Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Local philanthropy “has an essential role to play.”

That’s the conclusion of an article about early education and care and the coronavirus pandemic.

“My biggest fear now,’ Janet Dotolo, of Melrose Day Care Center and Preschool in Melrose, Mass., says in the article, “is that I won’t be able to reopen when it is safe to do so, because my staff won’t come back.”

The article, which was published by the Bridgespan Group — a nonprofit organization that helps organizations and philanthropists “achieve breakthrough results” — explains:

“The United States has about 129,000 child care centers (a mix of nonprofit, for-profit, and faith-based) and 115,000 licensed home-based providers, who fill a critical need for families not well-served by centers.”

Having a functioning child care system is “of course, a vital resource for the healthy development of the 15 million children under age 6 with working parents.”

But the pandemic has created economic hardships that could force many programs to close permanently, which threatens communities’ abilities “to educate young children and restart their economies.”

“The effects of the pandemic on the child care system will perpetuate racial inequities nationally and locally. Home-based child care, which is often the best choice for families in low-income communities looking for flexible, affordable, conveniently located, and culturally and linguistically aligned providers, is particularly at risk financially.”

That’s why, the article says, it’s crucial for philanthropy to step in and help by:

• “providing direct emergency support paired with local advocacy,” and by

• “helping child care providers navigate hurdles and gain access to new public support”

Some philanthropic action is already underway. The article points to the Commonwealth Children’s Fund which has given Strategies for Children funding to “communicate to policy makers and the broader public specific examples of how child care providers and the families they serve are being affected by the crisis.”

Here at Strategies, we have been collecting this information through provider and parent surveys, and through daily Zoom meetings with advocates and leaders in the child care field, and we are sharing what we’re learning with local, state, and federal policymakers.

Across the country, the article notes, national organizations are providing vital technical support.

“Child Care Aware of America hosts webinars and blogs providing regular updates on the challenges facing providers and emerging solutions. The Early Childhood Funders Collaborative disseminates resources specific to funders, and the First Five Years Fund and Alliance for Early Success provide information and updates on advocacy efforts.”

“This pandemic has exposed the fundamental fragility of our child care system,” the article concludes. “As funders work to relieve the immediate pain and retain the existing services through the emergency, they should also re-emphasize advocacy and direct organizing in support of child care, so that young children and families can be confident that child care will still be there after the crisis, just as schools will be.”

“When all of this passes,” Lynette Fraga, the executive director of Child Care Aware of America, says in the article, “the decisions we make today will lay the foundation for what the child care system might look like after the pandemic.”