Marketplace recently shared a telling article about the struggles of parents and child care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article shares personal stories of parents who are making tough decisions about how to support their children’s caregivers. At the same time, caregivers hoping to re-open when shelter in place orders are lifted have had to survive on a fraction of their typical income.
Some highlights from the article are included below. Click here to read the entire article.
Parents and child care providers across the country are having to figure things out for themselves, on a case-by-case basis.
About half of child care centers and nearly 60% of home daycares are still charging parents full tuition, and 22% are offering reduced tuition, according to a survey from NAEYC. More than 75% of families have stopped paying.
Parents feel responsible for supporting the programs and teachers that care for their children.
But, with 50% of American households having lost some or all of their income, it is difficult to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars a month for child care they’re not getting.
Child care providers — 97% of whom are women, with 40% women of color — are eligible for small business Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and for the new federal Paycheck Protection Program created under the CARES Act. But few have been able to secure that funding.
Only about half of child care centers and just a quarter of home providers have applied for PPP loans so far. Nearly 70% are wary of taking on debt, worried they would end up having to pay it back.
