WASHINGTON, D.C. – The uncertainty surrounding the continuation of state and federal funding during the COVID-19 pandemic is of concern to daycare providers across the state who also worry about whether there will be enough spaces available when people return to work.
Those were just two issues childcare providers raised during a virtual meeting Monday with U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH).
Ann Auger of the COOS County Director Network said they had 13 childcare centers for the entire county but when COVID-19 hit the number of programs dropped to three. As of Monday, there are four open with two more planning to reopen in the next month.
“That’s pretty scary,” she said. “How many children are not able to attend childcare because of that.”
Reopening guidance, she told the Senator, has been difficult to navigate. There are a lot of concerns about how to balance family safety concerns and meeting children’s developmental needs at the same time.
“It’s really hard to build a relationship with a child when you got a mask over your face,” she said.
There are also concerns, Auger said, about the logistics of meeting the ratios, added cleaning time as well as the costs and the availability of supplies and how to remain financially viable when they are not allowed to have enough children enrolled to pay the bills.
People also are worried about what happens this fall if there is the flu and another wave of COVID-19. “What if there is another shutdown?” she said. “Will parents want to enroll their pre-schoolers who otherwise would have started in the fall? How does that impact their bottom line?”
She said what is critical is the continuation of scholarships for low-income children, hazardous pay for childcare workers and PPE (personal protective equipment). New Hampshire is paying daycare workers an extra $5 per hour as essential workers and supplying PPE.
“They are worrying about what happens when the money runs out,” Auger said.
The smaller operators, who serve different age groups, don’t have the space to split children into groups, Auger said. “Those are the ones that are really impacted the most.”
Marianne Barter, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Day Care Services and vice-chair of the NH Child Care Advisory Council, said they have been around for 50 years and hopefully will continue, in large part, due to the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) funding.
“Singlehandedly, the PPP loan was the biggest lifesaver on the planet,” she said.
Merrimack Valley Day Care Services in Concord cares mainly for low-income children, children in danger of abuse and/or neglect, and children with special needs.
Moving forward, she said her biggest concern in the southern part of the state is that demand will quickly surpass the supply of childcare.
“I can’t care for as many kids as I usually do because we are limited in group size, and everyone is in the same situation and places are closing,” she said. “It’s very challenging.”
Barter said she is afraid the population she serves is the one that will be losing out. She said she cannot hold spaces while parents decide what they are going to do or learn if they still have a job. To survive, Barter said she needs to take whoever comes next and, unfortunately, she said that won’t be the scholarship children.
Sen. Hassan said the COVID-19 impact on low-income families is substantial. She said a report she recently viewed showed that 13 percent categorized as essential workers rely on SNAP benefits as opposed to 8 percent of families who aren’t considered essential workers.
Mimi O’Connor, who runs the childcare center at the Elliot Hospital in Manchester, said the center has remained open the entire time for obvious reasons. She said, like the others, space is a concern.
Currently, the number of children attending is down because some people are working from home. The hospital also furloughed 650 employees in April.
She said staff wear masks and the children do not. She said there has been no case of COVID-19 at the center or any other illness.
The Senator asked how the children reacted to the masks.
O’Connor said the older children were fascinated by the colorful masks while the younger kids adjusted quickly to them.
She told the story of a 12-week-old infant being held by an employee in a mask. She asked the employee to smile at the baby who smiled back.
“When she smiled her eyes changed and the baby smiled,” she said.
All of the children have done amazingly well, O’Connor said. “Children are much more resilient than we are,” she said.
Senator Hassan is working with her colleagues to support early childhood education as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain childcare services in New Hampshire and across the country.
The bipartisan CARES Act, that Senator Hassan helped pass into law, included $7 million in dedicated block grant funding to New Hampshire to help child care providers in the state remain open for frontline workers.
Senator Hassan also joined in introducing legislation to create a $50 billion Child Care Stabilization fund to address the impacts of COVID-19 on the child care system, which would also help address long-standing issues with affordability and access.
Sen. Hassan, along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and colleagues have introduced the “Child Care is Essential Act” that addresses the child care crisis exacerbated by COVID-19. It would create a $50 billion Child Care Stabilization Fund for the child care sector and support providers in safely reopening and operating their facilities.
“Our economy simply cannot recover if parents cannot go back to work because they do not have access to safe, reliable child care,” said Senator Hassan. “Our bill makes significant investments in child care centers that have not only been hit hard financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, but now also face added challenges in instituting new health and safety policies to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. Childcare centers in New Hampshire and across the country desperately need this relief, and I hope our colleagues will join us in moving forward this critical legislation.”
Safe and affordable child care is one of the biggest obstacles facing working families during the pandemic, Sen. Shaheen said.
“To safely re-open our economy and put Granite Staters back to work, child care providers need our support to stay in business and safely care for children as this public health crisis continues,” she said in a new release. “The COVID-19 pandemic impacts every part of our society and economy, and childcare is one of the most important pieces of our response as we work to recover our economy. This legislation is an important step forward to deliver the financial support centers need to stay in business and implement essential safety protocols so parents can go back to work while knowing their children are in safe hands.”
As additional businesses begin asking employees to return to physical workspaces, families need child care—but child care providers across the country are struggling to keep the doors open as they operate with significantly reduced capacity and face increased operating costs with limited revenue. Many are even at risk of permanent closure, resulting in the potential loss of up to 4.5 million childcare slots across the country. Without federal help, families will struggle even more to find child care—with recent estimates from the National Women’s Law Center showing that it would take at least $9.6 billion per month to keep current child care providers in business.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Senators Hassan and Shaheen have worked to prioritize support for child care centers, including for the children of frontline workers. Through the CARES Act, New Hampshire received almost $7 million for child care, including for health care workers who are on the frontlines of this crisis. The Senators previously called on Senate leadership to include strong financial support for the child care system in the next COVID-19 relief package. Senator Hassan also led her colleagues, including Senator Shaheen, in urging the Office of Child Care at the Department of Health and Human Services to take additional steps to expand child care options for health care workers and others on the frontlines responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A one-page summary of the Child Care is Essential Act can be found HERE.
