Naomi Veerasammy and her 2-year-old daughter leave their Jamaica, Queens, apartment weekday mornings by 6:30 a.m. and head to the home of whichever friend or relative has agreed to watch the toddler that day.

Veersammy, a paraprofessional at a public elementary school, relies on a rotating cast of relatives and friends to watch her daughter for little to no pay, so she can still make it to work by 8 a.m. on the city bus.

The single mom nets under $2,000 a month in income and can鈥檛 afford full-time day care, which costs between .

鈥淚t鈥檚 very, very hard on me financially, mentally, physically to find a sitter for my daughter every day,鈥� Veersammy said, adding that her daughter needs stability.

Hoping for more stable child care, Veerasammy applied for worth an average of $300 a week for kids up to age 13 from low-income families across the state.

Veerasammy met , but the city . She鈥檚 now on a waitlist that has mushroomed to 10,000 city children. It鈥檚 a glaring indication of both the exploding child care affordability crisis for the city鈥檚 middle- and low-income families and the insufficiency of the current publicly funded options to help defray those costs, experts said.

The massive waitlist is also an acute crisis in and of itself 鈥� one that threatens to and shutter .

Andrea Davilar, a family child care provider in St. Albans, Queens, currently has only four of her 12 full-day seats filled. She suspects there are families on the waitlist who are interested in enrolling their kids, but can鈥檛 until they receive vouchers.

鈥淎re they trying to force us out of business?鈥� she said of the city鈥檚 waitlist. 鈥淭hey have to remember we are the backbone behind the workforce.鈥�

Losing family child care providers is something the city can ill afford at a time when incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani is hoping to 鈥� an expansion that would likely lean heavily on home-based programs.

That鈥檚 part of why some observers are encouraging Mamdani to make clearing the voucher waitlist his first step on what could be a long road to building free child care.

Issuing vouchers to those 10,000 kids would bring 鈥渧irtually free child care immediately鈥� to a wide swath of city families, said Lauren Melodia, an economist at the New School鈥檚 Center for New York City Affairs who studies child care.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the big vision 鈥� but you want to be able to deliver services to people while you鈥檙e building the big vision,鈥� she added.

Mamdani鈥檚 transition team didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.

Vouchers are a key tool for infant, toddler, after-school care

The vouchers can be redeemed at a wide range of child care providers or even used to pay approved relatives or friends. They鈥檙e an especially critical resource for families with kids 2 and under who don鈥檛 qualify for the city鈥檚 free 3-K and prekindergarten programs as well as those who need care outside of school hours.

Separate from the vouchers, the city funds a limited number of free seats for kids 2 and under from low-income families. But families often don鈥檛 know about the seats or how to apply, experts have said. Roughly 40% of those seats .

Officials in Mayor Eric Adams鈥� administration said the voucher program鈥檚 costs are soaring because of the program鈥檚 popularity, an increase in the voucher鈥檚 value, and a growing number of families who are supposed to receive subsidized child care as a condition of their federal welfare benefits.

Officials predict the city will need a total of $2.9 billion from the state in the upcoming budget 鈥� $1.8 billion more than the city typically receives 鈥� just to maintain the program.

Melodia, the economist, said the cost of providing vouchers to all the families on the waitlist for a year would be more modest: around $155 million.

Gordon Tepper, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said 鈥渘o one has done more to support and expand child care statewide鈥� than the governor, noting that she has doubled funding for the voucher program and wants to reach universal child care.

Demand for vouchers boomed as eligibility widened

The voucher program鈥檚 current budget crunch traces back to a .

Prior to the pandemic, the city to families receiving federal cash assistance, whose child care the city is required to subsidize because their benefits come with work requirements.

Those work requirements relaxed during the pandemic, keeping more families at home with less need for child care. The number of vouchers going to those families fell from over 55,000 in 2017 to under 19,000 in 2022.

That drop, combined with a one-time infusion of federal relief funds, allowed Hochul to significantly expand the eligibility criteria for the vouchers, opening them to families who make under 85% of the state median income, or roughly $114,000 a year for a family of four.

At the same time, Hochul nearly doubled the value of the vouchers, from an average of $154 a week in 2019 to $301 a week last year. The change made the vouchers more attractive to families and providers 鈥� and expensive for the state.

City families flocked to the vouchers. Enrollment in the low-income voucher program

The changes created a major budget cliff.

After federal pandemic aid dried up, city officials resumed enforcing work requirements, bringing an expected surge of families who receive federal assistance to request vouchers.

To avoid kicking thousands of families out of the program each month, city officials asked the state, which has historically funded most of the voucher system, to commit an additional $900 million to the $1 billion city program.

Hochul eventually agreed to free up an additional $350 million for the program, contingent on the city chipping in the same amount.

That infusion allowed the city to continue offering vouchers to the majority of families who were already enrolled, city officials said. But it wasn鈥檛 enough to enroll new families.

Starting last May, the city began placing eligible new applicants for low-income vouchers on a waitlist, which has grown from to its current 10,000.

Parents on voucher waitlist are desperate for relief

For families stuck on the waitlist, shouldering the costs of child care on their own often comes at the expense of other basic needs.

Milana Kochishvili, a mother of two elementary school children in southern Brooklyn, applied for vouchers after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer鈥檚, leaving the family to rely on her $72,000 annual income as a payroll specialist at a plumbing company. But she has been on the waitlist for months.

The only after-school option that works with her schedule costs about $800 a month. With $4,500 a month in take-home pay 鈥� nearly half of which goes to pay rent 鈥� it鈥檚 an expense she can鈥檛 afford.

鈥淚鈥檓 in a position now where I can only afford basics,鈥� she said. 鈥淕od forbid the car breaks or something like that, that鈥檚 it.鈥�

Adams recently , with a pledge to add 20,000 seats by 2027. But for some parents who work longer hours, the schedule of the city鈥檚 free programs don鈥檛 fit their needs.

Kimberly Watson, a single mom of an elementary student in Brooklyn, works as a caseworker in a hospital and needed an after-school program with longer hours. The private program she found costs $450 a month 鈥� an untenable expense for Watson, who takes home roughly $2,700 a month in income and spends $1,200 on rent.

She applied for a child care voucher and cleared the eligibility threshold, but was placed on the waitlist. Paying for child care has left her behind on some utility bills 鈥� and even on her rent, she said.

Getting a voucher would mean she can 鈥渏ust cut back on one thing that I have to worry about so I can catch up on other things.鈥�

For Veerasammy, the paraprofessional with a 2-year-old, there could be some economic relief on the horizon: that would give paraprofessionals a $10,000 recurring annual bonus.

But she said that money would go toward paying off credit card debt, leaving her still in need of a voucher.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Parents with children enrolled in a universal pre-kindergarten program in New Haven, Connecticut, increased their earnings by an average of 20.9%, according to a published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this week.

Families had more money because the pre-K reduced their child care costs while also enabling them to work more hours.

The study is sure to be ammunition in Minnesota鈥檚 longstanding debate about child care and universal pre-K, which has been a priority of some progressives for years. Former Gov. Mark Dayton made a strong push for pre-K in 2015 but was thwarted by the GOP-controlled House.

鈥淯niversal pre-K鈥� refers to programs that are free and aren鈥檛 means-tested, meaning they are available to all families regardless of household income. The New Haven program in the study had a limited number of slots, which were distributed using a lottery system, allowing researchers to compare the outcomes of families in the program to those who didn鈥檛 get a slot.

The authors found that for every dollar spent by the government to support the program, parents took home an additional $5.50, a better return on investment than the and the .

The New Haven universal pre-K program offered up to 10 hours of child care per day 鈥� which was key to the study鈥檚 findings.

Parents whose children were enrolled in the universal pre-K program got an average of 11 more hours of child care coverage per week, compared to parents of children in other child care programs.

The additional child care coverage allowed parents to work an average of 12 hours per week more than parents with other forms of child care 鈥� and reap the economic benefits.

Parents with children in other child care programs caught up to the hours and earnings of universal pre-K parents by the time their kids entered middle school.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on and .

Jessica Heavner describes it as the hardest decision she鈥檚 ever had to make.

Heavner, of Federal Way, was working in accounting at the local school district, and when it came time for her annual cost of living raise two years ago, she realized the pay bump would put her over the state鈥檚 income limit for subsidized child care.

She would be making too much to get help from the state for care for her three children but too little to pay for care on her own, given the high costs.

Heavner, a single parent, opted to find a lower-paying job with fewer hours in order to keep the subsidy 鈥� even though her previous job had better pay and benefits.

鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 trapped in poverty,鈥� Heavner said.

She鈥檚 not alone in her predicament. from Child Care Aware of Washington found that a lack of child care in the state costs families and employers billions of dollars annually. Employee turnover and absenteeism and lost family income associated with child care cost about $6.9 billion last year, or around $870 per resident.

The report analyzes survey data from Zogby Analytics, which sampled 606 parents in Washington, and applies the findings to the state鈥檚 1.5 million parents with children 12 years or younger.

Nearly 40% of parents surveyed reported quitting work or getting fired since their children were born. About 62% reported missing at least one day of work in the last three months, and one in 10 had been out of work for at least a year since their children were born.

The cost of care, disruptions in availability and a lack of care options are all problems.

Parents who cannot secure care may not be able to find employment or take part in job skills training. Those who are employed can face reduced hours or missed promotion opportunities.

This lost productivity translated to a $1.5 billion dent last year in federal, state and local tax collections, according to the report. It also reduces Washington鈥檚 economic output by an estimated $6 billion each year, the report said.

Last year, the report said, employers lost $1.5 billion due to employee turnover because of child care and another $2.6 billion because of employees missing work due to child care issues. Meanwhile, families lost $2.9 billion in income because of child-care-related time off.

