Child Care Weighing On Work-From-Home Parents, Providers In MA

BOSTON — Massachusetts day care centers are continuing to lose money and could be forced to close permanently, even after being allowed to reopen under stringent new guidelines last month, according to testimony delivered to a state legislative committee Tuesday.

Day care providers told the Joint Committee on Education the new guidelines mean they can accept fewer children and are incurring additional costs, making it difficult to break even. Sarah Sian, executive director for the Open Center for Children in Somerville, said her business is losing $20,000 to $24,000 per month after reopening June 29 with half the number of children the center served before the coronavirus shutdown in March.

Sian has considered shortening hours, cutting staff and limiting the number of children who could come back. But she's quickly burning through $250,000 in savings the Open Center for Children has built up over two decades and, at the current rate, said she will be forced to close within a year.

Other parents are opting not to send their kids back to day care. In some cases, they're concerned about the coronavirus. But other parents are finding they can manage child care while working from home. JD Chesloff, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, said he’s heard from employers that they’re shocked at how high productivity has been.

"The downside to that is people really never stop working now," Chesloff said. "And flexibility on the employer side, to the employee might mean 'I’m up at 5 a.m. before my kids get up and I’m working after they go to sleep.' So while it’s working on a variety of metrics, it’s not sustainable."

Chesloff suggested one solution is having a place for parents to send their children during the workday. As the state continues to reopen, early childhood care and education providers are grappling with how they can balance providing for families, following safety protocols and making enough money to keep their doors open.

Sian, from the Open Center for Children, said federal and state governments need to look for new ways to support child care providers. Jynai McDonald, the family coordinator for SEIU 509, agreed.

"Supporting family child care providers also comes down to a matter of equity," she said, adding that at least 95 percent of providers are women, and many are women of color.

McDonald said that many providers are hesitant to reopen because they aren’t sure they can afford the operating expenses and staff salaries if they aren’t at full capacity. Apart from that, they also recognize that bringing children into their centers, many of which are in their own homes, presents a health risk. McDonald said that a program for smaller providers to pool resources for personal protective equipment would help ease the burden of making those additional purchases.

She said that a coalition of providers could be created so they could purchase personal protective equipment in bulk, allowing them to take advantage of the lower prices that large companies are able to afford.

Dottie Williams, owner of Miss Dottie’s Neighbor School in Dorchester and a former emergency care provider, has been purchasing these products for months. Her facility is run out of her home and she uses her front porch as a drop-off point so families don’t have to go inside.

"It’s important you’re maintaining a safe environment, not only for the children, but for my family as well," she said.

Williams said that all of her children are coming from "at-risk" families who may not have money for a surplus of masks or gloves in their budgets, and she doesn’t want parents to have to worry about making those purchases. So she's been providing them for herself, her staff and the kids. She plans to have conversations with parents about what it’ll mean to be safe and healthy in the day care environment before she welcomes her old families back on July 13.

Despite the new challenges, Williams is thrilled to have her kids back, and she’s confident they’ll be able to adjust to the new changes.

"Children will always pick up on how you approach things," she said. "So if you have a positive attitude, children are going to pick up on that and that can be successful. I think it’s how you demonstrate these things that’s important."