NY lost about 10,000 child care slots during the pandemic. That's making it hard for parents to return to work
According to a new report released by The Children's Agenda, in just the last two and half years, about 3,500 child care programs closed across NY State.
That translates to about 10,000 fewer child care spots than there were before the coronavirus pandemic.
“So families have access to fewer places to put their children while they’re at work, while they’re pursuing education, while they’re trying to build a future for their family," said Pete Nabozny, the primary author on the report. "So it’s a really significant loss of child care capacity across the state.”
The report found that rural and upstate communities, like those in the North Country, lost the most child care.
For example, the community of Saranac Lake began the pandemic with 13 child care programs. Today, it has 7.
It lost 176 child care slots.
“That’s an area that’s become a child care desert," said Nabozny. "The term child care desert is when there is fewer than 1 slot for every three children. It’s really hard for parents in a community like that to find care."
But it’s not all bad news. Lewis County, in the North Country, was an outlier.
It was one of two counties in the state that increased its child care capacity, which went up by 16%. That was the result of a local Jefferson and Lewis county initiative that helped new home-based daycares get licensed and open.
Other counties, Essex and St. Lawrence, are now trying to replicate that success with similar initiatives.
But the loss of child care in the region is having real impacts on the workforce and labor shortages felt all over the North Country, and the state, says Pete Nabozny.
“If child care providers can’t keep their doors open during a recession, it’s really hard for the state to get out of that recession, and we’re seeing a lot of that right now. We’re seeing workforce shortages and real challenges that a lot of employers have in hiring folks."
Federal stimulus money, like funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, did help keep even more providers from closing through stabilization grants. The Children’s Agenda would like to see a permanent stabilization program for child care, and more overall funding.
NY state has been taking steps in that direction, expanding universal pre-k, and subsidies in the 2023 state budget. But advocates say the state is still a long way off from universal child care.
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