鈥淭his really puts into stark numbers that this is not just a problem for a handful of families, and not just a problem that child care providers need to face and deal with,鈥� said Genevieve Stokes, director of government relations at Child Care Aware of Washington. 鈥淭his is something that鈥檚 hurting the overall economy.鈥�

The problem is not going to go away unless there is more state spending on child care, Stokes said. Recent investments in this area through the capital gains tax and the Fair Start for Kids Act have been helpful, but she added Washington needs to do more to make sure the families and providers are not just 鈥渢reading water.鈥�

As part of the Fair Start for Kids Act that passed three years ago, the Legislature is supposed to increase eligibility for the state鈥檚 child care subsidy program for those who make 70% of the state鈥檚 median household income starting next year. Subsidies are currently available for those who make 60% of the state median income. for a household of two is $6,892. For a household of three, it鈥檚 $8,514, and for a household of four, it鈥檚 $10,136.

Stokes said she hopes the state honors that commitment next year as doing so could help many families who can鈥檛 quite afford to pay for care on their own.

Advocates, providers and families are also pushing for a statewide cap on what all families in Washington would pay for child care, likely set at 7% of their income. That change, however, would be expensive for the state, and as lawmakers are looking at this upcoming legislative session, it likely won鈥檛 become a reality anytime soon.

After struggling to find a child care that she felt comfortable with, Heavner said she finally found someone who she trusts to care for her kids and who understands her financial situation. In order to continue affording this care, Heavner said she will likely have to stay in her current job and work minimal hours until her kids are older.

But she said she鈥檚 still scared of accidentally making too much money one year and losing her subsidy. She said a statewide cap on child care costs would be a blessing.

鈥淚t would make me not worry about making so much money,鈥� Heavner said. 鈥淚t鈥檇 make me not worry about improving my life while having young children.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on and .

And there are costs on top of that associated with missing work to birth or bond with a new baby. America is the only developed country to lack a paid family leave program – so even after a child is born many parents go on unpaid leave to recover. Some who do may put their jobs in jeopardy or delay going back until they can find (and afford) child care. But in the United States, our child care programs are expensive and many families live in places without any access to care 鈥� so going back to work may be problematic, adding another cost to the already mounting bills.

All of these anti-family policies 鈥� no paid leave, costly health care, and lack of child care 鈥� have contributed to the unique stress of being a parent in America. The White House is spot on to want to address this ongoing maternal health crisis, an initiative they unveiled in 2022 which has now seen some positive results.

One of the popular programs involves the provision of Newborn Supply Kits, which delivers a box of baby supplies to new parents. The kits are modeled on successful programs in other countries, such as Finland (though in Finland the kits are delivered as baby boxes and the box can be used as a crib) and the ). And in the United States, we have helping with their promotion, because what new parent doesn鈥檛 prefer their diapers to be endorsed by a celebrity?

In addition to diapers, for parents of new babies, such as a thermometer, nasal aspirator, Vitamin D3, diaper rash ointment, diapers, wipes, receiving blankets/swaddle, socks, burp cloth, shampoo and lotion. There鈥檚 also a voucher for grocery delivery, and details on how to access the maternal mental health hotline and government services, with a goal of reducing the stigma associated with seeking out such help.

In 2023, 3000 newborn supply kits were distributed and the expectation is that 10,000 more will be delivered in 2024. The program is part of the White House鈥檚 larger effort to make life easier during major life transitions 鈥� having a child being one of them.聽 The initial program was piloted in Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico, and in 2024, it will expand to seven more states (Alabama, California, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee and Texas). The goal, according to the White House, is to expand this to a national program supporting all families with the basic items they need in the vulnerable postpartum months.

But running a successful program takes resources, which is why a bipartisan group of four members of Congress (Republican Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana, Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier of Washington, Republican Rep. Marriannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Democratic Rep. Nanette Barragan of Califiornia) that would appropriate $5 million in funds over five years to create a new national program for the Newborn Supply Kit initiative. Instead of operating as a pilot program in just 10 states, it could operate as a national one.

But can our maternal mental health crisis really be helped by diapers?

The newborn supply kits are one-time gifts 鈥� designed as more of a peace offering to families and a way to share what government services might be available to other families, without the stigma typically associated with seeking out such assistance. The idea is that bringing crucial supplies directly to new parents will reduce the time, stress and burden on them.

But the problem with newborn supply kits is that they are just that – supplies. Diapers and wipes may cost time and money, but it鈥檚 a fraction of the cost and time associated with the biggest single expense for most families: child care. Within the long list of achievements and initiatives lauded on the White House Blueprint for the Maternal Health Crisis, providing more access to affordable, quality child care is largely absent.

This is not to make light of the White House鈥檚 accomplishments on maternal mental health, particularly with respect to extending Medicaid coverage and coming up with better metrics and information reporting surrounding maternal emergency, obstetrics and pregnancy-related deaths. And yes, receiving diapers from a government agency may be the olive branch needed to show that further assistance might be available. But without a targeted look at the , the true costs and stressors of raising a child in the United States continues to climb.

COLUMBIA 鈥� Fewer families in South Carolina will receive help covering the cost of child care as federal COVID-19 aid dries up and the state replaces just a quarter of that lost funding.

For about three years, amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the federal government raised income limits, making more parents eligible for federal dollars to pay for child care. But the last of that aid ends in about nine weeks.

State legislators agreed to put several million in state taxes toward the program, but not enough to cover all the parents newly helped by the expanded rules.

About 2,250 children will no longer qualify for child care scholarships, based on data provided by Department of Social Services spokeswoman Connelly-Anne Ragley.

Those scholarships cover most, if not all, of annual daycare costs through direct payments to eligible child care providers for every child whose parents鈥� income qualifies.

Before October 2020, working parents qualified for the federally funded daycare aid if their pay equaled 85% or less of the state median income. In South Carolina, that meant at or below $64,063 for a family of three.

But for those applying between October 2020 and September 2023, their income had to fall below 300% of the federal poverty level, or $74,580 or less for that same family of three.

DSS estimated it would take $10 million to continue covering child care expenses for 3,000 children under the expanded eligibility rules, and agency Director Michael Leach asked for that amount in his budget request to lawmakers.

Gov. Henry McMaster, , recommended $5 million instead.

In the end, legislators agreed to put $2.5 million toward the scholarships in the budget that started July 1.

Based on data provided by Social Services, that鈥檚 enough to cover aid for 750 of those 3,000 children.

鈥淎 lot of families were very upset because they 鈥� grew accustomed to having this benefit,鈥� Ragley said when parents were informed last fall that the money was expiring.

When the one-year scholarships dry up depends on when parents applied. Some families鈥� aid may have already ended. Last September marked the end of the expanded eligibility rules. So, the final daycare payments for scholarships awarded in September 2023 will be the end of this September.

Martha Strickland leads First Steps, which oversees private providers in the state鈥檚 for poor 4-year-olds. Parents with 4-year-olds in private preschool can also get scholarships for child care to cover the rest of their workday, both for their up to 12 years old. Strickland said she knows what a godsend the aid can be for families.

She talked about one mother who cried on the phone after finding out she qualified for free child care for her children, calling it 鈥渁 miracle鈥� for her family.

While DSS didn鈥檛 get the $10 million it requested, the agency is glad it got some money to disperse. The agency is still determining the new eligibility parameters for how to distribute it, Ragley said.

鈥淲e know the need of families to receive help paying for child care is great,鈥� she said.

Between October 2020 and July 2023, the agency granted more than 71,200 52-week scholarships for children of parents whose income fell in the expanded eligibility levels. That total number includes children counted multiple times if they received child care aid year after year, Ragley said.

How much each scholarship is worth depends on the age of the child and how highly a child care center is rated.

For a child care center to accept children under scholarships, they have to volunteer to be part of the state鈥檚 ABC Quality Program and meet health and safety standards beyond state minimum requirements, such as background checks for all staff members.

Ragley said this gives parents a sense of security when having to leave their children in the care of others while they go to work or attend school.

As a working mother herself, Ragley said she and her husband have to scramble when they don鈥檛 have child care. Luckily, they have paid time off of work they can use.

鈥淣ot everybody has that luxury or family who can step in and help,鈥� she said.

The rising cost of child care may also mean a parent ultimately chooses to stay home and out of the workforce, Ragley added.

鈥淏ecause by the time they pay the cost of child care out of the salary they make, they either break even or the margin is small,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat is a population that, if they had access to affordable child care, could be additional workers that could fill the jobs that are open in the state.鈥�

Ragley said the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on long-standing child care issues in South Carolina and nationwide.

The agency knows it will need more funding for its programs in the next state budget and beyond.

Its budget request will likely again include money for child care scholarships, as well as wage bonuses to encourage more people to enter the child care industry, startup grants for new centers and tax incentives for employers that offer child care as a benefit to their workers.

Ragley pointed to Georgia as an example, where businesses that provide or sponsor child care for employees are eligible for a state tax credit offsetting up to 75% of the cost.

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce advocated for legislators to update South Carolina鈥檚 own long-standing but little-used tax break offered to employers that start or operate child care for workers or provide direct payments for private options. But the issue ultimately was not taken up.

Maine is subsidizing child care for those making up to 125% of the state median income, according to the Center for American Progress based in Washington, D.C.

Michigan is extending its COVID-19 relief policy, offering subsidies at 200% of the federal poverty level.

Minnesota is putting an additional $252 million this fiscal year into its scholarship program and promises to add $58.9 million more in the following budget year. And Montana is expanding child care subsidy eligibility up to 185% of the federal poverty level, according to the center.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

The sector in discussion is child care, and the discussion focuses on what can happen if private equity firms take over a larger share of the child care market. Slaughter was speaking on a panel at a day-long event in Washington D.C. to mark the by the National Women鈥檚 Law Center and Open Markets Institute: 鈥淐hildren Before Profits: Constraining Private Equity Profiteering to Advance Child Care as a Public Good.鈥澛�

The concerns about private equity鈥檚 influence are well founded. by researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of Chicago found that private equity takeovers result in significant job losses. These firms reduce wages, benefits and staffing at firms they acquire 鈥� with devastating consequences to thousands of workers, their families and their entire communities. Private equity funds also should their tactics to maximize profits fail. And for a business like child care, primed to receive a possible influx of federal and state investment, private equity鈥檚 interest in the sector is likely to increase.

