CAN AMERICAN CHILDCARE SURVIVE THE CORONAVIRUS?

Childcare Advocate // The Windy City Nanny: FLORENCE ANN ROMANO
Before COVID-19 shut the country down, 64% of working families relied on a childcare infrastructure that was already tenuous. The current crisis has nearly dismantled the entire system. America can’t go back to work without affordable, accessible and reliable childcare. Is that possible? Paid family leave and affordable childcare have been backburner topics of national conversation for too long. The coronavirus has forced that conversation to the forefront. 90% of childcare operations in the US are privately run by small business owners on razor-thin profit margins. 63% of childcare operators surveyed said they could not stay open under present conditions for more than 2-4 weeks without help. Before COVID-19, 1 in 6 children eligible for childcare subsidy actually received it. Some states have suggested suspending certain licensing regulations just to keep centers open (i.e. eliminate some staff qualification rules, suspend fire drills, and drop group size limitations) The CARES Act offers some relief, but is it enough? It provides $3.5 billion for the government subsidy program aimed at providers who serve low-income families and $750 million for Head Start, the federal preschool program for families living in poverty. It provides unemployment benefits to support laid-off workers in all fields, including childcare. Most childcare programs would be eligible for a slice of the $350 billion slated for forgivable small-business loans, but applications have closed in many areas and providers may not have gotten their applications in in time.