LANSING, Mich. — Day cares across the country are closing their doors permanently. It's leaving parents scrambling as the economy tries to rebound. Chris Conte takes a closer look at why some say the child care industry needs federal help to survive the pandemic.
A changing of the seasons has ushered in a change of a different kind for daycares across the country. The conditions and situations made it unavoidable Father Stephen Lundrigan has overseen annunciation parish for the last three years.
For the last three decades, the church here has run the caring place. A daycare that has seen generations of children come through. It's developed a tremendous amount of trust with the family's that have sent their children there, that's evidence by children who have gone there end up sending their children, but in two weeks the playgrounds here will no longer be filled with kids.
As the caring place will close. It's a loss, daycares across the country are facing similar hardships. Most had to shutdown during the spring - unlike schools they couldn't provide care virtually.
Daycares that have reopened have seen enrollment numbers plummet as many parents who are working from home and don't need child care. With nearly 18 million Americans also out of work, some families simply can't afford daycare anymore.
It's not just about business, if we could run it at a 10 thousand dollar loss we would, but we can't. By some estimates a staggering 50 percent of childcare providers throughout the country could close permanently by the end of the year.capacity limits due to COVID safety procedures have limited the total number of kids many places can care for.
U.S. daycares also lack any kind of public funding. It just became pretty clear that even with the best efforts we weren't going to be able to bring in any more students.
Even before the pandemic parents were struggling to afford and find childcare and this may make that worse. Elizabeth Davis is an economist with the University of Minnesota.
She says without some kind of federal aid an untold number of daycares nationwide will permanently close.which could have long-term impact for families and the economy.
It's shown us how important childcare is to our modern economy and it's part of the infrastructure and so yes this is a sector that needs some of that support, just another layer of uncertainty as families try to navigate the pandemic.
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