LaunchPad Sees Continued Issues With Child Care During Pandemic
July 25, 2020 at 12:07 a.m.
LaunchPad Sees Continued Issues With Child Care During Pandemic
By Jackie [email protected]
“When schools shut down due to COVID-19, many child care programs shut down as well,” said LaunchPad Director Sherry Searles.
“Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), which is the state-regulating organization, did not mandate that child care programs close down,” she said. “In fact, FSSA encouraged programs to stay open so that essential medical employees could work. Each program had the autonomy to decide whether they would stay open or close.”
One of the determining factors was the number of children who were pulled out of their program because their parents weren’t going to work. “When the enrollment numbers got too low, some of them decided to close,” she said.
All county child care programs have reopened except one, which will reopen in August.
As a nation, approximately 25% of programs have closed permanently. More than 1,600 child cares closed in Indiana because of the COVID-19 crisis. Over half closed nationwide. Many of those that remain open to serve essential workers are operating at 20 to 40% capacity.
“With child care already operating on such thin margins, the coronavirus did a lot of damage to the industry,” Searles said.
Kosciusko County already has a shortage of 1,800 known child care seats.
“Our local data show us that there are 3,000 children under the age of 5 in Kosciusko County whose parents work, whether that’s a single-parent or a two-parent home. We also know there are about 1,200 known spots child care spots in the county. To be a known spot, we include all the licensed centers, registered ministries, licensed home providers and school pre-k programs,” Searles said previously.
“When programs close, or if they must reduce the number of children they can take to accommodate smaller class sizes, then we know it’s going to affect the number of seats we have. That affects the workforce and parent’s abilities to find child care,” Searles said.
“One success that we can point it is that when the pandemic started and many child care programs closed, Kosciusko Community Hospital reached out to us and said that their essential medical staff were having trouble accessing child care which led to difficulty getting to work.” Searles said. “LaunchPad was able to partner with different organizations in the county and offered a pop-up child care for essential medical workers for six weeks from mid-April to the end of May. This was a temporary option and it was always the intention to close the pop-up center when other programs opened up again. We did not want to replace our providers; we only wanted to support the frontlines while our programs figured out what they wanted and needed to do moving forward.
“I am super proud of all those who worked together to create child care for those essential workers.”
To help increase the number of known available child care spots in the county, LaunchPad has been working on applying for grants, as well as working to get investment from business partners.
In January, LaunchPad proposed a child care center at Claypool Elementary School, which would fit 52 children. Part of the funding for that program would come from a $75,000 Desert Grant that LaunchPad received from Early Learning Indiana. However, Searles said, “We were unable to pull enough of the partners needed to make the child care at Claypool Elementary a reality.”
After considering multiple options and speaking with the Syracuse Child Care Task Force, LaunchPad was able to use the Desert Grant to open two early learning programs in partnership with Wawasee Community Schools.
According to a recent press release, one program will be housed at Syracuse Elementary School. This program is for children of Wawasee Community Schools employees only. This location will be called The Wawasee Staff Child Care. They have hired Abby Moe to be the director of the center, stated the release.
The second location will be called The Wawasee Early Learning Center and will be housed at North Webster Elementary School. This location will be open to any family in the community with children ages 3-5 who are looking for a full-day learning experience. The Wawasee Early Learning Center will include Alisha Denney and Melissa Small as its two lead teachers, with Shari Upchurch serving as its preschool coordinator.
“With this grant, we were able to add 60 child care seats to that area of the county,” Searles said.
In the next five years, LaunchPad’s plan is to help build as much capacity in child care as they can. ? Searles said the role of LaunchPad is not to own or operate child care centers, but to pull partners together, whether that be schools, businesses, churches, etc. and to help them establish child care programs.
LaunchPad’s five-year strategic plan includes working on building the pipeline of early childhood educators to fill the role of teachers as new programs open. They are also focused on creating a model that will make child care more affordable for parents.
