Anonymous wrote:It's really bad. I'm a parent and stunned by posts on DCUM complaining that providers are "giving themselves a raise" with reduced service. They are operating on less money and with more restrictions. Nobody should be surprised when they close. We needed more public funding for child care before the pandemic, there was already a shortage, and it's just getting worse.

https://www.naeyc.org/pandemic-surveys

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector.

I don't disagree with you but I think the explanation for posters complaining about the costs of childcare that costs a lot while not providing them with what they need is that parents are suffering right now every bit as much as providers. That's the problem with a government that has focused exclusively on other sectors of the economy and ignored the vital needs of the childcare sector (while also shutting down schools and thus driving up demand for childcare, including among people who did not budget for it because they assumed their kids would be attending public school!).

This really is on the government and to some extent on employers who just decided that working parents would absorb the loss of childcare themselves. And when I say working parents, we all know I mostly mean women. And it's no accident that the childcare sector, which is heavily dominated not only by women but by women of color, was also not prioritized by the government at any point as an essential service that needed to be supported to get through both forced closures and loss of revenue due to people pulling kids from daycare and preschool.

This is why Elizabeth Warren and others keep beating the drum of "childcare is infrastructure." It's infrastructure when done by public schools, it's infrastructure when done by private centers, it's infrastructure when done at home. It's essential. And throughout the pandemic the mostly women who have provided this essential service have been expected to do it for less or no pay. It is disgusting. The entire sector needs a real bailout and we should literally just be sending checks to people with kids to pay for childcare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really bad. I'm a parent and stunned by posts on DCUM complaining that providers are "giving themselves a raise" with reduced service. They are operating on less money and with more restrictions. Nobody should be surprised when they close. We needed more public funding for child care before the pandemic, there was already a shortage, and it's just getting worse.

https://www.naeyc.org/pandemic-surveys

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector.

I agree, but I think parents are starting to get stressed. A lot of people are still teleworking, but what happens when folks start getting called back and daycare hours are still substantially reduced? I work at an agency that has been fairly cognizant of struggles that families are facing, so I hope to have telework options into the foreseeable future, but there are many employers who could not give a sh-t that you no longer gave full childcare coverage.

What happened to all the aid for childcare in the last relief package- is any of it reaching providers?

I work in daycare and we have not seen a penny of relief money. Or there are grants that are only targeted at low income ZIP Codes so I think someone in a non low income zip won’t see any of that money. Instead of writing a check out to every licensed provider they request that we file pages and pages for grant applications to see if we are deemed worthy of getting any of the relief money. It’s a complete joke.

That's crazy- where is all the $$ going? Is anyone tracking it?

Anonymous wrote:It's really bad. I'm a parent and stunned by posts on DCUM complaining that providers are "giving themselves a raise" with reduced service. They are operating on less money and with more restrictions. Nobody should be surprised when they close. We needed more public funding for child care before the pandemic, there was already a shortage, and it's just getting worse.

https://www.naeyc.org/pandemic-surveys

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector.

A lot of people making comfortable salaries while being able to telework simply have no clue how the other half lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really bad. I'm a parent and stunned by posts on DCUM complaining that providers are "giving themselves a raise" with reduced service. They are operating on less money and with more restrictions. Nobody should be surprised when they close. We needed more public funding for child care before the pandemic, there was already a shortage, and it's just getting worse.

https://www.naeyc.org/pandemic-surveys

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector.

I agree, but I think parents are starting to get stressed. A lot of people are still teleworking, but what happens when folks start getting called back and daycare hours are still substantially reduced? I work at an agency that has been fairly cognizant of struggles that families are facing, so I hope to have telework options into the foreseeable future, but there are many employers who could not give a sh-t that you no longer gave full childcare coverage.

What happened to all the aid for childcare in the last relief package- is any of it reaching providers?

I work in daycare and we have not seen a penny of relief money. Or there are grants that are only targeted at low income ZIP Codes so I think someone in a non low income zip won’t see any of that money. Instead of writing a check out to every licensed provider they request that we file pages and pages for grant applications to see if we are deemed worthy of getting any of the relief money. It’s a complete joke.

