Child Care Crisis

The Fragility of Child Care
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DECEMBER 15, 2021

By Dawn Nock, PEC/Building Early Links for Learning (BELL) Early Childhood Education Specialist

​Alarm bells have sounded. There is a national child care crisis, and Philadelphia is no exception in this experience.

“I’ve been in the industry for 30 years, we’ve always talked about the challenges of hiring... but, we've never seen this before,” according to Diane P. Barber, Executive Director, PA Child Care Association(1).​​

“When you are thinly staffed, if one person calls out sick on a given day, we need to close another classroom just for the day this is happening with increasing frequency,” notes Laura Perille, Nurture Early Education, Boston(2) 

Today's child care crisis is shining a fierce spotlight on what working families are facing and why they need access to high-quality, affordable child care. Families experiencing homelessness are often dually impacted. Some need child care during non-traditional hours, but cannot find providers to support their needs. Teachers have left employment at an alarming rate, limiting a center’s ability to serve more children or even to open. 
 
PEC’s BELL group recently hosted a panel discussion on “The Fragility of Child Care” to engage in a collaborative and provocative discussion surrounding the topic. Panelists and participants talked about the current child care crisis and its impact from a city, child care, housing sector, and parent perspective. Presenters included: 
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• Zakiyyah Boone, Chief Executive Officer of Wonderspring, 
• Kia Douglas, Vice President of Operations of Acclaim Academy,  

• Sadie Sprague-Lott, Education Coordinator of Families Forward Philadelphia emergency housing,  
• Tambra Hall, Youth Services Coordinator of Stenton Family Manor emergency housing, and  
• Olivia Hamilton, Case Manager, Women Against Abuse. 

Watch the presentation below. COVID’s impact on the early childhood classroom and industry is one we need to plan for and cannot afford to ignore. 
 
1.‘We knew it was inevitable’: Pa. child care centers wrestle with COVID surge; WHYY; Miles Bryan and Alan Yu, October 4, 2020  
2.“Child-care providers are facing a staffing crisis, forcing some to close with little notice to parents.” By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff. Updated August 17, 2021