San Diego Facing A Child Care Crisis As Pandemic Decimates Finances Of Providers

Speaker 1: 00:00 Parents going back to work need childcare, especially with kids still unable to go back to school, but what's the status of San Diego's daycares and preschools. Some have stayed open throughout the pandemic. Others are opening now, but a childcare crisis could be looming providers throughout the County. Tell KPBS reported Claire Tresor that COVID related. Restrictions are putting them out of business. Wow. Randy Lum and his wife Abigail have struggled since the beginning of the pandemic to work from home while caring for their two young children. So they were eagerly awaiting the opening of their son's preschool at the beginning of July. And we're just like, okay, well, they said, they're going to reopen. And it's like a couple of days, we didn't get anything. Then the email arrived, the school wouldn't be able to open as expected. They were told to check back in September LEMS predicament could become reality. Speaker 1: 01:06 For many parents, KPBS surveyed 10 owners of preschools throughout the County, and all said their businesses have been decimated during the pandemic. Seven said they are in danger of going out of business permanently. There are a few reasons. First many parents are scared to send their kids back to preschools. Also, the county's social distancing requirements mean class sizes have been cut in half operating at a third of the income. Holly Weber is the owner of magic hours, preschool in mere Mesa. But my operating expenses haven't changed the salaries and the overhead or Sally Chenowith. The owner of discovery, preschools and Oceanside says the new reality means childcare centers are full without really being full. We're running about 60% of what we normally do. Um, but our costs exceed that the County had a significant shortage of daycare spots before the pandemic. And now many are worried that a full blown childcare crisis is unfolding. Speaker 1: 02:18 That could sink a local economy already depressed by the coronavirus. The current moment's looks bad, but the longterm looks dire. Alicia Sasser Ramada Stino is an associate professor in economics at Northeastern university. She says because daycares and preschools operate under very slim margins. These restrictions along with the short term closures are difficult to recover from. Parents were dealing with this paradox where if you are working from home, you're grateful to have a job. You're grateful to have that flexibility. And at the same time, you're just drowning and how hard this is to me. She recently conducted survey of 2,500 working parents about their childcare during the pandemic and found that 13% reported losing a job or reducing hours as a direct result of a lack of childcare. Now, there may be some help on the way San Diego County is looking to spend an extra 25 million in federal funds on grants for existing preschools. Also the state and County have begun to loosen restrictions on how daycares operate Chenowith. The owner of discovery preschools says those changes would help, but still would not bring her business's balance book back into the black. And she doesn't think raising fees would help because there's only so much parents can afford to pay. The only way we're going to make up what's happening right now is we all have to double our rates. Double keep painting Lum, and his wife are still looking for a preschool for their son. Speaker 1: 04:01 He says they could stomach a small tuition increase. Speaker 2: 04:05 Even now dentists, if you go to the dentist, they're going to charge you $20 PPE upcharge, but there would be a limit, but they said, Oh, well, it's going to cost 50% more. And you're like, Oh, well, that's that? That's, that's a, that's a huge job. Speaker 3: 04:19 Amy is KPBS investigative reporter, Claire Tresor and Claire. Welcome. Thank you. Has the recent shutdown of reopened indoor businesses in the County had an impact on daycare? Speaker 1: 04:33 No, it hasn't. Um, daycares are governed by a separate the state childcare licensing. And then, um, early on in the, in the pandemic, the County was also issuing specific guidance to them. Um, but at this point, no, uh, they can continue to operate the way that they have been with these restrictions of, you know, smaller classes and, and all of the, all of the various things that they have to abide by Speaker 3: 05:01 Now, initially during the pandemic daycare and preschools were only supposed to accept the kids of essential workers. If I remember correctly, is there a concern that we may be headed back in that direction? Speaker 1: 05:15 I mean, it's, I suppose it's a possibility, uh, I think, you know, the, the providers are always, you know, looking out for, for what may be coming, but I think because they already have so many restrictions on them, um, you know, that weren't there before the pandemic. Uh, I, I don't think that the thought is that, that we will go back there, but of course, you know, we never know, as we've seen, we never know what, what might happen. So I think, you know, it's not off the table that, that, that could, could come back again. Speaker 3: 05:50 Do the daycare providers have the option of expanding their enrollment guidelines from the, if they do it in a safe manner, Speaker 1: 05:59 Right? Yes. So, um, you know, early on, like I said, there was, there was this confusion, conf conflicting information from the County and the state and in the latest public health order for the County, they just say, okay, you know, refer to the state, whatever the state says, uh that's, that's what you need to do to kind of remove that confusion. Um, and the state has now said, uh, before they had these rules about, you know, your class sizes have to be this many kids and you can't have a teacher who goes between one class and another class. So it was mixing, um, you know, in, in different groups of kids. Now, the state has changed those two guidelines, not hard and fast rules. So they say, keep the classes as small as possible. Um, you know, try not to have mixing of teachers and different groups of kids. And so it's more, I think now about what the providers and the parents to send their kids to those providers feel comfortable with, um, as they, as they figure out how they're going to expand, if they're going to expand Speaker 3: 07:08 No children usually graduate from daycare and preschool into elementary school, but now San Diego schools will not be opening classrooms for at least the first part of the school year. How does that affect daycare? Yeah, Speaker 1: 07:21 Seriously. I mean, I would not want to be the parent of a kid that's supposed to be entering kindergarten in the fall because there may be leaving a preschool that's open, but headed to home school. Basically, one thing that I've seen is that some of these preschools, including the magic hours, preschool, which I mentioned in, in this story, she is now offering a kindergarten class, which she hasn't done in a long time. Um, so that parents have the option, they would have to pay, obviously, whereas if they're going to public school, uh, they wouldn't have to pay to send their kids to kindergarten. So they still, you know, have a physical place to go to. Um, the parents can go to work if they need to, and the kids will get that in person teaching. So I think it'll be interesting to see if we're going to have more of that, um, how parents are going to figure it out because obviously, you know, a five-year-old can't be left on his own to do education online. Um, especially if they're used to being in the classroom with preschool, Speaker 3: 08:26 Tell us more about the grants that may be on their way for San Diego daycare and preschools. It seems like this money may mean life or death to some of these businesses, Speaker 1: 08:36 Right. And that's what they're, they're trying to figure out right now. County staff have been given about a month, um, to go and, and try and figure out how to do it. Basically it's a challenge because they want to be able to make the grants large enough that they will actually make a difference. You know, if it ends up being a couple thousand dollars or something like that, I don't think that that'll really be the help that these providers say that they need, but if they make them too big, then there isn't going to be enough money to go around to all the providers that need it. Speaker 3: 09:08 I've been speaking with KPBS, investigative reporter, Claire Traeger, sir. Claire. Thank you. Speaker 1: 09:13 Thank you.