If you would like to know more about the work of LaunchPad, you can contact Searles at [email protected].
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“When schools shut down due to COVID-19, many child care programs shut down as well,” said LaunchPad Director Sherry Searles.
“Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), which is the state-regulating organization, did not mandate that child care programs close down,” she said. “In fact, FSSA encouraged programs to stay open so that essential medical employees could work. Each program had the autonomy to decide whether they would stay open or close.”
One of the determining factors was the number of children who were pulled out of their program because their parents weren’t going to work. “When the enrollment numbers got too low, some of them decided to close,” she said.
All county child care programs have reopened except one, which will reopen in August.
As a nation, approximately 25% of programs have closed permanently. More than 1,600 child cares closed in Indiana because of the COVID-19 crisis. Over half closed nationwide. Many of those that remain open to serve essential workers are operating at 20 to 40% capacity.
“With child care already operating on such thin margins, the coronavirus did a lot of damage to the industry,” Searles said.
Kosciusko County already has a shortage of 1,800 known child care seats.
“Our local data show us that there are 3,000 children under the age of 5 in Kosciusko County whose parents work, whether that’s a single-parent or a two-parent home. We also know there are about 1,200 known spots child care spots in the county. To be a known spot, we include all the licensed centers, registered ministries, licensed home providers and school pre-k programs,” Searles said previously.
“When programs close, or if they must reduce the number of children they can take to accommodate smaller class sizes, then we know it’s going to affect the number of seats we have. That affects the workforce and parent’s abilities to find child care,” Searles said.
“One success that we can point it is that when the pandemic started and many child care programs closed, Kosciusko Community Hospital reached out to us and said that their essential medical staff were having trouble accessing child care which led to difficulty getting to work.” Searles said. “LaunchPad was able to partner with different organizations in the county and offered a pop-up child care for essential medical workers for six weeks from mid-April to the end of May. This was a temporary option and it was always the intention to close the pop-up center when other programs opened up again. We did not want to replace our providers; we only wanted to support the frontlines while our programs figured out what they wanted and needed to do moving forward.
“I am super proud of all those who worked together to create child care for those essential workers.”
To help increase the number of known available child care spots in the county, LaunchPad has been working on applying for grants, as well as working to get investment from business partners.
In January, LaunchPad proposed a child care center at Claypool Elementary School, which would fit 52 children. Part of the funding for that program would come from a $75,000 Desert Grant that LaunchPad received from Early Learning Indiana. However, Searles said, “We were unable to pull enough of the partners needed to make the child care at Claypool Elementary a reality.”
After considering multiple options and speaking with the Syracuse Child Care Task Force, LaunchPad was able to use the Desert Grant to open two early learning programs in partnership with Wawasee Community Schools.
According to a recent press release, one program will be housed at Syracuse Elementary School. This program is for children of Wawasee Community Schools employees only. This location will be called The Wawasee Staff Child Care. They have hired Abby Moe to be the director of the center, stated the release.
The second location will be called The Wawasee Early Learning Center and will be housed at North Webster Elementary School. This location will be open to any family in the community with children ages 3-5 who are looking for a full-day learning experience. The Wawasee Early Learning Center will include Alisha Denney and Melissa Small as its two lead teachers, with Shari Upchurch serving as its preschool coordinator.
“With this grant, we were able to add 60 child care seats to that area of the county,” Searles said.
In the next five years, LaunchPad’s plan is to help build as much capacity in child care as they can. ? Searles said the role of LaunchPad is not to own or operate child care centers, but to pull partners together, whether that be schools, businesses, churches, etc. and to help them establish child care programs.
LaunchPad’s five-year strategic plan includes working on building the pipeline of early childhood educators to fill the role of teachers as new programs open. They are also focused on creating a model that will make child care more affordable for parents.
If you would like to know more about the work of LaunchPad, you can contact Searles at [email protected].
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