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
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.
Lehigh Valley: LTE: Reopening child care centers will be difficult for owners
April 28, 2020
As a child care center owner who survived the 2009 budget crisis, I thought the worst years were behind me. When Pennsylvania lawmakers took six months to pass a budget, I was forced to tap into my 401(k). This allowed me to keep my early learning center doors open for the 56 families and 10 staffers who relied on me. Now, more than a decade later, being able to reopen after this health crisis hinges on my 15 employees and the parents of 85 children feeling comfortable returning to work in a post-COVID-19 world.
As a small business owner I’m once again bearing the brunt of a fiscal crisis. New health and safety practices will have to be put into place and small business owners will have to absorb the cost. The federal loans offered don’t take into account the state’s phased regional openings. And having to adhere to the loans’ strict timetable doesn’t factor into the limited staff I might initially need as parents slowly return to their workplaces.
Child care centers are essential infrastructure in communities large and small. Moving forward, we’ll need support from the business community, whose reliance on centers to care for their employees’ children will allow their businesses to once again be productive and profitable. I call on business leaders to help make sure legislators understand that it’s centers like mine that need adequate funding so that we can help support Pennsylvania’s economic revival. We don’t have time to waste.
Anabela Araujo
Nazareth
Read the LTE here.
Lehigh Valley Live: LTE: Gov. Wolf’s ‘pay them more’ comment insensitive to small business owners
April 23, 2020
Being a small business owner right now is so frustrating. With the additional weekly unemployment benefits my child care staff is receiving, they are making more than I could ever pay them. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that my staff is being taken care of financially. They deserve it.
The frustration comes when Gov. Wolf says, “If you want your staff to come back, just pay them more.” I would love to, governor, but where are we supposed to get that money when subsidy reimbursement rates are not increased for child care centers? Or when private-pay families would have to be charged more, yet many of them are now unemployed, and therefore do not need child care?
To top it off, the Paycheck Protection Plan — a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses like mine to keep workers on the payroll — has Herculean requirements for the loan to become a grant that doesn’t need to be fully paid back.
Child care centers and small businesses are in a complete Catch 22. We need state and federal policies to help us , not hinder our efforts. Policy makers must realize many businesses, mine included, employ low-income wage earners as well as care for the children of low-income workers. Some of these are the essential workers that people are relying on each day. When businesses reopen, they’ll be relying on child care. Let’s get fiscal strategies in place to make sure this can happen.
Sophia Estrella
Executive director, Elevation Community Center
Allentown
Read the LTE here.
Express-Times: LTE: Many child care centers will need government help to reopen
April 22, 2020
As a former preschool teacher and child care center director, it was my dream to open my own high-quality center. After two years of planning, my dream was realized when I opened the doors of Bright Beginnings Montessori Academy in September 2019.
In March, because of COVID-19, I closed my doors, and like other small business owners, I’m continuing to pay rent, utilities and insurance on an empty building. I’m currently working on achieving a STAR 3 rating, which designates high-quality child care in Pennsylvania. Being able to choose a high-quality site is what families deserve, now more than ever, when they are able to safely return to work.
I want nothing more than to be able to reopen when this crisis has passed, but I’m concerned about how my program will survive. It’s estimated that we could lose up to half the childcare capacity in the state. If I have to close my doors permanently, how will the families that relied on me to care for their children be able to return to work? I urge my legislators to include childcare in the stimulus package. The health of our economy depends on these funds.
Ibis Fernando
Bright Beginnings Montessori Academy
Northampton
Read the LTE here.
Reading Eagle: LTE: Child care centers crucial to reviving our economy
April 18, 2020
I’m the owner of Tiny Thinkers Academy, a child care center in Blandon. Prior to our doors shutting in mid-March because of COVID-19, we cared for 63 children ages 6 weeks to sixth grade and employed 23 staff members. We opened our doors in June 2018. This shutdown has been extremely difficult because we haven’t even turned a profit yet due to startup loans.
Yet as a small-business owner, I am still responsible for my center’s financial obligations of rent and utility payments in order to maintain it for when we do reopen. The pandemic has exposed the fragility of the child care system as a whole, which operates on the slimmest of margins.
Though we did file a waiver to remain open, only two children of essential workers needed care, meaning it wasn’t financially possible for us to open our doors.
The parents who rely on my center, are not considered essential workers and have the ability to work from home are doing so with crying infants and toddlers in need of attention. Once they are permitted to return to their workplaces, they will need centers like mine to return to their jobs. Once we are past this health crisis and businesses reopen, child care will be needed more than ever in order to help restore our workforce and economy.
Emily Hartman
Maidencreek Township
See the letter to the editor here.
