Pandemic relief funds kept child care programs afloat. What now?

By James On Oct 20, 2023

Kaitlyn Adkins is studying law to help families in her community affected by the opioid epidemic in the heart of West Virginia’s coal country.

But to do that, she needs someone to take care of her three toddlers. The first-generation college graduate said she wouldn’t be able to complete her law degree without access to reliable child care.

Providers say millions of children and their families are now at risk of losing this vital service. After two years of receiving federal subsidies, 220,000 child care programs across the country were cut off funding on September 30. The largest investment in child care in United States history, monthly payments ranged from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars and stabilized. the sector during the pandemic.

“It feels like they’re putting everyone on the wrong foot,” Ms. Adkins said as she dropped her 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins off at daycare on a recent morning before an hour-and-a-half drive. to class.

For years, providers have raised alarms about an unsustainable business model that saddles families with high costs and leaves centers with razor-thin profit margins – problems only exacerbated by inflation and a significant labor shortage.

Now providers say they have the option to close without additional investments. The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank in Washington, DC, analyzed a survey of suppliers and government data and found that in five states – Arkansas, Montana, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia – and Washington, DC, up to half of all providers may be forced to close.

Many families and providers are calling on Congress to create a permanent financing solution to the crisis, warning of the ripple effects on the nation’s economy. A Democratic proposal failed in September without any Republican support. It would have continued the subsidies for five years, allocating $16 billion annually.

The providers most at risk are those in rural communities that serve primarily low-income families. In West Virginia, where a quarter of all children live in poverty, the situation is particularly dire.

Ms. Adkins takes her children to a center affiliated with a church in Williamson, West Virginia, where nearly 90% of families qualify for federal assistance to cover child care costs. For a family of four, this means earning less than $45,000 a year. Williamson is the seat of Mingo County, where one in three residents live below the poverty line, and more than 75% of children in the county school system are raised by someone other than their parents, often grandparents.

Most mornings, Mrs. Adkins wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to take her children to the Living Water Child Care Center. She usually comes home late and plays with her children and washes them before studying until the early morning.

Ms. Adkins, the proud daughter of a former miner, said she has witnessed the loss of coal jobs and the influx of opioids in the state with the highest overdose rate. She said taxpayers will end up paying more for welfare programs in the long run if the government doesn’t invest in child care now.

“We see our children really suffering – and that’s a big problem,” said Ms Adkins, who wants to practice law focusing on child abuse and neglect. “If they have no structure and no guidance, we will continue to repeat cycles.”

As of October 2021, Democrats’ American Rescue Plan Act has distributed $24 billion in payments to providers across the country, with varied funding based on program size and quality rating. In West Virginia, centers received an average of $5,000 to $27,000 per month and family providers received between $750 and $3,200. The legislation also provided $15 billion to expand the block grant program that subsidizes child care costs for low-income families, although it expires in September 2024.

At Living Water, a $7,000 monthly grant went toward purchasing new curriculum and advancing employee certifications, according to director Jackie Branch. The investment paid off: In April, the center moved up a notch in its state quality assessment, increasing monthly stabilization funding to $11,000.

When staff realized that many children could not play outside at home, they installed a rubber playground and colorful umbrellas.

School-aged children can finally work on homework assignments in the after-school program thanks to recently purchased computers.

Like most providers in the state, Living Water was also able to offer employee bonuses.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the average wage for a child care worker in the U.S. was $13.71 in May 2022, compared to $10.47 in West Virginia. Wage growth in the sector has lagged behind that of other low-paid occupations.

Over the years, Goldie Huff, a waitress at a steakhouse in Williamson, has cared for more than two dozen foster children. There are only two child care centers in the entire province, and the community cannot afford to lose one, she said.

“It would be terrible,” she said, if Living Waters were to close. All her foster children have attended Living Water, along with children, grandchildren and other family members. The state has the highest number of youth in foster care in the country.

She said many of the children she cares for are recovering from traumatic childhood experiences and need structure. “How many kids do you know who don’t wake up for breakfast? They don’t know where the meals come from. They didn’t have a bath. They never had nice clothes.”

The center serves three meals a day, plus snacks. They also distribute donations such as clothing and school supplies.

Ms. Branch said it will be an uphill battle to find other grants to make up for the lost funds.

Policymakers should worry not only about closing centers, but also about the quality of care and education available with such limited resources, said Melissa Colgrosso, CEO of A Place To Grow Children’s Center in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Since they opened 28 years ago, the number of accredited centers in the state has halved.

“From the beginning, this is our opportunity to really change the brain and change a child’s future,” she said. “You invest in early childhood, then you invest less in prisons.”

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced it would send providers a final bonus payout as September came to a close, but money was being siphoned off. The agency also allocated $24 million in TANF funds to reimburse pediatric providers whose costs are subsidized based on enrollment rather than participation for an additional year.

But providers say they need a permanent, long-term financing solution instead.

If West Virginia wants to grow its economy, child care is part of the infrastructure needed to do that, Tiffany Gale said. She’s not a parent herself, but just months before the pandemic began, she began caring for six children in her home in West Virginia’s northern panhandle.

In just three years, she has moved up a level in the state’s quality status and grown into an empty commercial space downtown. She has five staff members and 18 children – 24 across the two locations – who would otherwise have been on the waiting list. Three-quarters of them have a low income and are eligible for government-subsidized care.

With the help of federal grants, Ms. Gale was able to purchase the two adjacent units. But with pandemic-era support coming to an end, Ms. Gale is unsure whether she will be able to stay in business.