鈥淭he report isn鈥檛 anti-private equity, it鈥檚 pro-child care,鈥� said Melissa Boteach, vice president for income security and child care/early learning at the National Women鈥檚 Law Center and one of the authors of the report. Boteach and her co-author, Audrey Stienon from Open Markets Institute, advocate that child care should be understood as a public good that鈥檚 in need of sustained government investment. The report lays out a vision of how a robust child care system would provide universal access to high quality child care with appropriately compensated providers. The goal, says Boteach, is that if private equity firms, or other outside investors, are going to enter the child-care market, they should do so in a way that upholds this vision.

The timing of this report coincides with several states 鈥� including , and 鈥� instituting record levels of government investment in child care. from the First Five Years Fund also shows strong bipartisan voter support for more child care funding, with 93 percent of voters believing it鈥檚 important for working parents of young children to have access to affordable quality child care programs.

Private equity has a history of chasing after industries that receive sustained sources of federal funding. Eileen Applebaum, co-director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and an , who also served as a panelist at the event, detailed the way in which private equity firms began investing in a substantial share of hospice care services. Much of hospice care is funded by Medicare, which pays a fixed amount to the hospice agency for each day an eligible Medicare beneficiary is enrolled, regardless of whether the patient receives actual services on a particular day.

Other tactics from the private equity 鈥減laybook鈥� as Applebaum discussed, include myriad anti-competitive behaviors, including consolidation, creating higher debt burdens, cutting labor costs and staff benefits, and enacting policies that maximize short-term profits to the private equity fund while passing on the liabilities and burdens to the individual companies they鈥檇 invested in. Applebaum points to the wide discrepancies in profits and patient care for hospice services: profit margins for a nonprofit hospice provider were around 4-5%, and for those owned by private equity firms, it was 19 percent. Nonprofits are more likely to use funds to invest in staffing and the business, debt-financed acquisitions to restructure these companies to maximize their profit margins, and try to sell them to the highest bidder within three to five years.

In the case of hospice, Applebaum that private equity hospice providers have higher rates of neglect, low staffing and are more likely to pass on the higher costs to patients and families.

Child care is in a unique position of being primarily a small business industry, with low profit margins yet with high demand because it is a necessity for many Americans to go to work and for the economy to function. 鈥淎 textbook example of a broken market鈥� is how Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin in the United States. Yet if a child care center is forced to declare bankruptcy, the private equity company may still see a high return on the investment, even though the individual businesses may have shuttered, and the communities that rely on such child care centers may no longer have a viable option.

Boteach emphasized that the presence of private equity and the private sector itself is not problematic – and that the existence of more child care options with high quality care can be a profitable industry if sufficient government funding is provided. Often the individual child care centers are owned by women, many of them Black and brown, with strong ties to the communities they serve. Making such industries profitable so that they can pay their employees a living wage is a noble goal, she said. 鈥淭he problem,鈥� Boteach explains, 鈥渋s that private equity firms have a traditional playbook, whereby the firms collect the profits and pass the risk and liabilities back to the companies they鈥檝e taken over. And with the influx of possible public funding, external investors should have guardrails in place to protect the child care industry and the families they serve.鈥�

The report is coming out at a moment in which private equity is poised to enter the child care market, but it is 鈥渘ot yet entrenched,鈥� said Audrey Stienon of Open Markets Institute, and the report鈥檚 co-author. 鈥淚t is possible to get ahead of the problem and change patterns.鈥�

Experts encouraged action to counter the threats of private equity takeover. This can be done at both the state and federal level, though guardrails surrounding government funding.聽Examples cited included to create standards and restrict profit for for-profit preschools that receive state funding. In Massachusetts, efforts are underway to limit the amount of state funding any larger company can receive. And for an industry like child care, which many families rely on for their own work, there is potential for real momentum in organizing parents to insist on such accountability measures for the involvement of outside investment groups like private equity. And as Rebecca Slaughter told the group, they need to bring such examples of poor conduct to the attention of the FTC. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 solve a problem if I don鈥檛 know about it,鈥� she said.

Child care may have a constituency that is primed to be vocal proponents. 鈥淧arents of children are a really good group of people to organize,鈥� said Eileen Applebaum.聽 鈥淵ou have to let them know that they are not alone.鈥�

Support for this project was provided by .

More than 250 Kentucky child care providers responsible for 150,000 children across the state sent lawmakers a letter Tuesday pleading for more support, saying in the state budget 鈥渋s not enough鈥� as their industry is 鈥�.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The letter asks lawmakers to pass a supplemental lifeline funding bill in the final days of the 2024 legislative session Friday and Monday.

Such support, the providers said, should 鈥渁t a minimum:鈥� 

Provide routine, direct sustainability payments to child care providers to help keep doors open, stem tuition hikes and prevent wage cuts. Maintain Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) eligibility at 85% of state median income to prevent thousands of parents from losing access to this aid, which could result in many dropping out of the workforce and withdrawing kids from child care. The current version of the budget hold eligibility at. Provide enrollment-based CCAP reimbursements to providers. 

鈥淲ithout these crucial supports, there is no chance of survival for many of our child care centers and home-based care providers,鈥� the letter states. 鈥淔amilies will be left with even fewer options that are more expensive, quality will suffer, and many will decide it is better to leave the workforce.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Kentucky鈥檚 child care industry 鈥� which some would like to 鈥� is about to lose the federal COVID-19 dollars that helped stabilize the industry during the last few years. This leaves many centers to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents, cut services and even close,

The budget that the legislature passed 鈥痠ncludes $42 million in new spending on child care in 2025 and $50 million in 2026. That includes $1.3 million a year to cover the cost of background checks for potential employees and  $1.5 million a year to add a six-month adjustment period for families who are no longer eligible for CCAP.

The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy previously estimated that $300 million is needed to replace the federal aid that鈥檚 ending. The state Department for Community Based Services says the need is closer to $100 million.

In its  of the legislature鈥檚 budget, the center says: 鈥淲hile all of the policies the budget funds are necessary to support鈥� 鈥痑nd the 鈥�,鈥� 鈥痠n light of the coming fiscal cliff, particularly with the loss of quarterly stipends to child care providers previously funded with federal dollars.鈥�

The largest legislative proposal for child care this year, . Its sponsor cited its $300 million price tag as the main reason behind the demise. 

Lawmakers return to Frankfort on Friday and Monday for the last two days of the 2024 session, during which they could pass additional legislation. But they must send Gov. Andy Beshear veto-proof bills at that point, since they will no longer have the ability to override him. 

鈥淎n investment in child care is an investment in the commonwealth鈥檚 present and future,鈥� the child care letter states. 鈥淭he Kentucky General Assembly should step up and make that investment now, before you gavel out on April 15. We cannot hold on until the next budget.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Letter to lawmakers from child care providers

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

Long awaited financial help will be coming to 鈥溾�� Kentuckians who are raising a minor relative such as a grandchild or niece, thanks to a bill that received unanimous approval in the House Friday.

now heads to Gov. Andy Beshear鈥檚 desk for a signature or veto. It passed .

, president of the , hailed the bill鈥檚 passage as a 鈥済ame changer for a lot of families in the future.鈥�

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The bill allows kinship caregivers to change their placement status from temporary custody to a child-specific foster home, a change that will come with financial assistance, as the .

It will also let children being removed from homes list their potential preferred caregivers, allowing them more say in their placements.

Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, brought the Senate bill to the House floor. The bill, she said, is all about giving kinship care families in Kentucky more flexibility.

鈥淭his flexibility will close the services, supports and resource gap that is currently plaguing many of the families,鈥� she said.

, who has been raising two grandchildren for nearly a decade, is a longtime champion of kinship families and renewed her push for help from the legislature this year. She told the Lantern on Friday that the bill鈥檚 passage was 鈥渉ugely emotional.鈥� She said she cried in the House gallery  as the bill was approved.

The fact that both chambers passed the measure unanimously 鈥渟ays very clearly this needed to happen,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 the right thing to do. I mean, there鈥檚 just absolutely no doubt anywhere.鈥�

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said  final passage of HB 151 means 鈥渢housands of Kentucky鈥檚 kinship and fictive kin families flat out won today.鈥�

鈥淛ust as these caregivers step up at a moment鈥檚 notice to provide a safe space for their young loved ones to grow and heal, our General Assembly has stepped up once again to prioritize the well-being of these children who have experienced abuse or neglect,鈥� Brooks said.

Still, work remains, Hatfield said. She鈥檚 closely watching a that, if passed, would establish a . Members would study kinship in Kentucky and submit findings by Dec. 1, which Hatfield said could provide needed data revealing needs facing kinship caregivers.

鈥淚鈥檓 hoping that the study will clearly identify those things, educate the legislators as well, educate the public, and then we can start working on the rest of the supports that are needed for these families that are kind of caught in a gap that don鈥檛 have anything,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 have high hopes for that.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

Legislation that would require school districts with 4-year-old kindergarten to collaborate with community child care providers got a mixed response at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

Child care providers testified in favor of the proposal, /. It鈥檚 the only one of 10 child care bills Republicans have offered this session that has won broad support from people who work in the child care field.

Witnesses from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) 鈥� the state agency that oversees licensed child care providers in Wisconsin 鈥� spoke favorably about the proposal鈥檚 objective while raising questions about some of its details. DCF鈥檚 testimony was for information, not an endorsement or in opposition, said Deputy Secretary Jeff Pertl.

