsylvania’s current investment in publicly-funded, early learning programs. Under the proposed agreement, PA Pre-K Counts, Head Start State Supplemental, and state funding for child care and evidence-based home visiting services will remain level funded for at least the first five months of the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
The principal partners of the Pre-K for PA, Start Strong PA, and Childhood Begins At Home advocacy campaigns issued the following statement regarding the proposed budget agreement:
“A level funded, five-month stopgap budget will preserve Pennsylvania’s fiscal commitment to core early learning services in Pennsylvania. During these extraordinary and uncertain times, this agreement shows a bipartisan commitment to our youngest learners and working families of Pennsylvania. However, level funding assumes that pre-COVID-19 child care / pre-k provider capacity will exist in the 2020-2021 fiscal year so that service delivery remains constant. Given the current reality, this may not be a fair assumption. In order for that to happen, stimulus funds must be immediately made available.
“Pennsylvania’s child care providers have incurred devastating losses over the past 2+ months of state mandated closure. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, these impossible to predict financial losses paired with uncertain future demand threaten to collapse the early learning system. Immediate and robust economic stimulus is also needed to ensure our high-quality programs survive to serve children and families in the new fiscal year.
“Governor Wolf and the PA General Assembly must enact a robust plan that provides financial stability for Pennsylvania’s child care providers by reimbursing them for lost subsidized child care co-pays and a portion of private tuition payments. Additionally, child care providers must be protected during the emergency period by granting them immunity from tort liability associated with claims related to COVID-19, and funding must be provided to secure necessary cleaning and PPE supplies needed for reopening pre-k and child care programs. We also must ensure that this year’s Pre-K Counts and Head Start students are ready for kindergarten by offering a one-month summer instruction program if it is safe for students and teachers to do so.
“To accomplish this, policymakers must immediately release the remaining $55 million in federal CARES Act child care funds and allocate an additional $142 million in federal stimulus or Commonwealth funds. Such action would better ensure child care / pre-k provider capacity in the 2020-2021 fiscal year and ready the early learning system for parent’s rapid return to work.
“Families also need support now more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, and voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs improve maternal health, child well-being and family self-sufficiency. Staying connected to home visiting services can be a lifeline for families sheltering-at-home, and we must continue to help home visitors get the flexibility and resources they need to deliver home visiting services now and in coming months. Additionally, we are calling for $100 million in federal stimulus funds currently being considered in the U.S. Senate as part of the latest version of stimulus legislation.
“Pennsylvania’s economy depends on working families and working families depend on high-quality child care and early learning!”
Pre-K for PA was launched in 2014 with the vision that every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania will have access to high-quality pre-k. This statewide coalition’s leadership group includes: Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; First Up; Mission: Readiness; Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children; Pennsylvania Head Start Association; Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children; Public Citizens for Children and Youth; Trying Together; and the United Way of Pennsylvania.www.prekforpa.org
Start Strong PA launched in 2019 to support healthy child development, working families, and the economy by increasing access to and affordability of high-quality child care programs for young children. Learn more atwww.startstrongpa.org.
Childhood Begins At Home is a statewide campaign to help policymakers and the public understand the value of evidence-based home visiting and support public investments in the programs.
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Lancaster Online: LTE: Child care center suffering greatly
May 19, 2020
Our Star-4 child care facility closed on March 14. In that moment, I stopped serving our 149 families and their children. I had to lay off 20 employees. The majority of my families do not participate in child care subsidy to help pay for the cost of their care. Instead they pay out of pocket.
That means for the past eight weeks, I have had no income when it comes to private-pay tuition. Because of this, my child care program has taken a substantial hit. The loss of income has placed an enormous amount of stress on not only my family, but the families of my employees, whom I have not been able to pay.
