Children in Need: The Case for Child Care in West Virginia, After the Pandemics, Not Just for Families and for the Economy

And now, after an all-too-brief of recognition of child care as critical — not just for families, but for the economy — she’s afraid the same is true once again.

With most of the federal government’s pandemic relief money for child care now spent, it’s up to states to step in with new ideas to solve the many problems plaguing the sector.

Colagrosso, who opened A Place to Grow 28 years ago, poured the money into wages and bonuses, repairs and a new HVAC system, playground equipment for what had been an empty field, and even a bus to take older kids to and from school and, in the summers, on field trips.

Now that the September 30 deadline for spending the pandemic funds has passed, she and other child care providers are grappling with what they have to take back.

She has ended paid sick leave for part-timers and will end it for full-timers soon. She’s eliminated a floating position, someone to help out wherever extra help was needed.

Running her center in a rural, low-income part of West Virginia has never been easy. Colagrosso says that during the time she was trying to make payroll she asked for a loan from the bank.

Close to three-quarters of the families she serves fall under the 85% minimum income benchmark, making them eligible for state subsidies. Those with young children can hardly afford the cost, even if they pay full tuition. Colagrosso may need to raise her rates because of the lack of relief funds.

Brittany Smith says one of them could either work part-time or quit their job which they couldn’t really do. She and her husband have one-year-old twins and a 12-year old.

The pandemic bonuses proved life-changing for teachers including Destiny Vansickle, who saved enough money for a down payment on a two-bedroom house next to her sister — a “forever home” for her infant and her 4-year-old.

She says that having their own place and having their own yard has been nice, because the low-income housing where they lived had no yard to play in.

Tena Gee, who has been working at A Place to Grow for 13 years, said the bonuses allowed her to give her daughters Christmas for the first time.

She says she took on the bills that she was able to afford because of the extra money. “It felt like the work I was doing was finally being acknowledged. I feel like my pay is comparable to hard work I put in.

Child Care Subsidies After the Pandemic: The Kentucky Case for a Free Daycare for All Children under State Subsidiary Fees

Senate Democrats introduced a bill to extend child care stabilization funding for five years but the measure doesn’t have the support of Republicans.

Colagrosso used to think there was a lack of understanding about the value of child care by politicians and that it was a barrier to work for people.

“[Then] the pandemic hit and all this money came, and I thought, ‘Oh, they did understand all along. They understood. They just didn’t prioritize it,’” she says.

“That is a beautiful incentive,” says Jennifer Washburn, who owns and runs iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in Benton, Ky. Teachers who have children can work for me and their children are paid for by the state.

After seeing a decline in the number of children using child care subsidies, the state came up with a new idea.

Sarah Vanover, who was then director of Kentucky’s Division of Child Care, says that remained true even after the state raised the income eligibility threshold, making many more families eligible for subsidized care.

After a lot of calls to child care centers, Vanover decided there was no lack of need. Parents were desperate to get their children into daycare so that they could return to work. They were unable to find open spots.

Competition for workers grew during the Pandemic. Target started paying more than $17 an hour. Domino’s started at fifteen dollars an hour. In Kentucky, child care paid around $12 an hour.

“So when you’re thinking that you can do that job with all the kids and still make little money, or that you can work for Target and get $5 an hour more, it’s not a contest for working parents.”

Kentucky made day care free for child care workers through a change in licensing regulations. Around 4,000 children are receiving state subsidies for child care, of which 3,600 are the offspring of child care employees, according to Vanover.

It does cost the state more than $200 a week for an infant to be in the program, and less for older children. It seems like it was well spent.

Vanover is hearing from child care centers who are overjoyed that they finally are able to fully staff up their operations, allowing them to open up spots for working families.

After three years of employment, Colagrosso makes child care free for all children, but only those who are two and up.

In July, Settle quit her job as a middle school social worker, taking a nearly $10-an-hour pay cut to work full-time at A Place to Grow so that her 4-year-old daughter could attend for free.