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The Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which on its website , testified against the legislation. Tom McCarthy, DPI鈥檚 deputy state superintendent, said that 鈥渇rom a value perspective DPI does not oppose using the community approach to grow [child care] opportunities across the state,鈥� but that the bill presented problems as written.

The legislation, , aims to shore up child care providers by bringing back 4-year-olds, which many providers lost when school districts took on 4K kindergarten programs.

The age group is more economical for providers to care for. Under state regulations, children who are 4 to 5 years old require a ratio of one teacher for up to 13 children. For younger ages, fewer children are allowed per teacher, with the lowest ratio for children age 2 or younger: one teacher for every four children.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wisconsin school districts began expanding their 4K offerings, Pertl testified Tuesday at the Senate Education Committee hearing. An Assembly hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Wisconsin allows schools to contract with licensed child care providers to carry out their 4K programming, known as 4K community collaboration or 鈥渕ixed delivery.鈥� That has diminished considerably as more districts take on the programs themselves.

Pertl said about one out of four Wisconsin school districts that offer 4K are collaborating with child care providers.

Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Fall Creek) told the committee that in conversations she and her Republican colleagues had with providers over the last several months, the loss of 4K children 鈥渋s one thing that came up over and over 鈥� what cut the legs out from under the child care industry.鈥�

Providers 鈥渨ere left with the more expensive, younger, staff-intensive mix of children to serve,鈥� said Priya Bhatia, DCF early care and education division administrator.聽 鈥淭his bill would provide more stability and continuity of care for children and families.鈥�

The legislation would require school districts offering 4K kindergarten to contract with local child care providers to provide those classes if they wanted to in addition to the 4K classes that the school district operates.

Enlisting more child care centers as 4K providers for public schools would also make it easier on parents who need 鈥渨raparound care鈥� 鈥� child care before and after the kindergarten classes, Bhatia said.

If families must travel between a school鈥檚 part-day 4K program and a child care provider, 鈥渢his causes disruption for children and can be a transportation burden for families,鈥� Bhatia said. 鈥淭he 4K community approach reduces these disruptions by providing a more seamless educational program and wraparound experience in a single location offered by a provider that parents already know and trust.鈥�

Bhatia said there were three primary concerns that would make 4K community collaboration more successful if they were addressed in the bill:

Counting children in 4K as the equivalent of a full-time student under the state鈥檚 school financing system. Currently 4K students count as one-half of a full-time student when state aid is calculated.聽Working out a payment formula for school districts that contract with child care providers that both parties to the contract can accept.

The bill would require districts to pay at least 95% of the local per-pupil funding for 4K students to the providers enrolling those students, with the district retaining up to 5% for administrative costs. Bhatia suggested it would be more appropriate for the child care provider and the district to work out 鈥渢he appropriate balance鈥� between each party.

Ensuring uniform licensing standards focused on the 4K teachers. Child care providers have questioned DPI鈥檚 licensing standards that cover children from birth to third grade as 鈥渕ore geared toward early and elementary education rather than 4K,鈥� Bhatia said.

The legislation would require child care workers who teach in a 4K program to have a bachelor鈥檚 degree or an associate degree and to be enrolled in a bachelor鈥檚 degree program with a four-year timeline.

The differences in licensing standards between teachers employed in school district 4K programs and those working with that age group in child care centers is one problem that skeptics of the legislation have pointed to.

Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) questioned what he called 鈥渆liminating the professional standards for teachers in the bill.鈥� The bill鈥檚 Assembly author, Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart), reiterated the bill鈥檚 educational requirements for child care workers and stressed that they would be overseen by DCF.

鈥淭hese people are already taking care of these children,鈥� added Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron), the Senate author.

鈥淏ut there鈥檚 a difference between child care and school,鈥� Larson replied, calling teachers professionals who have attained a degree.

鈥淓arly child care providers are professionals who go through and get a degree in educating children in early childhood,鈥� responded Goeben, a former child care provider, adding that 鈥渋t鈥檚 a little demeaning to say they would be less able to educate in their field and their expertise.鈥�

McCarthy, of DPI, said one concern that the department had was that requiring districts to contract with child care providers to provide 4K lessons could conflict with the heightened attention to early literacy and reading under legislation enacted in 2023. That law includes uniform curriculum standards, while child care centers participating would have greater freedom in curriculum selection under the bill.

McCarthy also questioned how contracted child care providers would respond to children with disabilities or other special needs.

Corrine Hendrickson, a child care provider and organizer of an advocacy and support network for providers and parents, said child care providers involved in community collaboration have a good track record of聽 helping children with special needs get services.

鈥淐hildren with special needs are more likely to be identified and receive supports in communities that collaborate, as the child care program knows who to talk to at the school,鈥� Hendrickson testified.

Hendrickson said that the legislation also supports federal funding changes that are going to favor mixed delivery. Other states are already further along in focusing on the community collaboration approach 鈥渢o promote every child having access to high quality preschool without impeding access to working parents [for] the care and education of all children between the ages of six weeks and 12 years,鈥� she said.

Joan Beck, a child care administrator in Dodge County, said that her center had enrolled 4-year-olds but lost them to a 4K program that opened in her community. She said her staff considers parents 鈥渙ur partners鈥� while supporting them in the early education and development of their children.

鈥淲e take education seriously,鈥� Beck said. 鈥淥ur education starts at birth.鈥� DCF, she added, provided extensive oversight that contributed to her child care program鈥檚 quality.

鈥淩ather than looking at it as, we鈥檙e taking [children] out of the public schools, why can鈥檛 it be we鈥檙e partnering with the public schools?鈥� Beck said. 鈥淟ook at us as reasonable people who can do the job.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on and .

In his final go, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb wants to double down on K-12 literacy initiatives and bolster workforce training but won鈥檛 seek specific policy related to growing concerns around .

His reading plan could result in holding thousands more third-graders back a year in school.

The Republican governor on Monday unveiled his 2024 agenda, the last in his eight-year term. His policy goals additionally emphasize a need for expanded pre-K and childcare voucher eligibility, as well as increased access to disaster relief at the local level.

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Specifically, Holcomb鈥檚 agenda targets earlier access to IREAD-3 testing and ensuring Hoosier students are mastering foundational literacy skills. The latest reading scores showed that .

Currently, the IREAD-3 exam is only required in third grade. The governor鈥檚 administration is hoping to require testing in second grade, too. Doing so could help teachers and parents better identify struggling students and implement additional supports 鈥� such as through summer school or after-school tutoring 鈥� before kids get too far behind.

Students who fail the standardized exam can already be held back, but there are exceptions if a child is disabled or an English-language learner.

State officials 鈥� including Holcomb 鈥� maintain that too many Indiana third graders who can鈥檛 adequately read are advancing to the fourth grade. His agenda seeks to tighten up the state鈥檚 retention policy to require third grade students who fail IREAD-3 to be held back for at least one year, starting in 2025.

None of Holcomb鈥檚 priorities would require lawmakers to reopen the biennial state budget during the short legislative session, however.

鈥淯ltimately, this (agenda) will be very interactive 鈥� looking through a lens of our customers, citizens and local leaders 鈥� how they may access all the programs that the legislature, year after year after year, appropriates dollars to. These are programs that really do make a difference,鈥� he said during an agenda announcement at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually impaired in Indianapolis. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 a local government or philanthropic organizations or local leaders, some don鈥檛 know about some of the programs. And so, how can we better connect chambers, local leaders, etcetera, in a very easy way?鈥�

Indiana鈥檚 General Assembly reconvened Monday for the start of the 2024 session.

Legislative leaders they鈥檙e not taking on new and controversial subjects, promising a 鈥渜uieter鈥� non-budget session.

While Holcomb鈥檚 agenda is closely aligned with goals expressed last month by Republican legislative leaders, his policy recommendations leave out issues like Medicaid reimbursement rates, gambling, and regulation of large water transfers.

Improving literacy

An 鈥� with the force of law 鈥� dictates Indiana鈥檚 existing third grade retention policy.

According to data from the Indiana Department of Education, in 2023, 13,840 third-graders did not pass I-READ-3. Of those, 5,503 received an exemption and 8,337 did not. Of those without an exemption, 95% moved onto 3rd grade while only 412 were retained.

Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said Monday that adding a legislative piece will make clear what retention means, and include 鈥渢he proactive approaches鈥� schools should implement in kindergarten, first and second grades.

鈥淭his will just really add clarity for the state and also help us stay laser focused on the fact that we have to have students reading by the end of third grade,鈥� Jenner continued, although she said the state board of education could make changes on its own, if it had to. 鈥淏ut I think there is a significant appetite with both the House and the Senate to look at potential legislation options.鈥�

Holcomb鈥檚 goal is that 95% of students in third grade can read proficiently by 2027. State officials said they can still meet that mark 鈥� but only if immediate changes and early-warning systems are put in place.

A pilot program spearheaded by the state education department has already helped hundreds of Indiana schools administer IREAD-3 to second graders as a way to help parents and teachers determine if reading interventions are needed for younger students before they take the exam.

The 2022-23 school year was the second year schools could opt-in. The test 鈥� likely to rebranded as 鈥淚READ鈥� 鈥� was taken by almost 46,000 second graders. That鈥檚 up from about 20,000 second graders who tested the year before.

鈥淚t is a very, very popular option for schools because it provides whether the child can read, whether they鈥檙e on track, or whether they鈥檙e potentially at risk, and it provides that data at a younger age,鈥� Jenner said. 鈥淭hat then can be used by the parent and the teacher to best support that child鈥檚 learning in the future.鈥�

State officials noted that many students are expected to receive additional reading help during the summer.

Funding for summer school 鈥� equal to about $18.4 million per year under the current state budget 鈥� is mostly going toward students taking physical education and health courses in the summer, Jenner said.

鈥淲hat an opportunity we have to better leverage that funding on the students who are not able to read or may not have numeracy skills,鈥� she emphasized, adding that, for now, policymakers want to 鈥渇ocus on the current budget line that we have,鈥� rather than appropriating new funds.

