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How are early childhood providers doing?

In January, NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) conducted a survey of 5,000 early childhood educators to find out.

The good news: “emergency federal and state relief funds have provided critical support for stabilizing child care programs and prevented more widespread permanent program closures,” according to the survey brief, Saved But Not Solved: America’s Economy Needs Congress to Fund Child Care.

The bad news: “severe challenges remain.” That’s because federal relief funds were not meant “to resolve the systemic challenges that have plagued the child care market.”

The informative news: We’ll hear more about the survey from Lauren Hogan, NAEYC’s managing director of Policy and Professional Advancement on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, during our Strategies for Children 9:30 Call.

The survey, which includes the responses of early educators “working across all states and settings—including faith-based programs, family child care homes, and small and large centers,” produced a number of findings, including:

• 60 percent of respondents worked in child care centers and family child care homes that received American Rescue Plan stabilization grants; of this group, 92 percent said that the grants helped their programs stay open

• two-thirds of respondents reported experiencing staffing shortages that affected their ability to serve families; 52 percent of these providers were forced to serve fewer children; and 37 percent had longer waiting lists, and

• 75 percent of respondents reported that the end of stabilization grants would have a negative or highly negative effect on their programs. In this groups, 89 percent of those who knew about the proposed federal Build Back Better bill said its promise to invest in early education would “secure the future our program”

In other words, while the federal government has done a good job shoring up the child care industry during the pandemic, now it has to invest in a child care system that will support children and support parents as they go back to work and rebuild the economy.

Or as one provider who works in a child care center that serves 680 families explains in the survey:

“The grants helped with recovery for 2020 and 2021 losses. But we are not whole. We cannot continue to raise fees on families to pay for staff and care. More funding is necessary to keep doors open in 2022, and a funding source dedicated to child care.”

The next step?

“Congress must now make the substantial, sustainable, long-term investments in affordable, high-quality child care and pre-K that are urgently needed for a successful and equitable economic recovery,” a press release explains.

Otherwise, “the relief funds that are making such a difference now will have only delayed the collapse of our current child care system, and children, parents, educators, and businesses will pay the price, both immediately and far into the future. As these survey results and stories indicate, these investments cannot wait until another day and time.”

To learn more, please join us and Lauren Hogan on the March 15^th 9:30 Call. You can sign up for our 9:30 Call notifications. And you can also check out the 9:30 Call schedule to see other upcoming speakers!