蜜桃影视

When many day care centers are closing shop for the day, Rosa Marie at Rochester鈥檚 Marvelous Mind Academy is just getting going. With operating hours from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., the academy has moved from day care 鈥� emphasis on 鈥渄ay鈥� 鈥� to child care. For the parents of young children in her Rochester community, those extended hours make all the difference.

鈥淲e have the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital nearby, along with Rochester General Hospital,鈥� says Rosa Marie, president of Marvelous Mind Academy. 鈥淓mployees, pharmacy technicians, nurses, patient-care techs 鈥� there are lots of people working around the clock. The way our 鈥榙ay care鈥� system is set up, it just isn鈥檛 designed for this particular workforce.鈥�

鈥淭he assumption has been that people who need care have jobs that fit between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and that just isn鈥檛 the way the world鈥檚 working these days.鈥�

The way at least the U.S. part of the world is working these days, according to , one of the nation鈥檚 leading experts on gender equity and work, and a senior fellow at the think tank , is that nearly half of the workforce between 26 and 32 years old has unpredictable, unstable schedules that don鈥檛 fit neatly into the 8-to-5 paradigm.

鈥淎mong early career workers , close to half reported having no input into their schedules and more than a third receive a week or less notice on what their hours will be. Significant shares of workers have to be on call,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a parent, that means needing to find child care that鈥檚 flexible and that you can count on. Part of the reason we need child care available in non-standard hours is because work is often non-standard with little notice or predictability.

鈥淲hat that means is either that caregivers are unable to hold jobs or that they cycle in and out of work, or it means that they鈥檙e constantly struggling to find care for their children. With little notice, possibly having to find informal care or different kinds of care, that can lead to worse outcomes as well as anxiety and instability for children.鈥�

Lack of affordable child care may mean parents 鈥� and usually women 鈥斅� completely for a substantial period of time, Shabo says, which affects their job prospects and earnings for years to come.

Because many of the workers who need extended hour and particularly 24-hour child care tend to be low-wage employees, child care providers don鈥檛 have a big incentive to provide that service. A lack of public investment at all levels of the system leads to child care gaps for families, low pay for child care workers and a lack of incentive for providers to meet the needs of people with unpredictable schedules, Shabo says.

What most businesses fail to come to grips with is the difference it would make for them to ensure that their employees have access to dependable child care.

鈥淚f people have adequate, dependable, available child care at the times they are working, the workers can be more predictable, less worried or distracted and can feel more secure,鈥� Shabo says.

Another piece of the child care puzzle 鈥� one Rosa Marie has dealt with personally 鈥� is the low pay scale for what is arguably one of society鈥檚 most valuable jobs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean hourly wage for child care workers is $11.17 an hour, with around 10 percent of workers making an annual wage of $17,750.

According to the most recent report from the , there is no county in the U.S. where a full time worker with a standard 40-hour work week earning the federal or prevailing state minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom rental home. Child care workers鈥� labor has long been dramatically undervalued and they struggle to find care for their own children, even as they spend their working hours caring for the children of others.

Paying a living wage is an issue Rosa Marie sees as one of Marvelous Mind鈥檚 core values.

鈥淥ur payroll at Marvelous Mind Academy is one of our highest line-items in the budget,鈥� says Rosa Marie. 鈥淲e pay a true living wage and do everything we can to minimize expenses so what we do make can roll right back into making sure we have a happy workforce. I have a background in child care and have the experience of not making enough money to send my child to the same quality care that I was providing to the children I was caring for.鈥�

鈥淚 reached a point where I just knew I couldn鈥檛 do that anymore. If I was going to be providing high-quality child care for someone else鈥檚 child, I wanted to make sure my own children were getting that level of care.鈥�

In 2014, Rosa Marie started Marvelous Mind Academy as an educational cooperative that offers play-based learning and a membership model that allows parents to access child care when they need it, seven days a week. The current child care service operates through the local Rochester Museum and Science Center and her latest initiative is a 24-hour child care facility that will be fully staffed and available for families that need the extended hours. The extended care facility鈥檚 grand opening is April 12, but she doesn鈥檛 yet have the staff available for round-the-clock care.

Licensing has been a challenge, she said, because the licensing agencies don鈥檛 quite know what to make of a facility that has drop-in care running alongside full-time care. There aren鈥檛 any current regulations that says a facility can鈥檛 do that, she says, but the licensing office says, 鈥淲ell, we don鈥檛 advise it,鈥� she says.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 code for, 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to give you a hard time when it comes to your inspection because it鈥檚 just hard for us to manage and identify children that are here for drop-in versus the children who are here full-time.鈥� They want everything to fit neatly into its box with labels on it and providing this kind of care doesn鈥檛 fit in that box, even though that鈥檚 what works for working people.鈥�

Rosa Marie has been able to bring her dream this close to fruition with the active involvement of her community, from the women entrepreneurs who helped get the furniture and supplies needed to assistance from Mayor Lovely Warren in finding funding and support for its budgeting process.

The unfortunate fact is that building the kind of high-quality creative care Rosa Marie is creating is fraught with plenty of administrative, regulatory and practical challenges. While she hopes that her center can offer a model for others, what she hopes for ultimately is that extended-hour child care will become the norm.

For that to happen, more than civic engagement will be required. Major changes in policy and federal investment in high-quality child care and early learning opportunities have to become a national priority to really meet the needs of working families throughout the country.

Some of the current presidential candidates have solid positions on these issues, Shabo says, though it might be hard to know that by what鈥檚 been discussed on the debate stages. New America has put together a of where the candidates stand on work-family issues, all of which recognize the need for improved policies in these areas.

Because the issues matter to so many people, it鈥檚 up to all of us to be loud and proud about our desire for work-family policies that make sense and the federal funding to support every family鈥檚 access to good care, regardless of income or work schedules. It鈥檚 just the way the world is working now.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.