Although Jenner, Holcomb and Republican state legislative leaders have said that high rates of absenteeism are likely contributing to , policy to address student attendance and chronic absenteeism is not included in Holcomb鈥檚 agenda.

that about 40% of students statewide missed 10 or more school days last year, and nearly one in five were 鈥渃hronically absent鈥� for at least 18 days.

Even so, Holcomb said Monday that he will 鈥減articipate in the discussion that the legislators might have鈥� about attendance.

鈥淚 plead with parents to not underestimate the impact that your child not being in school has on them adversely, long-term. 鈥� We鈥檙e past COVID now, and so parents need to understand the adverse impact of keeping their child out of school,鈥� the governor said. 鈥淭here just is a correlation. I don鈥檛 think it takes a rocket scientist to realize that the less time you鈥檙e (in school), the less you鈥檙e going to learn.鈥�

鈥淲e want to make sure that in this discussion of chronic absenteeism, that what we鈥檙e doing is going to make a difference,鈥� Holcomb continued. 鈥淎nd I will continue to use my platform to plead with parents, begging them to make sure if their child can be in school, they need to be.鈥�

The governor鈥檚 priorities also call for a mandatory computer science course to be completed by students before graduating high school. He additionally wants to task Indiana鈥檚 public colleges and universities with offering more three-year bachelor鈥檚 degrees, and make it easier for students to earn two-year associate degrees at the state鈥檚 four-year institutions.

Expanding child care

A multi-part plan to expand early childhood education and child care options is also high on Holcomb鈥檚 agenda.

The governor鈥檚 plan aims to increase the number of child care and early education providers across Indiana by adding credentialing training to state-sponsored grant programs and making more employees of child care entities eligible for On My Way Pre-K and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) vouchers.

Holcomb鈥檚 administration further wants to reduce the minimum age of caregivers; from 21 to 18 for infant and toddler caregivers, and from 18 to 16 for supervised caregivers in school-aged classrooms.

鈥淲e know that to accommodate more kiddos in early learning environments, we need to have more workers there,鈥� Holcomb said. 鈥淒ropping age limits down 鈥� that doesn鈥檛 mean dropping standards down. We think with the proper training and standards in place and oversight 鈥� you should qualify and be eligible to work there.鈥�

Accessing disaster relief

Holcomb said Monday he will also work with legislators to help Hoosiers gain easier access to funds in the wake of both man-made and natural disasters.

Broadly, that means increasing the amount of relief dollars individual counties can receive, in addition to making it easier for individual Hoosiers to access aid.

The governor鈥檚 plan includes a proposal to allow some dollars from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) to help local units implement hazard mitigation plans that assist in protecting against future damages. Mitigation could come in the form of newly-built tornado shelters or participation in the National Flood Insurance Program, for example.

Counties with such plans in place could also qualify for increased reimbursement after a disaster.

Holcomb鈥檚 administration is also seeking to bump the maximum potential award for individual assistance from $10,000 to $25,000. Those funds can help Hoosiers with post-disaster damages and debris removal, among other needs.

Holcomb said he鈥檚 confident the state can afford to increase available aid, noting that Indiana鈥檚 disaster relief fund is financed by firework sales.

There would still be caps on how much could be dispersed, however, which officials said helps ensure the state fund isn鈥檛 depleted.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

Nearly a quarter of undergraduate university and college students are parents, but as they struggle to balance academic and family responsibilities, they are graduating at dramatically lower rates than students without children.

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross (NC-02) and U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (GA-07) are looking to change that with a bill filed Thursday, part of work Ross has been pursuing throughout her lawmaking career.

鈥淚鈥檝e been working on this issue for decades,鈥� Ross, who previously served in the North Carolina General Assembly, told Newsline this week.

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About 22 percent of all undergraduates are parents, according to . That number is higher at private, for-profit institutions 鈥� about 45 percent.

But studies show are able to get their undergraduate degree by age 30.

Ross鈥檚 bill, the 鈥淯nderstanding Student Parent Outcomes Act of 2023,鈥� (see below) would require the US Department of Education to collect data on barriers to graduating college and find best practices for improving graduation rates for university and college students who are also parents or caregivers.

鈥淭his should be a bipartisan issue,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淲omen who have children in their teens or twenties 鈥� it鈥檚 not political, it鈥檚 not urban or rural. It鈥檚 just a fact of life.鈥�

The problem is a particularly tough one for lower-income parents, Ross said, who struggle to pay for basic expenses in addition to the cost of higher education and often can鈥檛 afford child care.

鈥淲e want higher education and community college to be something that helps raise people鈥檚 standards of living,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of a double whammy if you鈥檙e already lower income and you鈥檙e trying to get that education and you have this additional expense.鈥�

The largest percentage of students with children attend community colleges, according to the US Department of Education鈥檚 National Center for Education Statistics.

As , two North Carolina institutions were recently among 34 colleges and universities that received federal grants to support or establish campus-based child care programs for low-income students from the Department of Education.

UNC-Greensboro received $224,102 under the grant program and Carteret Community College in Morehead City received $105,000.

鈥淚 am a big believer in campus child care programs because I鈥檝e seen how they break down barriers to upskilling and attaining postsecondary education for parents with young children 鈥攂ringing the American Dream within reach for families across America,鈥� said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a statement on the grants.

Last month, Wake Forest University also announced it will start a child care and early education center in its University Corporate Center, which the university hopes to open for the next fall semester.

鈥淓very student deserves equal access to education and the opportunities that come with it, but far too often the challenges of pregnancy or parenting can derail a student鈥檚 educational path,鈥� Ross said. 鈥淭he Understanding Student Parent Outcomes Act will help identify those barriers and work to close gaps in graduation rates for student parents so they can unlock a better and brighter future for themselves and their families. I鈥檓 grateful for the partnership of Congresswoman McBath on this critical issue and promise to keep working to support the education of all students.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on and .

Few characters have had a more remarkable pandemic trajectory than geographer Rebekah Jones, who rose to fame after she accused the state of Florida of trying to doctor its COVID cases and then released a video of police raiding her home that went viral in December 2020.

In an exclusive conversation with 蜜桃影视, the whistleblower data scientist now running for Congress talked about how having a child with autism informed her education platform, revealed a possible plea agreement in her pending criminal case and addressed how she would confront her opponent, Rep. Matt Gaetz, about sex trafficking allegations from a surprisingly personal perspective. 

Jones first entered the public eye in May 2020 when she was fired from the Florida Department of Health, where she had helped build the state鈥檚 dashboard to monitor COVID cases and deaths. State officials said her dismissal was due to insubordination. But Jones claims she was let go because she refused to manipulate data to downplay the spread of the virus.

An outspoken critic of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Jones garnered further attention for launching an independent dashboard counting Florida COVID cases and also a of infections in schools, in partnership with FinMango.

Her feud with the governor reached a peak in December 2020 when police raided her Tallahassee home, executing a search warrant and seizing her computer hardware. A video of the incident that Jones posted on social media went viral, earning her sympathy from those who saw her as unfairly targeted by the DeSantis administration.

A month later, just after she was named , Jones was charged with a felony, accusing her of illegally accessing a state computer system and sending an unauthorized mass message urging state employees to speak out on COVID. 

In May 2021, the data scientist was granted whistleblower protections, but a May 2022 investigation by the state inspector general found no evidence supporting her contention that she had been instructed to falsify records. A in June, however, concluded that the state undercounted COVID cases and deaths, hampering Florida鈥檚 early pandemic response.

All the while, Jones has denied wrongdoing. She shared a copy of a deferred prosecution agreement with 蜜桃影视 that includes suggested changes by her lawyer and lays out a deal where she would admit to sending an unauthorized email after she was terminated by the state health department. If she meets all the conditions, primarily by not violating any state, federal or local laws and performing 150 hours of community service during the stated period, the charges would be dropped. Jones said she is considering it; the state attorney鈥檚 office said they could not comment on any updates in the case. 

Simultaneously, the Floridian launched a bid for a U.S. House seat in the state鈥檚 deeply red northwest corner. After a complicated legal back-and-forth that nearly blocked her from the ballot, her name was restored a day before the Democratic primary, which she won handily with more than 60% of the vote. 

She will face the hard-right conservative Gaetz, who claimed his own primary victory after a by former President Donald Trump and fending off charges from his GOP rival that he was the FBI informant who spurred the Mar-a-Lago raid. Gaetz is being investigated by the Justice Department over allegations he engaged a 17-year-old girl in sexual activity across state lines. 

蜜桃影视 caught up with Jones to hear about her vision for education policy 鈥� and the roller coaster ride she鈥檚 been on since the pandemic.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

蜜桃影视: A lot has happened to you over the last couple years. Can you update those who might not know the whole story?

Jones: Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of updates. My whistleblower case is still pending with the state of Florida. It’s been over two years. We’re still waiting [for it to be resolved] so we can sue.

I just won the Democratic nomination for Congress. There was a month of voting that was active between the time when mail ballots went out and Election Day, and I was only free and clear on the ballot for one day of all voting. And we still crushed it. 

But 10 weeks from today is the election, so we’re full steam ahead working on that. I’m living in Navarre in Northwest Florida with my family. I know people think my life is so exciting, and I guess it’s kind of crazy, but most of the time it’s just the day-to-day grind.

There are some folks who would want to take a break from the public eye after all that, but you’re running for Congress. Why?

I did take a break. After my home was raided, I moved my family less than three weeks later out of the state to protect them. I didn’t do a lot of press. I led a data hero awards program to recognize some of the people like me who weren’t getting the kind of viral attention that I got. I stepped back, but nothing got better. 

It was actually the day I got whistleblower protection that I decided to move back and fight.

A number of things stood out to me from your education platform, like the national student 鈥淏ill of Rights鈥� and the mandatory trainings to prevent race- and gender-based discrimination. Can you tell me more about your education plans and what inspires them?