In order to reopen, I have to hope my employees did not find other work and that I can somehow make up for all the business costs. We have encouraged our employees to file for unemployment but, due to the inadequate system to handle the number of unemployment claims struggling Pennsylvanians have filed, most of our staff have not received a penny through traditional unemployment or the special Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
Like every other small business, financial support is critical during this crisis. Gov. Tom Wolf, state Sen. Ryan Aument and state Rep. Mindy Fee should utilize federal stimulus funds to reimburse child care providers for a portion of private tuition payments that could not be collected from families during the shutdown. This financial support would go far in giving me the means to reopen.
Charlotte Brady
Director
Cocalico Care Center
WHYY: Child care centers in Pa.: bellwether for how tricky it will be to fully reopen economy
May 18, 2020 by Miles Bryan
In some ways, Rachel Johnson is grateful for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s mid-March business shutdown order: it took the agonizing decision over whether to close the child care center she runs with her husband out of their hands.
“It was sad and scary, but in a way, easy, because the choice was made for us,” said Johnson, 36, who runs Step by Step School for Early Learning in Centre County. “It was like, ‘Ok, we have to close.’ There was nothing to think about.”
Before the pandemic, Step by Step had three locations in the State College area, serving 300 children and employing 65 teachers. The business was able to get a waiver to remain open to serve the children of essential workers, but only 14 of them kept coming, forcing the Johnsons to lay off all but five teachers. The business got a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, but the couple has struggled to pay their most pressing bills without violating its terms.
They’ve mostly gotten by on savings instead.
On May 8, their fortunes shifted: Centre County was one of the first 24 counties that Gov. Wolf moved into the ‘yellow’ phase of reopening. In that phase more businesses are allowed to open, as well as all child care providers. Thirteen more counties entered this phase on Friday and 12 more will on May 22.
The Johnsons reopened their center May 11, but it wasn’t a simple call.
“Our job is to provide [parents] with care so they can go and do their job” said Robert Johnson, Rachel’s husband. “[But] the financial aspect of it, if you would sit there and crunch numbers, it would not be an easy decision.”
The problem is demand: only a few dozen of Step by Step’s kids have returned so far. Most of their parents are still working from home, the Johnsons said, and many are uneasy about sending their kids into any kind of group setting. Meanwhile, the couple is still paying rent, mortgages, and utilities on facilities that can hold many more students. They’ve also rehired twenty of their teachers, allowing for a much smaller a student-to-staff ratio than normal — a costly decision — so the center can maintain small groups and minimize cross-contamination.
All this, Rachel said, has put them in a somewhat uncomfortable position.
“You almost look like the bad guy by trying to convince [parents] to send their kids back,” she said. “Going out there and saying ‘support your local economy’ is going to make you look bad if at the same time you are saying ‘put your kids in danger.’”
As idled businesses begin to restart and more employees return to the job across the state, child care providers in ‘yellow’ counties say they are reopening slowly, if at all. The pace is driven by new safety guidelines, and by nervous parents reluctant to send their kids out of the house. If the industry doesn’t see demand pickup or receive financial aid soon, advocates warn, providers could begin closing for good — possibly slowing the state’s economic recovery.
“Child care is a business, like all of the others that are struggling through this crisis,” said Jen DeBell, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children. “But this business is the one that everyone else relies upon, to make sure families can work.”
Read the full article here.
Post-Gazette: Expect more cleaning, temperature-taking, and some masks when child care centers reopen
May 14, 2020 By: Kate Giammarise
Closed child care centers will be able to reopen Friday, when the region moves from “red” into the “yellow” partial reopening phase of pandemic mitigation.
Whether they all will choose to reopen, or have enough youngsters to reopen, is another matter.
Many providers are not planning to reopen on Friday, though they are planning on reopening within the next two weeks or so, said Wendy Etheridge Smith, director of the Early Learning Resource Center in Allegheny County. That’s due to both child care centers still ramping up to get ready and some parent hesitancy about safety, she said.
Most child care providers in Pennsylvania have been closed since mid-March, though some have been operating with a waiver and serving the children of “essential” workers such as first responders, or those who work in healthcare or grocery stores. Home-based child care providers, who generally care for a much smaller number of children at a time, have been able to operate uninterrupted.
