As children return to school this fall, working parents are faced with difficult decisions regarding school plans, and for low-income families, there will be even fewer options available to them. Many working parents will not be able to manage the schedule or cost of child care for days when their children are not in school. Despite this reality, child care and after school programs have not been adequately included in discussions around school reopening plans.
With the Maine Department of Education’s recent Framework for Returning to Classroom Instruction
, school districts have a green light to open to a regular schedule if they can meet the health and safety requirements set forward. Given those constraints, many districts are proposing a yellow “hybrid” model, where students may only physically be in school several days a week and learn remotely the other days. In the event of an outbreak, the Maine Center for Disease Control may designate a county “red,” at which time school districts will likely provide only remote instruction.
The needs of working parents who will require child care during a hybrid model has not been prioritized during planning for school reopening. Yet a recent national poll
by the Washington Post and the Schar School found that 66 percent of parents with a child entering kindergarten through second grade said that online-only schooling would make it more difficult or impossible for them to do their jobs, as did 60 percent of parents with a child in grades three to five. We should not assume that all parents will have the flexibility to work from home to be with their children on remote learning days.
As is often the case, parents with higher incomes will have more choices. For some two-parent households where one parent does not have to work, they may experience little disruption if their children are in school part-time. Those same parents may also have the option to send their children to private school, hire a tutor, or decide they don’t want to send their children to school at all until the public health crisis has subsided.
The majority of parents in our state will not have these options, as they cannot support a family on one income. In 2018, according to the American Community Survey
, there were 45,843 households in Maine with a young child in the home. Of these families, 15.6 percent were living in poverty. And among the households headed by a single mother, the poverty rate was a staggering 46.6 percent. Regardless of their own or their family’s health risk, many two-parent households are in jobs where they cannot work from home. Single parent households will experience even more challenges and stress as they try to manage work and child care as schools reopen.
The Office of Child and Families Services at DHHS and the Department of Education recently collaborated to offer their assistance to school districts
in addressing the child care needs of families. They can help districts explore the use of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds and Coronavirus Relief Funds to support these needs. Nevertheless, it will be a challenge to quickly build up quality child care slots, due to workforce, space, and other constraints.
The child care system in Maine, and across the nation, is already stressed. It is questionable whether early care and after school providers will have the capacity to take on the additional numbers of school-age children who will require care this fall. As providers face lower enrollment and higher costs, some may consider shifting their business models to take advantage of the temporary need for school-age care. However, this could further harm efforts to increase the availability of infant care, which is more expensive to provide and thus extremely difficult for parents to find, regardless of income.
We recommend that the Maine Children’s Cabinet prioritize this issue and that the administration provide additional resources to support the needs of working parents as was recommended in the July 15 th
report from the Governor’s Economic Recovery Committee. State and school districts should also assume responsibility for child care as a public need and an essential part of our economic recovery. This public health crisis has exposed the many frailties in our early care and education system. We can no longer continue to view child care as solely a parental responsibility, and must invest in an early childhood education system in ways that indicate we understand its value to the health and well-being of our families and economy.
Nationally, Congress and the President must recognize the enormous child care needs that have been fully exposed by this crisis, and come together to support two packages that were passed by the House that will support parents and providers and form the beginning of a new, stronger system of early care and education.
The Child Care is Essential Act
would provide grants to pay for personnel and the health and safety requirements necessary to keep children and staff safe. The $50 billion dollars in funding would be administered through the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant. The House also passed the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act
to provide over $10 billion in funding to assist with the renovation and construction of child care facilities, $7 billion to increase the Child Care Entitlement to States, and $850 million to funding child and family care for essential workers.
It is critical that both our state and federal governments dedicate significant funding for child care and an early care and education system that meets the needs of children, families, and early educators, much as we do for the preK-12 public education system. Working together, we can and must make these critical investments for Maine children, families, and our shared economic prosperity.
The child care system in Maine, and across the nation, is already stressed. It is questionable whether early care and after school providers will have the capacity to take on the additional numbers of school-age children who will require care this fall. As providers face lower enrollment and higher costs, some may consider shifting their business models to take advantage of the temporary need for school-age care. However, this could further harm efforts to increase the availability of infant care, which is more expensive to provide and thus extremely difficult for parents to find, regardless of income.
We recommend that the Maine Children’s Cabinet prioritize this issue and that the administration provide additional resources to support the needs of working parents as was recommended in the July 15 th
report from the Governor’s Economic Recovery Committee. State and school districts should also assume responsibility for child care as a public need and an essential part of our economic recovery. This public health crisis has exposed the many frailties in our early care and education system. We can no longer continue to view child care as solely a parental responsibility, and must invest in an early childhood education system in ways that indicate we understand its value to the health and well-being of our families and economy.
Nationally, Congress and the President must recognize the enormous child care needs that have been fully exposed by this crisis, and come together to support two packages that were passed by the House that will support parents and providers and form the beginning of a new, stronger system of early care and education.
The Child Care is Essential Act
would provide grants to pay for personnel and the health and safety requirements necessary to keep children and staff safe. The $50 billion dollars in funding would be administered through the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant. The House also passed the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act
to provide over $10 billion in funding to assist with the renovation and construction of child care facilities, $7 billion to increase the Child Care Entitlement to States, and $850 million to funding child and family care for essential workers.
It is critical that both our state and federal governments dedicate significant funding for child care and an early care and education system that meets the needs of children, families, and early educators, much as we do for the preK-12 public education system. Working together, we can and must make these critical investments for Maine children, families, and our shared economic prosperity.