October 6, 2020
Several pieces today are focused on how the pandemic has effected early learning and care across the country as parents with young children face child care shortages. This includes states like Utah addressing the need for mental health services for young learners.
Meanwhile, rules, regulations, and funding across the country are shifting as providers adjust to rising costs.
| NATIONAL NEWS It’s impossibly hard to be a baby or toddler in some parts of the country Hechinger Report | 10/6/20 Children have drastically different experiences in the early years based on the state in which they live, in part due to wide variations in policies and strategies that are in place in each state to support families. Day-care slots for babies are vanishing. Now their parents can’t work. Washington Post | 10/6/20 According to an August 2020 Center for America Progress report, based on data collected between December 2019 and March 2020, “licensed childcare is more than three times as scarce for children ages 0 to 2 than it is for those ages 3 to 5”. How a national child care policy could help struggling parents Minnesota Public Radio | 10/5/20 Over the years, both Republicans and Democrats have come up with child care policy ideas, but little progress has been made at the national level. MPR News host Kerri Miller speaks with two experts on the financial impact working parents have on the economy and the plans being discussed to help them. |
| IN THE STATES ILLINOIS Child care centers want some restrictions lifted in Illinois The Center Square | 10/5/20 Illinois child care providers believe they can handle larger groups more safely than kindergartens can, because they have more staff. Kindergartens are allowed to have 30 children out on the playground at one time. Day care centers are limited to 15 children. MINNESOTA Pandemic expenses deepen lingering child care funding crisis in Minnesota WCCO | 10/5/20 Minnesota’s sagging child care industry, already strapped for cash with fewer families enrolling their children, faces even more closures in the coming year as an increasing number of facilities are finding it difficult to make it… NEW JERSEY Facilities Can Now Get Expedited Licenses to Operate as Child Care Centers New Jersey Business | 10/5/20 With remote learning putting a strain on many working parents across the state, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) announced today that it is creating emergency regulations to allow certain types of facilities to operate as child care centers. OKLAHOMA Federal Officials Compliment Oklahoma Child Care Centers, Open Avenue For More Funding News 9 | 10/5/20 In August, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced $15 million from the CARES Act, the federal pandemic relief package, would fund the centers. Money from the CARES Act must be spent by the end of 2020. UTAH Report: Utah needs more early childhood mental health services Deseret News | 10/5/20 While Utah has increasingly focused its attention on the teen mental health crisis, younger children also face a shortage of resources that could prevent long-term emotional and physical health problems, according to a new study. |
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