Like all of my platforms, it’s informed by people that are in the profession or who are subject to the policies that we’re writing, including students. It seems strange to have regulations on students in schools and not include their input. 

Florida has been a leading example for me on how not to manage education policy. Teachers are disrespected, we don’t pay them and, within the classrooms, students have exactly zero rights. I want to change that. 

School should be a place where kids feel safe, where they’re not hungry, where they’re encouraged to challenge themselves to think differently than those around them, to think differently from their teachers, differently from their parents, to explore. 

That has been all but stripped from public education, especially by people like DeSantis and the moms for tyranny group.

Moms for tyranny, you’re referring to ?

Yes. They don’t like me because I tracked COVID in schools.

You used to be an instructor at Florida State University. You’re also a mom of a child with autism. How do those roles inform your perspective?

Well, my son has gone to Florida public schools every grade since kindergarten. There hasn’t been a year where there haven’t been problems. A school counselor told me once she can tell the difference between a bad kid and a disability. This would have been when my son was like 6 or 7 years old and was not a bad kid. He just couldn’t sit still and it seemed like he was ignoring people and he wasn’t. 

Autism, of course, is a spectrum and manifests differently. His is more behavioral. He’s considered high functioning, he鈥檚 extremely brilliant. It’s part of what gets him in trouble is he’s always the first to finish his coursework and then he’s just left to sit there and then gets into trouble. There are a lot of different types of disabilities and that one, unfortunately, is being very slowly recognized within the classroom. 

You’re up against U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz. Your district鈥檚 quite red. But you’re not shying away from culture wars issues. Can that message get you elected in Florida鈥檚 Panhandle?

The thing is, I鈥檓 not actually focusing on their cultural terrorism. I’m focusing on the maintenance things that Matt Gaetz has failed to do. Things like the fact that Navarre, Florida has 38,000 people and one tiny post office that floods every time there’s a sprinkle. They need a second one. I probably am going to spend the first full year [in office] just catching up on all the stuff he was supposed to do that’s noncontroversial before anything big and heated comes up. 

But yeah, I don’t bend over principles and that can seem like it’s cultural war 鈥� I like to say terrorism 鈥� but that’s who I am and who I’ve always been. I’m not going to vote against women’s rights. I speak to people who don’t support women’s rights with respect and try to understand where they’re coming from. Frankly, I do understand where they’re coming from. But it doesn’t have any bearing on how me or my daughter are able to make health care choices. 

You’d be surprised. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who’ve walked up to me and have said, 鈥淚’m a Christian and I can’t support you if you support abortion.鈥� And then I talk to them, and they’ll sign a petition by the time they鈥檙e walking away.

How do you navigate those conversations?

I spoke to a guy the other day, he was absolutely against trans rights and gender-affirming care. He came up to our booth at one of our events. I explained to him there is an actual biological condition that leads to being a different gender physiologically than what you are chemically in your brain. And there’s an actual mismatch. He apparently didn’t even know that. And I said, 鈥淲ell, if there was a test that could show you the brain chemistry of a person whose gender does not match their physical body, would you support that person having some kind of transition care while they’re still a teenager?鈥� And we got this guy to agree to it. He was coming from a place of hearing that children were being mutilated by the doctors and going on to regret it.

People are good. This entire campaign is based on the idea that people fundamentally are good. And given the opportunity to do the right thing, without all the noise, in the quiet of the ballot box or at home, they’ll do the right thing. 

I’ve spent my entire life on that concept. Me coming forward and not knowing if anybody would support me, anybody would believe me, anybody would care. I thought people had a right to know and that people would do the right thing. And they have. And I believe that that will carry us a lot further than anybody’s giving us credit for.

Maybe this is the right time to ask, how do you estimate your [electoral] chances? What shot do you give yourself?

I don’t have any illusions about how difficult it’s going to be. 

We’ve done three different polls, so far. Two of them have us ahead between two and six points. Matt Gaetz is very loathed. All the sex trafficking scandal has broken out since the last election. The Republican infrastructure isn’t happy with him. So he’s pretty isolated. 

He’s going to try to play at this whole MAGA thing as much as possible and make it seem like I’m the enemy of MAGA, but I’m not. And he didn’t anticipate that. We welcome any Trump supporters into our camp to defeat Gaetz. They’re more than welcome. 

I think it’s gonna come down to a very small number of voters.

So many people draw really stark political lines. You鈥檙e saying you welcome Trump voters. How do you navigate that alongside, if we’re talking about education, policies like universal pre-K or anti-bias training, which have taken a lot of heat from the right wing?

The right wing is not a homogenous glob any more than the left is. The left is notorious for being fragmented, for having different views and opinions and positions within its own kind of territory. The right is not any different. 

People here support universal pre-K. Most of the people who live here are working-class families. Day care across the country is ridiculously expensive. It can be upwards of $900 on average per person and that鈥檚 prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. We’ve had voluntary pre-K in the state for a while, which is a partial day, and then at most facilities, you can pay to extend the day to a full working day. And parents really need that. So they’re already on board. I don’t even have to do much convincing. It’s when we get caught in these ideological debates that things get sticky. And I avoid that, because we have problems right here, right now that need to be dealt with. 

We鈥檝e got to stop with Democrats not allowing an acceptable bridge over to our party from people who supported Trump. Because that is how we stay on either side of the river. Nothing ever changes. And we need to create a pathway for people to say, 鈥淟ook, I’m not going to ask you who you voted for in 2016 or 2020 and I, frankly, don’t care. Are you with us?鈥�

You briefly touched on the investigation into Rep. Gaetz for possible sex trafficking of a minor. How do you see that factoring in for voters? 

Most of them don’t care, unfortunately, until he’s actually charged with something. And even then he’ll still claim to be a victim of persecution, which is very ironic considering his privileged lifestyle. 

I sent my own grandfather to prison for sex trafficking in the Philippines before I was famous, before COVID. So I take that extremely personally. 

It’s part of a larger discussion we need to have because this has been dubbed the 鈥溾�� along I-10 in Pensacola. We have a reputation for that, which is not something you want a reputation for. The fact that our congressperson is implicated in those practices, it’s incredibly difficult to get anything to move on that front. I’m much more concerned about the people who are being trafficked than I am whether or not Matt Gaetz 鈥� a rich, powerful, white man 鈥� ever goes down for it.

That detail about your grandfather, is that something you’re able to say any more about?

There was actually a about how we helped stop an operation where he and others were using this English-speaking middle school in the Philippines to traffic young girls. My family had reason to suspect that鈥檚 what he was doing but no one told me. And as soon as I found out, I made sure that I found somebody to hold him accountable. 

I contacted the , the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA. I didn’t even know who I was supposed to contact, but I contacted all of them. I know how difficult now that process is to actually hold somebody accountable and how long it takes to investigate. He wasn’t arrested for another eight months after initially being reported. 

They shut down the whole operation that they had going over there and he this year because of it. He had Type 1 diabetes and I imagine that prison in the Philippines was very hard on him. And I hope that it was and I hope that he suffered.

Wow. So the Gaetz investigation hits close to home.

I guess I’ve always been a whistleblower. 

It’s never made sense to me to have knowledge that something horrible is happening and not try and do something about it. 

I also wanted to talk about the legal troubles for you, too. The pending felony charges for illegally accessing state computer systems and sending an unauthorized mass text. And also the earlier misdemeanor charges for cyberstalking an ex-boyfriend. How are those allegations playing into the campaign and what do you say in response?

I’ve always been open about my abuse. I don’t think any woman should have to face charges of cyber harassment for naming their abuser on a website for domestic abuse survivors. There’s a reason why that case went nowhere. It’s six years old and hasn’t happened because they’re not going to put up an abuse victim on a stand next to that guy. I actually think it’s a great talking point to discuss how it is that a man can claim that naming him as an abuser is a crime. But when I reported him for sexually assaulting me, it was a he said, she said. (Several say the ex-boyfriend was also a student of Jones鈥檚 at the time, though she denies this claim and said his roommate took her class. The relationship led to her 2017 dismissal as a Florida State University instructor. The ex-boyfriend was granted a domestic injunction against her.)

And then the pending allegations about the Florida Department of Health messages?

The state offered to dismiss everything in June. That was two months ago, two and a half. So we’re still waiting on all that to be processed. 

The terms were that I had to pay a $100 fee, not get arrested in the next year and say that I shared responsibility in having that message sent. While I did not send it, I certainly can’t deny that I’ve told people publicly to speak out. So I was like, 鈥淪ure, I’ll say I share responsibility.鈥� (The proposed agreement includes a stipulation that Jones did send an unauthorized email.)

I’m not intimidated by them. I’m not going to be threatened or bribed or coerced. I’m unafraid to just name every bad person and exactly what they’ve done, which has gotten me in a lot of trouble. But you know, that’s life.

When it first opened in 1872, the Chambliss Center for Children was a home for orphaned kids, later becoming a space for children transitioning into foster care. In the 1970s, it opened the area鈥檚 first 24-hour daycare as working mothers entered the labor force in larger numbers. By the 1980s, it was running the finances for a handful of other day care centers, too. And in the early 2000s, it was operating a dozen child care programs for the children of teachers. Today, it does nearly all of those things at once. 

Chambliss has become something of a model across the country for what local child care could look like as others race to just survive, like 鈥渕ice on a treadmill,鈥� said Louise Stoney, an expert in early care and education finance and policy.

鈥淭he basic business model of child care on which all of our rules were built, on which our system was built, doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� Stoney said.

Chambliss was one of the first to break that model, she said, and in recent years, more and more centers have tried a similar approach 鈥� one that focuses on the business side of child care as much as the care itself. 

For decades, the fatal flaw at the center of child care has been the number of people it has to employ. Classrooms are required by state law to have a certain number of adults per child, and those ratios get smaller for younger kids. In Tennessee, there must be one adult for every four infants, and one for every seven 2-year-olds. Adding more kids (and revenue) requires adding more teachers, who can only be paid little more than minimum wage 鈥� even the exorbitant costs of child care are not enough to cover such large staffing needs. 

