December 14, 2020
Negotiations continue on the hill for a pandemic relief package. This includes critical funding for early learning and care which advocates, providers, and lawmakers say is essential to restarting the economy and sustaining the industry.
Providers are struggling to keep their doors open. Many communities are seeing drops in enrollment. For others, the cost of providing care has become burdensome.
Some states are individually weighing how to move early learning and care forward. California has a new “master plan” and looks at expanding paid family leave. While Illinois is receiving pressure to create an early learning state agency.
| NATIONAL NEWS Will Congress vote on a new COVID aid package and other questions answered about possible relief USA Today | 12/13/20 The bill would provide approximately $82 billion in aid for K-12 schools and higher education institutions. The bill also provides an additional $10 billion toward child care. Bipartisan congressional group splits Covid-19 relief package into two proposals WENY | 12/13/20 The leader said that it was critical the bill include money for small businesses, vaccine delivery, unemployment and child care, “all of which are in the agreement” that has been created by the bipartisan group of lawmakers. Film ‘Through The Night’ shows the personal cost of the childcare crisis Motherly | 12/11/20 All the numbers and stats and studies in my bookmarks could never tell this story the way that director Loira Limbal did in her film Through The Night, which launches in dozens of virtual cinemas across the country today. |
| IN THE STATES CALIFORNIA What’s next for the new early education Master Plan? EdSource | 12/11/20 It’s great or terrible timing for California’s new Master Plan for Early Learning and Care. The 112-page report from the Newsom administration outlines plans to expand preschool, child care and paid family leave, and boost pay and training… CALIFORNIA How California plans to increase access to Paid Family Leave to support early childhood EdSource | 12/14/20 California became the first state in the nation to offer parents Paid Family Leave in 2014. Now, more than a quarter million parents use this lifeline to take care of their newborn babies every year. CALIFORNIA Hundreds of San Diego County child care providers have closed due to the pandemic San Diego Union Tribune | 12/14/20 The COVID-19 pandemic has closed 535 child care businesses in San Diego County while simultaneously raising operating costs and shrinking revenues for an already struggling industry. COLORADO Can preschoolers learn virtually? In a Denver pilot program, some kids ‘can’t wait to log in’ Chalkbeat | 12/11/20 Unlike some other Colorado school districts, Denver Public Schools originally did not offer a virtual preschool option. Administrators there believe strongly that in-person learning is better for the youngest students. FLORIDA Florida still won’t disclose daycare COVID-19 numbers WFTS | 12/11/20 Despite months of repeated requests, Florida’s Department of Health is still refusing to divulge the number of COVID-19 cases in child care facilities around the state. ILLINOIS Commission calls for Illinois to create state agency to oversee early learning Chalkbeat | 12/11/20 Illinois should create a state agency to oversee early education instead of relying on multiple agencies steering different programs with little accountability or transparency, according to a draft recommendation from a statewide commission. NEW HAMPSHIRE Shaheen: Child care services ‘critical’ to recovery from pandemic Seacoast Online | 12/11/20 U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, told New Hampshire child care service providers Friday afternoon that to help jumpstart an economy reeling from the effects of COVID-19, the availability of safe child care services will be critical. NEW MEXICO Pandemic brings child care struggles Albuquerque Journal | 12/13/20 The continued operation of the Christina Kent center and many other child care services across the state is essential to making sure parents are able to still work. But the pandemic has slashed enrollment… NEW YORK Child care providers call for financial assistance from the government WKBW | 12/12/20 On Saturday, the Western New York Child Care action team held its second annual action day. “The reason that we have days like today is to give child care providers an active live and in color voice,” co-founder of the Western New York Child Care Action Team Vonetta Rhodes said. NORTH DAKOTA Ongoing pandemic is forcing many moms out of the workforce Grand Forks Herald | 12/14/20 It’s probably time to revisit the notion that affordable, national child care is vitally important for a vibrant, healthy workforce, considering that the majority of children in the United States today grow up in a home with a single working parent or two married parents who are both employed; PENNSYLVANIA Pre-K enrollment down substantially as pandemic drags on Beaumont Enterprise | 12/13/20 As the pandemic sent shock waves through public schooling last spring, many parents chose to delay sending their young children to pre-kindergarten classes, and some chose not to send them at all. PENNSYLVANIA Drop in state subsidies has been devastating to child care centers Lehigh Valley Live | 12/13/20 As our state spends down the last of the CARES dollars and the federal government gives no indication that a new stimulus package will be passed before the year’s end, centers are faced with an uncertain future. PENNSYLVANIA COVID relief must support early learning programs Penn Live | 12/14/20 We know that the more our children succeed, the more our communities will succeed as a whole. And that’s why we are worried about the stability of Pennsylvania’s high-quality child-care and pre-k programs as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. WASHINGTON Child Care Providers in Washington Weigh a Strike as They Struggle to Stay Afloat Amid Pandemic The Daily Chronicle | 12/13/20 Washington family child care providers are contemplating a strike, with union participants saying they’re at their wits’ end amid increasing pressure from the pandemic. It would be the first statewide strike in history among child care providers… |
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