How are child care centers managing during the pandemic? How are centers keeping doors open, paying staff, and meeting the competing demands for increased hygiene and increased class sizes? IWPR spoke with Tenille, a child care provider, to learn more about how care centers are surviving the child care crisis.

Here is an excerpt of our interview:

IWPR:
How long have you been in the child care industry?

Tenille:
I have been a family child care provider for four and a half years. However, I’ve been in the child care arena for more than 15 years. In the last five, I decided to branch off and open my own establishment, in my home. I was just talking to my daughter in the car and I told her, I said, “Everything that we have now literally started from me standing in my living room and saying let’s see what’s underneath these rugs. Let’s see if there’s some wood that we can repair.”

IWPR:
Could describe your business? How many children do you take care of daily, pre-shutdown versus now? Do you operate year-round? What kind of schedule do you have?

Tenille:
We are Gentle Hands Academy Daycare. We started off with the basic numbers that are allotted in here in Connecticut. We were allotted license for six full-time infants and toddlers, and three before- and after-school age children. That’s during an 8-hour shift. But because of the support of my kids, we started to provide care 24 hours.

IWPR:
How affordable child care is in your area of Connecticut and how abundant is it? Are there a lot of options or would there be a real rippling effect in the community if one or two were to close?

Tenille:
Oh gracious. Right now, 70 percent of center-based programs have closed due to Covid-19. As of March, providers just did not want to take the risk and in the beginning of the pandemic there was a decline in the amount of children that center-based programs were allotted. So they actually went all the way down to 30. And a lot of these programs were actually servicing children in a population of 50 to 80. So that was a huge blow to a lot of big-time providers which left, it pretty much left the option on the family child care providers, the smaller providers such as myself.

To give you a little history of what we went through at the start of Covid: Up until the second week of March, we were still at the six infants and toddlers plus the three before- and after-school children. By the end of March we were down to two children, from nine.So we actually decided to close down for two weeks.

We were able to clear our heads, get a lot of the essential supplies that we needed such as our bleach, our sanitizer, a lot of toilet paper, which was at a scarcity. Then we took a two week breather to strategize how we were going to strategically operate and keep ourselves and the children we served safe.

We reopened at the beginning of April with those two children. By June there was an influx of calls and we went from two back up to the full six. It’s only due to our passion and courage that we’re doing this with limited resources, and that’s what I’m trying to get out to the community. That I’m doing this because of the shortage in child care providers right now in the daycare arena. And what do we do when child care providers are at their max of six plus three? What do individuals do that can no longer find a smaller, intimate daycare space? It’s going to be tough. So that’s why we made the tough decision to expand our program even in the midst of everything that’s going on.

IWPR:
You talked about things that you’re going to be doing to adjust to this new normal. Are there any other changes you’d like to make in the future to be better prepared if this happens again, like if there’s a second wave?

Tenille:
Yes, absolutely. What I’m asking most of the providers that are bigger in stature that have been able to help us in-home providers. I think that’s the biggest thing right now that we need. Because I do believe that as parents continue to go back to work, we are going to remain open. I don’t see child care becoming a declining business. Some parents that are able to stay home with their children will probably do so. I would probably do so if I were in their position also. But there are, unfortunately, parents that have no other choice but to work and place their child back in care.

With 70% of programs still closed after several months of COVID, with the demand being so high and the supply being so much lower, I foresee that there’s going to be much more need for us to stay equipped, for those of us that are open to stay equipped with the proper essentials that we’ll need to remain sanitized.

IWPR:
What reactions have you had from parents?

Tenille:
I’ve spoken to parents that are now looking more into programs that are similar to what we currently have, smaller populated programs because they don’t want their children exposed to too many other children. Because the bigger the population the more exposure they have to, obviously to not only other children but the workers. I also have gotten calls saying, “I don’t really mind my child going back to a daycare center, however our daycare center has closed, so our only other alternative is to look for some of the programs that are family in-home based programs.

We are right here where Yale and UCONN and Bridgeport Hospital. Some of the biggest hospitals in the nation are attached to Yale, and we’re right in the center of that. We have primarily been open to parents that are essential workers, hospital workers, or support staff to essential workers that are on the front lines.

I have found out is that parents would love for their children to return and they miss their friends, the children. They remember the names of their friends, they ask for their friends. Where’s Joy and where’s Neveah? They come through the door sometimes, the ones that they used to see that they don’t see, they ask for their friends. So it’s really sad. It’s heartbreaking to witness the effect that this Covid-19 have had on even these infants and toddlers that are just learning to talk and express themselves. We try to create as much of a normalized environment where they’re free to play and laugh and have fun. We try our very best not to focus on anything that’s going on outside of this world that we’ve created for them.

IWPR:
What are your thoughts on solutions that federal or state government could offer to support you? Or is there a program that did help or is helping that could be improved or codified?

Tenille:
I believe that there is a high demand and low supply of center-based programs. I think it would be beneficial if center-based programs were more supported. The CT Cares Act has been wonderful. Here in the state of Connecticut, Care for Kids has still provided payment for us for the children that were in their program, even if they have decided not to return back to here yet. That has sustained family child care programs.

IWPR:
What are your thoughts on the level of PPE that’s being required?

Tenille:
I think here in Connecticut that the Office of Early Childhood has been amazing at leading us providers. I believe that we have learned a great deal along the way on how to fight this Covid-19 pandemic. There’s still physical distancing between the parents. Extra hand washing, temperature taking, those of us that have applied those policies and procedures via the OEC, the Office of Early Childhood’s recommendations, we’ve been sustainable. We’ve been able to keep our programs healthy and safe. And we have been given PPE equipment. I would say we need more of it. We’ve been allotted PPE equipment twice from the state level but of course we have to go out in the scarcity that we have going on and look for our own. But I would say if we can increase, if we had the ability to increase what has already been established and started with the support of programs open provided PPE on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, I believe we can really fight this thing much more effectively.

IWPR:
There is no federal legislation affecting child care workers or business owners from any liability if a child does contract COVID. Do you think that that could be an important piece to encouraging people to reopen?

Tenille:
I think it’s important for providers to realize that those of us that would like to reopen but are just afraid because of liability, I think there should be more light shed upon that. But we also have to do our due diligence and find out about those things. So I do think that it is important to make sure that we, as providers, are aware of it but I think the more important issue is us having the support to sustain and be confident in remaining open and giving us the tools to do so while providing the supplies that we need, the PPE equipment that we need and the funding that we need to open our doors and be able to keep up with payroll for individuals that greater staff.

Right now it’s just myself and my assistant. But going into a center-based, we’re going to probably have 10 employees. So starting from the ground level and not really having that support in federal dollars is going to be a struggle.