Difficult Pandemic Realities for Child Care

11/03/2021

Difficult Pandemic Realities for Child Care

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.
Shirley Chisholm

Child care “is operating at 88 percent of its prepandemic capacity,” according to Claire Cain Miller’s recent New York Times article, ‘Can’t Compete’: Why Hiring for Child Care Is a Huge Struggle.

“Eight in 10 providers said they were experiencing a staffing problem, and half said hiring was harder than it had been before the pandemic…

Child care centers have not responded the way some other industries have — by significantly raising wages and expanding benefits. That’s because of a math problem with the business model. In the United States, child care for children younger than 5 and before and after school is mostly financed by private tuition. Yet more than 60 percent of families are already paying more than they can afford.”

Access, free to everyone, Exchange Press’s three-part video series, "Federal Funding and the Rebuilding of American Child Care." Developed by Roger Neugebauer and Dan Huber, who provide much of the content for Ed.Flicks Training Videos on Demand, the videos feature child care directors, advocates from NAEYC, Child Care Aware, Early Childhood Education Consortium, NIEER, TEACH and First Children’s Finance, who discuss the impact of upcoming U.S. legislation and offer advice on tapping into this new funding.

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.