*have* not gave

Anonymous wrote:It's really bad. I'm a parent and stunned by posts on DCUM complaining that providers are "giving themselves a raise" with reduced service. They are operating on less money and with more restrictions. Nobody should be surprised when they close. We needed more public funding for child care before the pandemic, there was already a shortage, and it's just getting worse.

https://www.naeyc.org/pandemic-surveys

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector.

I agree, but I think parents are starting to get stressed. A lot of people are still teleworking, but what happens when folks start getting called back and daycare hours are still substantially reduced? I work at an agency that has been fairly cognizant of struggles that families are facing, so I hope to have telework options into the foreseeable future, but there are many employers who could not give a sh-t that you no longer gave full childcare coverage.

What happened to all the aid for childcare in the last relief package- is any of it reaching providers?

It’s definitely the pandemic. Our wonderful in-home closed last April after the provider’s husband was laid off due to Covid-related reasons and they had to move. We were lucky to find another one nearby but we still miss the old place.

It's really bad. I'm a parent and stunned by posts on DCUM complaining that providers are "giving themselves a raise" with reduced service. They are operating on less money and with more restrictions. Nobody should be surprised when they close. We needed more public funding for child care before the pandemic, there was already a shortage, and it's just getting worse.

https://www.naeyc.org/pandemic-surveys

The essential yet chronically undervalued child care sector has sacrificed and struggled to serve children and families since the start of the COVID pandemic. NAEYC’s newest survey, completed between November 13–29, 2020, by more than 6,000 respondents working in child care centers and family child care homes shows that the crisis facing child care is as consistent and devastating today as it was in March and in July. With 56% of child care centers saying they are losing money every day that they remain open, programs are confronting an unsustainable reality, even as they are taking desperate measures - putting supplies on credit cards, drawing down personal savings, and laying off staff - to remain viable for the children and families they serve. Yet despite the steps they are taking to save themselves, the math on their bottom line does not work, and federal relief is needed to stabilize and support this essential sector.

Also this has been talked about if you are paying attention:

https://19thnews.org/2020/05/the-pandemic-upended-child-care-it-could-be-devastating-for-women/

The exposure risk for only part time care hasn't been worth it.

We just sent our 4 year old back, but it's an all day, all year preschool (so school and daycare combined). They are still at a reduced number of kids.

I am hopeful that by the summer they'll be able to open up more spots and also go back to providing lunch because I hate packing it . I am very glad they made it through 2020 in tact however.

My son is at Suburban Nursery (by River/Wilson) and we love it. I think they have spots in 2's/3's class, but it's only AM for this age. Lots of schools near us did not survive low numbers in the pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many preschools have closed in the area. Our eldest attends a private school off River Rd in Bethesda and our younger kids are ready for preschool but there are no spots for awhile. Did the pandemic cause this? We were shocked to hear of two preschools that have been around for 20 years that closed for good. We don’t want a nanny as we don’t believe it helps children socially after they are infants and the programming and consistency seems to be an issue ( per our friends). As parents are returning to work, how is the demand going to be handled?

Yes it did. Reduced capacity/spots, loss of revenue. In general people don't want to pay for quality care so when the revenue dried up businesses could not continue to operate.

I think another factor is that there is still a sizable segment of the population that is scared to bring their kids back to childcare. They hired nannies or have made do with the kids at home. There's an imbalance right now with reduced spots overall across the region but some places are struggling to make it because because families aren't returning.

Anonymous wrote:So many preschools have closed in the area. Our eldest attends a private school off River Rd in Bethesda and our younger kids are ready for preschool but there are no spots for awhile. Did the pandemic cause this? We were shocked to hear of two preschools that have been around for 20 years that closed for good. We don’t want a nanny as we don’t believe it helps children socially after they are infants and the programming and consistency seems to be an issue ( per our friends). As parents are returning to work, how is the demand going to be handled?

Yes it did. Reduced capacity/spots, loss of revenue. In general people don't want to pay for quality care so when the revenue dried up businesses could not continue to operate.

How far are you willing to go? We are at an MCCA center and keep hearing they have spots.

So many preschools have closed in the area. Our eldest attends a private school off River Rd in Bethesda and our younger kids are ready for preschool but there are no spots for awhile. Did the pandemic cause this? We were shocked to hear of two preschools that have been around for 20 years that closed for good. We don’t want a nanny as we don’t believe it helps children socially after they are infants and the programming and consistency seems to be an issue ( per our friends). As parents are returning to work, how is the demand going to be handled?