Nearly all of those workers 鈥� 95 percent 鈥� are women and a third are people of color, who are earning some of the lowest wages in the nation. The median hourly pay for a child care worker in the United States is $12.24, leading more than 15 percent of child care workers to  in 41 states, according to a recent report from the Treasury Department. The majority also rely on public assistance and few can afford to put their own children in the centers where they work because the cost of care for parents is so high, it eats up about 13 percent of the income for most families 鈥� about twice what is deemed affordable. Almost 20 percent of children under the age of 5 are , a share that has been rising over time. 

To make that sustainable for a child care center, someone needs to be keeping a close eye on payroll and expenses while applying for every scrap of grant money that could keep the center going. But few agencies can afford to pay someone to do that, and center directors, who are typically early childhood experts, not business people, are usually spread thin. 

That鈥檚 where Chambliss is different, said Katie Harbison, the center鈥檚 president. At Chambliss鈥檚 main campus, experts run the finances, payroll, grant applications, budgets, human resources and other business-side particulars for its six off-site centers, which have their own directors and staff, on a contract basis.

The finances are outsourced and consolidated, and the directors are freed up to focus on care. 

Another perk: If one center is struggling, Chambliss lends them the money. Sometimes they pay it back, sometimes they don鈥檛. But they stay open. They survive. When Chambliss applies for funding or other aid, it does so in the name of all the child care centers it鈥檚 helping to support. The nonprofit has a more than $6 million budget that includes donations, an endowment and two thrift stores that generate revenue.

鈥淚f an agency is struggling, it鈥檚 like our arm is struggling. They are us and we are them in many different ways,鈥� Harbison said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e a standalone agency and you have a bad year, it might put you under or you might be dead in the water.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The proposition for a mission-based nonprofit like Chambliss is that it can continue to keep more kids in child care 鈥� about 750 children, predominantly from low-wage families, are served by their centers. It鈥檚 also a way to support parents. Chambliss expanded into 24-hour care as a way to help low-income parents working nontraditional hours. It continues that legacy of trying to make child care affordable for low-income parents by operating two thrift stores where the proceeds go to help subsidize care and offering a sliding scale of cost at the centers, depending on how much parents earn.  

JoAnn Walker, a nurse in Chattanooga, said she had to pull her eldest daughter out of a different day care when she was a baby because the cost was too high. Walker had to switch to working night shifts just so she could watch her daughter, now 17, during the day. 

鈥淚 was paying more in daycare than I was paying in rent,鈥� Walker said. 

When she had her two youngest kids, she was able to get a spot for them at Chambliss. 

Walker now pays $112 a week for both her 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son at Chambliss. The average weekly cost of child care for infants in Tennessee is  鈥� per child. 

Shifting the way centers do business could help secure the future of the child care industry at a time when it is barely holding on. One in three child care workers lost their jobs at the start of last year as the industry collapsed under the weight of increased costs brought on by the pandemic and nonexistent retention. Many centers, including Chambliss, are still struggling to attract workers. 

The blow from the pandemic is so severe that the United States is considering a  for the first time in the nation鈥檚 history. The second half of the solution lies there, in ensuring that potential investment turns into sustained federal subsidy, experts say. According to a , the United States invests fewer public dollars in early childhood education and care than almost all developed countries. 

鈥淚t isn鈥檛 just money. We have to give more money and build a system that can be sustainable,鈥� Stoney said. 

The shared service model could be the answer. Chambliss and its six off-site centers have endured decades of headwinds, which haven鈥檛 always meant roaring success and soaring profits. But they were all able to remain open during the pandemic. 

Greg Cullum, who serves as treasurer on Chambliss鈥檚 board, said 鈥渢here is never enough money to fulfill the need鈥� for child care. Chambliss鈥檚 endowment and deep connections in the community help it pick up donations year to year, but it rarely ends the year in a surplus. This year so far, Chambliss still has a funding gap of about $150,000 it needs to raise for an expansion that is underway on its main campus.

So it鈥檚 not a silver bullet, Cullum said, but it鈥檚 working.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not gonna make a poorly-run operation successful, but it can make one that鈥檚 marginally viable, I think, viable,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is probably more need for their shared services than we can provide.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Over the years, the Chambliss model has been used as an example for other centers looking to try a different approach, and in the past decade, more have signed on to try it in their own communities. Diane Price first listened to a presentation Stoney gave in Denver about the shared service child care model 鈥� Chambliss鈥檚 model 鈥� about a decade ago and was sold on the spot. 

鈥淚 remember literally standing up from the table, leaning against a wall and just banging my head against the wall saying, 鈥楾hat makes so much sense, what have I been missing all these years?鈥欌�� said Price, who is the president and CEO of Early Connections Learning Centers in Colorado Springs, a child care center that has been operating since 1897.  

Price said that the center had never viewed itself as a business. They were teachers, social workers, people who wanted to work with children. But freeing up the center directors to focus on just the child care could lead to better outcomes for the agencies and the kids. 

鈥淲e hire directors for their knowledge in child growth and development and early care and education, and then we ask them to move into a position that is all the kinds of things that we weren鈥檛 looking for when we hired them. We鈥檙e saying, 鈥楧o you know how to make a budget? How to negotiate insurance, negotiate a contract?鈥欌�� Price said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be a generalist in all these areas.鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 

In 2008, Price started to try out the shared service model. Directors at Early Connections鈥� six centers stopped collecting fees from parents and a finance person was brought in to handle the payments. 

Revenue went up $20,000 in the first month alone. 

That core administrative structure has grown in the years since, adding a centralized enrollment department and a human resources department that is focused on recruitment, retention and compensation for teachers, which is critical in an industry where payroll is the largest expense. 

Like Chambliss, Early Connections is doing a little bit of everything. It also runs an in-house child care center for parents visiting the area鈥檚 Fourth Judicial District Court and Colorado Springs Municipal Court and it has classrooms in two schools. One of its sites is tripling in size this fall, and another center is expanding.

More recently, entire businesses have opened strictly to run the financial needs of child care centers. 

A few years ago, a couple of early childhood experts in Wisconsin started considering what it might be like to set up a shared-services child care network for the entire state. They talked to Chambliss and some of the centers set up in a similar model and used them as templates to start the Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network in 2019. The network,  which has dedicated coaches that help the centers craft individual business goals and offers a pool of substitute teachers to fill staffing needs, is already serving 135 child care programs in 11 counties. The back office staff runs billing and receiving, and offers a management software for the agencies that keeps track of particulars as granular as when a staff member is due for an immunization or to renew CPR training. The service is tiered, depending on how much centers want or need. 

Paula Drew, the co-director for the network and a former executive director of a nonprofit preschool and after-school program, said the program helps to establish center directors as business people 鈥� in addition to their credentials in early learning. 

鈥淣inety-nine percent of them are women, and sometimes they鈥檒l say, 鈥業鈥檒l have to ask my husband about that,鈥� or 鈥業鈥檓 not sure if we have enough money in the bank,鈥欌�� Drew said. 鈥淲e just help them come to this place of, as a small business, you are the one making the decisions. You need to have a budget 鈥� and that gives you the freedom to know what you have to spend.鈥�

They鈥檝e seen results. Only about 1 percent of the programs they work with closed during the pandemic 鈥� statewide in Wisconsin between 5 and 10 percent of all child care programs shuttered. The network is in the midst of an expansion that will help it serve about 75 percent of all programs in the state.

鈥淚 say all the time: If this would have existed when I was a director, I would have stayed,鈥� Drew said. 鈥淚 just got burnt out. It鈥檚 such a hard job. And primarily, you鈥檙e doing that on your own, and also cooking food or unclogging toilets or 鈥� all of the things.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Doing everything means a lot of money is left on the table. Applications for funding are completed incorrectly, taxes may get botched and trigger audits or centers may skip applying for things like Paycheck Protection Program loans altogether because they don鈥檛 have time to navigate the process. 

Those are the kinds of services a similar program in San Francisco, called the San Francisco Early Learning Alliance, has been offering since 2015 for 12 centers in the city. Centers get strictly business help with enrollment, billing and administration systems at 70 to 80 percent the cost of the service, said Cheryl Garcia, the alliance鈥檚 director. All of that has freed up revenue that has also gone to pay staff more or lower costs for parents.   

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing to see the difference from one center to another, how they鈥檙e serving the same types of children and maybe even the same percentages of subsidized families, but one can do it so much better than another just by using prudent business practices,鈥� Garcia said.  

It鈥檚 also paid off, she said: 鈥淲e have not lost one [center] since the beginning.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

For the past five years, Chambliss has been preparing for a change in leadership. Its CEO, Phil Acord, is retiring in November after 50 years with the center. Like most things there, it鈥檚 happening with extensive preparation and a little bit of fanfare (a billboard has been erected in Chattanooga celebrating all he鈥檚 done for the city鈥檚 children). But Acord is questioning the timing of his departure 鈥� it feels like the worst moment to be leaving child care. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much going on in the industry right now, probably more than has happened at the federal level in 50 years as far as funding and just attention on early childhood,鈥� he told his board during an August meeting. 鈥淎nd you know me, I like to be right in the middle of the mix.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

He was there when Chambliss sort of stumbled upon the shared service model. They created it without knowing they were doing it, Acord said. There was just a need 鈥� the county asked it to manage a program through a contract, and then more and more programs asked for the same. The waiting list shot up from 90 kids the year Acord arrived in 1971 to almost 800 children by the late 1980s. The same happened when they added the classrooms in the schools: The district had bemoaned the fact that 49 percent of its teachers were leaving after having children, so Chambliss started offering care for those kids. 