Child care is “crucial to the daily functioning of our commonwealth,” said Teresa Miller, Pennsylvania secretary of Human Services, speaking on a call with reporters earlier this week.
“Child care is an essential infrastructure to our economy’s recovery. If we don’t have that, our economy doesn’t recover,” said Cara Ciminillo, executive director of advocacy group Trying Together.
About 20% of child care programs remained open in Allegheny County, with many of those being home-based providers, said Ms. Ciminillo.
For programs that do plan to welcome children back on Friday, state officials have been referring them to safety guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among the CDC recommendations — intense cleaning, modified drop-off procedures that allow for children to wash their hands as soon as they enter, and screening children upon arrival for fevers.
Read the full article here.
Unionville Times: LTE: Childcare Centers Will Need Help to Reopen Safely
May 14, 2020
To the editor:
I am the Area Manager of Warwick Child Care Center, Inc. in Pottstown, PA. I have been working in the field since 1992. I started in the field to gain experience with working with children. I fell in love with the field and understood how the first five years are the most important to build a foundation for children and their learning. Warwick Child Care Center, Inc, has been serving the community children for over 30 years and is very dedicated to helping children learn the skills that are needed to succeed in school.
At the time of the state wide closure we cared for over 550 children throughout Chester County and employed over 110 teachers. During the Covid-19 health crisis, we had to close our centers abruptly. We did not collect tuition from our private pay families or Child Care Works co-payments after the first week of closure. This meant we had to furlough about 95% of teachers. The extensive shut down has caused many financial concerns not limited to the upkeep on 5 buildings and supporting our families in various ways.
We are anxiously looking forward to reopening the centers when the county moves to the Yellow phase, however, there are many barriers to this process.
As we begin to prepare for reopening, we have had to consider all the changes needed to provide a safe environment free from COVID-19 and how to make these things happen while still staying true to the philosophy of a play-based early learning program where parents are our partners.
Obtaining the proper cleaning supplies and other suggested materials by the CDC has been a challenge, both in being able to obtain the items and the cost of these extra materials. At this time we believe we have most of what we need to reopen but our supply will only last a couple of weeks. Many, many items are backordered so there is concern as to being able to open and stay open without the access and funds for the supplies.
Our next biggest hurdle is staffing. The Early Childhood Education field was already facing an extreme staffing shortage. Now, we will need to not only have qualified employees to work with the children but we will also need to have additional teachers to assist with the added social distancing expectations, new drop off and pick up procedures, and enhanced disinfecting and sanitizing procedures. We also have employees who may not be able to return due to underlying health issues or simply concern for their families health and well being.
This puts us in a precarious position, to not only ensure that we maintain the Department of Human Services child to teacher ratios but also the CDC’s recommendations of smaller group sizes. All without having fully enrolled buildings. We know parents who are not yet returning to work or who are unsure of group care during this pandemic may not return to care right away and we want to make sure they know that we will welcome their children back as soon as they are ready. Financially the centers are going to be operating at a deficit much larger than we normally see.
We are ready to help over 400 families return to work and to help boost the economy however we need assistance to do this. One in three child care centers will not survive this closure and be able to reopen. Child care in PA and across this country is integral for recovery after COVID-19 but everyone of us need help to do it and do it well! We need the state and federal government to assist us, place value in child care, and help us find ways to pay the teachers what they are truly worth, find supplies we need, and financial assistance to allow us to open with lower enrollment (as is suggested) right now.
We have been working hard during the closure to ensure that we will be able to open safely and still provide the high quality that we have always provided for our community. However, this is not easy or simple and we are still very uncertain what the future holds for us during and after this pandemic. Our number one priority has always been to keep the children, families, and teachers safe and that is even more in the forefront during these times. We are dedicated to serving our community, but really need support from the state and federal government to do this. Without a safe, high quality Early Learning Center for children to attend, there will be no true economic recovery. Parents need to feel that their children are safe and child care centers need to feel that they are being supported in providing such a place for families during this time.
Tana Rinehart-Ullman
Pottstown
Read the Letter to the Editor here.