They鈥檝e hung on through all of that, but this year has been different. Now, child care is a top policy priority at the federal level. A heavily-debated $3.5 trillion package moving through Congress could pass a $450 billion infusion to help establish a universal preschool program, as well as build more child care centers, increase subsidies for parents and raise wages for workers to be more on par with similarly qualified elementary school teachers. It鈥檚 one of the few elements of the package that is the  and embraced by both parties. 

Imagine what they could do, Acord said, if they weren鈥檛 pinching every penny. 

This year, Chambliss, Early Connections, the Wisconsin network, the San Francisco alliance and countless other centers have said staffing challenges have reached critical levels. 

All also want to see wages increase for workers, but haven鈥檛 been able to get them up to where they鈥檇 like in order to improve retention. At Chambliss, for example, the average hourly pay is between about $11 and $12 鈥� just above the  median hourly wage for child care workers in the state. 

In August, with the COVID-19 Delta variant raging, Chambliss was down about 15 teachers. Several classrooms had to be shut down because of exposure to the virus, with teachers and students quarantining and others coming in to try to fill the gaps. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 a tough time for parents, y鈥檃ll,鈥� Harbison said during a staff meeting in mid-August. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e between a rock and a hard place: They need to go to work and send their kids to child care, and then their child gets exposed to COVID, and now they can鈥檛 work. We quarantined the whole classroom of kindergarteners and they missed their first day of kindergarten. It鈥檚 a tough time to be a parent and a kid, too.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淎nd to be running an early education program, too,鈥� Acord said. All across town, 鈥渘ow hiring鈥� signs are beckoning workers for more than what Chambliss can pay its teachers. And they aren鈥檛 just competing against others in the early education industry. 

鈥淲e are competing with Amazon and K-Mart and every Pizza Hut,鈥� Acord told his staff.  

In child care, a lack of support and low wages had pushed workers out of the industry long before coronavirus, but the increased competition to attract workers has led major companies like Amazon to offer hiring incentives and bonuses. Even in regular years, turnover is as high as  annually in some states. Chambliss isn鈥檛 immune to that 鈥� like most centers, it hasn鈥檛 been able to offer health care to its staff. 

It鈥檚 gotten by because the model allowed them to give workers more support on the job. Chandra Crook, a lead teacher for the 3- and 4-year-olds, has been at Chambliss for 24 years, since she graduated from Chattanooga State Community College with a degree in early childhood education. She was a single mother at the time, and Chambliss helped her get subsidized care for her son. Crook said she stayed because she heard from other child care workers who said they didn鈥檛 have the support they needed to properly care for each child 鈥� and for themselves.

Once, when she suddenly stopped receiving subsidies to help pay for her son鈥檚 care, Acord went to the state to ensure her benefits were reinstated. 

鈥淭he support is there,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e like my second family.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

But without additional aid, particularly now, it could take years for child care providers to crawl out of the financial chasm created by the pandemic. 

鈥淓ven a shared-service model like ours, we continue to struggle. It鈥檚 just that we are still alive and breathing,鈥� Harbison said. 鈥淪omething has to change in order for us to be able to continue to provide high-quality service to children, to support families so they can go to work.鈥�

She and Acord likened the issue to a puzzle. Chambliss has helped figure out one piece of it. But it鈥檚 complex, and it hasn鈥檛 been until now that policy makers have truly considered what the other components have to be. 

Parents need child care to go to work. The care needs to be high quality so children are prepared for school. But the cost of achieving that care is unattainable for parents and for employers, who can鈥檛 afford to pay their staff a living wage, Acord said. 

鈥淲hen you try to make those three ends meet, you can鈥檛 do it without a pretty significant subsidy,鈥� he said. 

At the end of the day, his model keeps centers open. But, he said, 鈥測ou鈥檝e got to be able to subsidize that model in order to make it work.鈥�

This originally appeared at  and is published here in partnership with the .

Then the pandemic hit鈥攁nd like so many other facets of family life in America, Dallas鈥� afterschool programs felt the effects, closing down or drastically shrinking as program staff quit for higher paying jobs in other industries and fear over COVID-19.

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With fewer spots available, children are now waiting up to 60 days to be enrolled. Another way to see it: For every child in an afterschool program in Dallas, there are three to four waiting for an available spot.

鈥淲e saw there was about a 45 percent seat loss in programs that were either no longer able to run, or that had to close,鈥� said Dallas Afterschool vice president of program services Marjorie Murat. 鈥淭hese afterschool programs are really a lifeline for working families, and they exist to support the working families and sustain the family unit.鈥�

The afterschool shortage in Dallas is not unique.

As the pandemic has continued, afterschool programs across the country are facing staffing shortages, forcing them to reduce the number of children they serve or close down completely.

COVID-19 has exacerbated the long-standing issue of low wages of afterschool staff, advocates said. Most afterschool care programs have a starting salary of $9-$12 an hour. Coupled with rising concerns about the virus and now the Delta variant, many are not returning to work, with some leaving for jobs that pay much more and are less risky.

The staff shortages have resulted in child care headaches for parents like Jessica Canales, a Dallas employment recruiter, whose kids were waitlisted for weeks after returning to school in early August. Pent up demand created a huge need for afterschool care.

For weeks, with no childcare in place, Canales was forced to leave work, picking up her children at 1 p.m., halfway through the school day. 鈥淢y kids would miss everything else,鈥� she said.

It took a direct appeal to the principal to finally get her kids off the waitlist and into the program.

鈥淚t was very frustrating,鈥� said Canales, 鈥渆specially when you have two parents working … I was so stressed out, I thought I had to quit my job.鈥�

The issue of retaining afterschool workers is longstanding, advocates say.

鈥淏efore working during the pandemic, these jobs barely paid a living wage, let alone access to sick leave,鈥� said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance. Once COVID-19 hit, she said, workers became fearful about showing up for work.

In at least one state, afterschool workers who refused to get vaccinated have continued to come to work and are wearing masks 鈥� prompting some colleagues to leave their posts.

There have been warning signs the worker shortage in afterschool has been getting worse in the last 18 months.

A national report by the Afterschool Alliance found more than half of summer programs (52 percent) 鈥� many of which also run afterschool programs 鈥� have waitlists compared to 40 percent last summer. Officials say the increase is due to staffing shortages created by the pandemic.

The workers have found opportunity and less risk during the pandemic: Within the last 16 months, afters school staff in some Omaha, Nebraska programs have been leaving for higher paying jobs at outlets such as Target and other businesses where workers start at $15 an hour compared to the $11.50 to $12 an hour offered to starting afterschool workers.

鈥淲e have sites that will not be able to open because they just don’t have the staff,鈥� said Megan Addison, Executive Director of Collective for Youth in Omaha.

鈥淲e have sites that will not be able to open because they just don’t have the staff,鈥� said Addison, Executive Director of Collective for Youth in Omaha.

In addition to low pay, advocates say workers have little room to grow.

鈥淧eople have to look into other industries not only due to money but also due to the lack of social mobility within the sector. It鈥檚 very hard for people to grow and move on into other positions,鈥� said Lissette Castillo, the Director of Community Schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 鈥淔or example, educators can move from paraprofessional to educators to administrators, there is a lack of support for afterschool staff to have access to programming like that.鈥�

With news of the Delta variant, other afterschool care programs are also struggling to navigate vaccine and mask mandates and protocols. In Nebraska, when educators were able to get vaccinated in early spring, only 50 percent of the afterschool staff at Collective for Youth programs did so.

鈥淎 majority of our staff are younger, and we also work with a lot of people of color who had some concerns regarding the vaccination. Some staffers also already had gotten COVID-19 and didn鈥檛 feel the need to get vaccinated,鈥� said Addison. 鈥淏eing a Republican state, and having many opportunities to get vaccinated, many of our partners are leaning towards optional, to not seem self-superior.鈥�

Some Omaha afterschool centers are operating with non-vaccinated staff, but are still short staffed as workers fearful of getting sick leave their job, said Chief Operating Officer of Kids Can Community Center, Josh Gillman.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been operating with 70 percent of our staff being vaccinated, and the other 30 percent who have declined even though they鈥檝e been offered. We require all staff to wear masks presently at all times,鈥� Gillman said. 鈥淥ur normal daily service scope of students would be 800 if we were fully staffed, but right now we have 20 vacancies with our normal 70 positions…which reduces our capacity by a couple hundred of students we can serve each day until we wait to fill those positions.鈥�

In Minnesota, an afterschool official in Saint Paul said the most alarming issue for afterschool programs is the lack of follow through with COVID-19 safety protocols, as administrators avoid having the corrective conversations with staff and students.

鈥淧eople will say it’ll be safe if we all wear masks and stay six feet apart. But when you enter a building, and people aren’t wearing masks and aren’t six feet apart, those that are a little bit more sensitive to the health risks of COVID-19 don’t feel comfortable,鈥� said one official. 鈥淎nd the principals and assistant principals in the past haven’t done anything, because we did go back to school last spring, and that was a big issue.鈥�

As the United States intends to return to normalcy, with some delays due to the Delta variant, afterschool care programs will be integral to aid those with children in order to go back to work.

鈥淢any people have no choice but to go back to the workforce and put their fears aside…there are many reports out there and research on the impact of afterschool and how it is an integral part of children’s learning,鈥� said Castillo. 鈥淎nd yet the [afterschool care] staff at the frontline have been shamefully neglected and disregarded and the field itself has yet to receive the recognition and the respect that it deserves. Keeping in mind how families need to go back to work and the ones at the frontline will be on the line helping them get back to work.鈥�

For her part, Canaldes knows she was lucky 鈥� lucky that she could leave her job and pick up her children early while she wanted for a spot in the afterschool program; and lucky she was able to finally get them into the program.

鈥淭here’s certain families who cannot wait three to four weeks to find afterschool care programs, especially with the epidemic and everybody going back to school. It鈥檚 an immediate challenge,鈥� said Canales. 鈥淚t is very frustrating.鈥